Oak Island Yard is a freight rail yard located north of Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal and Newark International Airport in an industrial area of Ironbound, Newark, New Jersey at 91 Bay Ave., United States. The sprawling complex includes engine house, classification yard, auto unloading terminal, and maintenance facilities. It has ten reception tracks, an automated hump, 30 relatively short classification tracks, and nine departure tracks. In 1999, it classified 800 to 1000 cars per day.

Oak Island Yard looking East

The yard was built by the Lehigh Valley Railroad and opened 1903. After construction of the Upper Bay Bridge in 1929 vast amounts of landfill were used to raise the yard to accommodate the new grade.[1] It became part of the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) in 1976, and in 1981 Conrail greatly expanded it.[2] Currently it is jointly owned as part of North Jersey Shared Assets Area by the Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX, which took over Conrail operations in 1999.[3][4] It is a support yard for the Port of New York and New Jersey ExpressRail system.

Several lines converge at the yard.

The yard is listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places.[5]

See also

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The Upper Bay Bridge for trains and the Newark Bay Bridge for vehicles cross Newark Bay east of Oak Island Yard

References

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  1. ^ Marketing Department Inspection Train (PDF). Conrail. May 11, 1984. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
  2. ^ Timothy Scott Doherty, Brian Solomon MBI Publishing Company, 2004, p93-94
  3. ^ Rival-railroads-agree-on-Conrail's-assets, New York Times, April 4, 1997
  4. ^ Salpukas, Agis (June 1, 1999). "Conrail Chugs Off Into the Sunset; CSX and Norfolk Southern Take Over". New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2010.
  5. ^ "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Essex County" (PDF). NJ DEP - Historic Preservation Office. January 10, 2010. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 27, 2009. Retrieved December 5, 2010.
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40°42′31″N 74°08′17″W / 40.708670°N 74.138103°W / 40.708670; -74.138103