Fort Wayne - Piqua Yd.

 

 
Piqua TowerPiqua Yard (locally pronounced Pik-Way) is hardly the place it used to be.  After Conrail was formed in 1976 the yard took on less importance and many of the tracks were pulled up.  Today just a few tracks are left and are used fairly often.  There are no locomotive servicing facilites at Piqua Yard and refueling is done using trucks.  This is the RailAmerica Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad office and crew base (former Conrail) in Fort Wayne located next to the Wayne Trace/Pontiac St. viaduct.  This building used to be the hump tower for Piqua Yard.

 
Piqua Yard is private property.  If you haven't already, please review the Railfanning Tips page.

 
 
The track running next to the Piqua Yd tower actually is an extension of the NS Union Belt.  It used to be the yard's hump track.  This track is used primarily by NS roadrailer trains for switching trailers in the Triple Crown yard. It is also used by an NS local but on rare occasions an NS through-freight will make its way on this track.  This is looking west.

 
Looking east from the north side of Piqua Yd., the Union Belt track runs straight east for about a mile before it curves northward towards the old International Harvester building.

 

"PIQ" is located adjacent to Piqua Yard.  Here we are looking west down the PRR main.  In the distance is the only surviving Pennsy signal left in Fort Wayne.  Some CSX and CN light power is sitting idle in the yard.  The huge row of poles on the right are lights for the Triple Crown Yard which occupies the western half of Piqua Yard.

 
Back when CSX operated the Fort Wayne Line through Piqua Yard, on December 8, 2001 CSX Q356-07 sits idle in Piqua Yard with WC 7499 and 6652.  This power set went out on Q357-08 in the afternoon with the FP45 in the lead.

 
Looking east at Piqua Yd.

 
The old ADAMS control box sits in Piqua Yard and has been there for a few years.

 

Historical Aspects

Piqua Yard is a far cry today from what it was back in the Pennsylvania, Penn Central, and even early Conrail days.  Its glory days of train classification and locomotive repairing are long gone.  The following are schematics of Fort Wayne Piqua Yard from 1967.  Have a look at these.  It's hard to imagine all of this today.  The layout of the yard is fairly complex, considering it was all run with hand signals and hand throw switches.  Special thanks goes to Bob Bunting for these diagrams!
 

1967 Fort Wayne Piqua Yard Track Diagram - 4 segments
 
Western end of the yard and shops to Mike interlocking 165 KB
The hump and all tracks east and west of it 230 KB
East end and Union Belt 104 KB
Linkers Rd. area 65 KB

 
 

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© Original Content Copyright 1999-2007 David Safdy
© Design and Updates Copyright 2005-2007 Greg Lavoie
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