Drone Tour of the CSX Queensgate Yard in Cincinnati, Ohio

This will be more of a tour than my typical railfan videos.
CSX's Queensgate yard is one of the largest railyards in North America.
CSX lists it as its sixth busiest yard, just behind Avon Yard in Indianapolis and ahead of its Louisville yard.
Queensgate is about five miles long and has more than 70 miles of track.
It was built in the 1970s and opened in 1980.
The yard was created to replace several Chessie System yards in the area.
When it opened the decision was made to close the former L & N Decoursey Yard in Latonia, which had two humps. We’ll come back to this later in the video.
It's one of five CSX intermodal terminals in Ohio.
The others in Cleveland, Columbus, Marion and North Baltimore.
The yard can sort as many as 3,200 cars a day but only does around 2,000.
It has eight reception tracks, six departure tracks and 50 classification tracks in the bowl.
The hump works by gravity but computers control retarders which control car speeds and the switches that sort the cars.
Before the pandemic, CSX handled more than 50 trains a day.
Inbound trains are inspected by the car department.
They will perform light repairs and ensure the cars are safe and their shipments are secure.
Trains are sorted according to their priority.
Outbound trains are assembled by moving blocks of cars from the Bowl Yard onto one of the departure tracks.
Assembled trains receive an outbound inspection by the car department and brake test prior to departure.
Other facilities at Queensgate include a locomotive shop, car shop, CSX Intermodal terminal, and CSX TransFlo terminal.
South of the yard, we find the Southern Railway Bridge as it crosses into Ohio from Ludlow, Ky.
This Norfolk Southern train is entering the Gest Street Yard.
The former Southern Yard has the distinction of being the only pre-1980s yard in Mill Creek Valley that's still around.
You can see the back of Union Terminal, as well as CSX's intermodal facility where the former terminal concourse once stood.
Norfolk Southern handles around 40 trains a day in the yard.
Now, lets head over to the former L & N Decoursey yard in Latonia.
I typically see one or two trains sitting in what’s left of the yard.
I’m told it is overflow from the Queensgate yard.
It was the biggest yard that the L&N had but most of it is gone now.
The southern portion is still around.
It is run by Progress Rail and is a car repair facility.
I hope you enjoyed it.
I’m working on new railfan video from Bellevue Ohio.
We’ll see Moorman yard from the air and also look at the NS lines in the area.
Plus, you’ll see some of what the Mad River & Nickel Plate Railroad Museum has to offer.

The information in this video was gathered from several sources including:
http://www.cincyrails.com/
http://www.nkyviews.com/kenton/kenton... (this is where I found the old picture of Decoursey Yard)
http://www.donwinter.com/Railroad%20I...
http://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/...
As well as information directly from CSX and Norfolk Southern.