As part of Zephyr Rail’s General Engineering Consulting Services Agreement with CSX, Zephyr Rail is providing engineering design services and aerial imagery for the 95-acre, 3.5 mile long Cumberland Yard in Cumberland, MD.
CSX is reconfiguring and upgrading the previous “hump” facility in the Cumberland train yard. The Hump was removed in 2017. The project involves removing the existing hump terminal and installing new switching capabilities, which will enhance the yard’s capacity to handle more cars. These improvements will optimize operations and increase efficiency at the Cumberland yard and across CSX’s New England operations, eliminating 29 million out-of-route miles per year, reducing car handlings by 59,000 annually, cutting transit time, and producing $15 million in direct operational cost savings.
Zephyr Rail designed three new switching leads and 4,600 feet of classification track. The switching leads, equipped with automated hydraulic switches, access 30 classification tracks.
Cumberland switching capacity will increase from 350 cars per day to more than 850 cars per day with the newly designed yard.