The 10th Avenue Slaughterhouse and Alderney Dairy are big industries on the east end of Albatross Yard.
A look at the west end of Albatross Yard shows the Spartech Polycom facility.
Several trains are ready to depart Albatross Yard in preparation for the 2012 Open House.
Albatross Yard is the largest switching yard on the Garden State Northern. The 7 original double ended tracks are about 20 feet long. In 1999, the Albatross Yard Extension was proposed and approved. The new tracks were installed in time for the 2001 Open House. This project added two significantly longer stub-end tracks to the yard, switchable from the east end, as that is where our switching leads are located. Underneath, three more tracks were added to the Hidden Yard.
Albatross is the central operating hub of the GSN, and features its own locomotive and car maintainance facilities. The outskirts of Albatross Yard are also home to several large industries, including Spartech Polycom which is a plastic pellet plant based on a similar facility in Newark, NJ, West Albatross Grain, O’Connell Lumber, Acme Roller Bearing, and the 10th Avenue Slaughterhouse. Even the Garden State Northern takes in coal for its steam locomotives and fuel for its diesels. Alderney Dairy, another sizeable industry, is part of Albatross but is served by the Jersey City Terminal lead.
Historic Photos
Anthony’s original Virtual Tour photo of the east end of Albatross Yard shows the old intermodal facility.
A NYS&W General Electric diesel pulls a cut of cars east through Albatross Yard, past the switching leads to the Blatz Beer Brewery. The older lead has been mostly removed and replaced with the new alignment in the foreground during the Albatross Expansion project, leaving only ties in the grass. Hoffa Cement resided in this location for only a short time.
Albatross Yard is always busy as you can see in this photo. West Albatross is home to a lumber yard, a plastics pellet plant, and West Albatross Grain. This photo shows the benchwork for the Albatross Extension and the old Blatz Brewery, which was moved to DOUG Tower. Two additional yard tracks were added here in 2001.
By January 2004, the intermodal facility had been replaced by the 10th Avenue Slaughterhouse! The Santa Fe GPs are about to be replaced by the BNSF Dash-9s in the foreground, which will take the stack train west.
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