List of New York City Subway yards

Train of Many Colors storage at 207th Street Yard

The New York City Transit Authority operates a total of 24 rail yards for the New York City Subway system. There are 10 active A Division yards (one yard has been demolished), 11 active B Division yards, two shared yards, one yard for the Staten Island Railway, and two non-revenue yards. Of these yards, rolling stock are assigned to seven A Division yards and seven B Division yards. Within the yards are 14 maintenance and cleaning facilities, and two yards (207th Street and Coney Island) perform heavy maintenance and overhaul.

A Division yards

The A Division's yards consist of the 240th Street, 239th Street, Livonia, Jerome, East 180th Street, Pelham and Corona maintenance yards, plus three other non-maintenance storage yards. A total of 2779 cars are assigned to the seven maintenance yards.

137th Street Yard

The 137th Street Yard is an underground rail yard located just north of 137th Street – City College on the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line, hence the yard's name. It is composed of five tracks surrounding the three mainline tracks. Three tracks are to the west of the line (downtown side) and two are to the east (uptown side). The yard is used to store some 1 trains outside of rush hours.

239th Street Yard

239th Street Yard aerial view

239th Street Yard east side

R142s, R110As, and R62As in the 239th Street Yard

The 239th Street Yard is the northernmost rail yard in the system, located at 4570 Furman Avenue in Wakefield section of the North Bronx, and is home to the R142s assigned to the 2. There is considerable fleet interchange with the R142s at East 180th Street Yard used for the 5. The car wash at 239th Street is used for both services. A wheel truing machine was installed here to minimize damage to rail cars and tracks caused by flat wheels. This shop was also used as a facility to retrofit all R26s, R28s, R29s, R33s (except single unit Worlds Fair cars) and R36s (both Mainline and Worlds Fair types) married pairs IRT type cars with the installation of new Stone Safety 10 ton Air Conditioning systems between 1976 and 1981. Also, during this period, all cars assigned to the 2 were inspected and maintained at the East 180th Street Shops shared with the 5. It re-opened as an inspection and maintenance facility for the 2 in 1982.

The yard consists of a seven-track inspection shop and 38 layup tracks. The layup tracks are arranged on two levels; the only other yard in the system to share this trait is the East New York Yard. Access to the 239th Street Yard is located between Wakefield – 241st Street and Nereid Avenue on the IRT White Plains Road Line.

On February 3, 1998, two out-of-service trains collided at the yard lead after the motorman of one train passed out at the helm and his train crashed into the one in front of it.

240th Street Yard

240th Street Yard layup tracks

The 240th Street Yard, also known as Van Cortlandt or VC Yard, is located at 5911 Broadway in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, serving the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line. The yard consists of six inspection tracks in the shop and 15 additional layup tracks. The yard is home to the R62As and the 10 R62s assigned to the 1. The shop was built in 1906 to support the original IRT subway. The yard and shops are entirely on an elevated structure.

Corona Yard

Corona Yard and shop

Corona Yard serves as the home yard of the IRT Flushing Line (7 <7> trains). It is located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park near Citi Field, the National Tennis Center, and the site of the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs.

Corona Yard opened in 1928 and has seen various models of cars, including Steinway Low-Vs, World's Fair Lo-Vs, BMT Qs, R12s, R14s, R15s, some R17s from 1961 thru early 1965 to enable operation of 11 car trains, and were often mixed with R15s. Some R26s, R28s, R29s were temporarily assigned from 1978 to 1985 due to its assigned fleet of World's Fair R33s, and World's Fair R36s being air conditioned (the World's Fair R33s did not receive air conditioning), and overhauled. A new fleet of World's Fair R33s, and World's Fair R36s in 1963 and 1964. Also R33s from 1989 to 1996 and 2002 to 2003 to temporarily fill in due to light overhaul work on all WFR36 cars done between 1990 and 1996, and also as a fill in due to retirements of many Westinghouse equipped WFR36's during 2002 and 2003. This yard maintains the R62As, and many R188s, used on the 7 <7> services. It also contains the Casey Stengel Bus Depot. Corona Yard does not have room to store all of the new R188s that will exclusively serve the 7 <7> trains by 2016, and expansion of the yard is not viable because of the yard is near the Flushing River; therefore, some trainsets will also have to be stored at the 34th Street station of the 7 <7> services.

On August 16, 2006, the original 1928 shop building was demolished, and was replaced by a new, modern shop.

East 180th Street Yard

The East 180th Street Yard and Maintenance–Repair Shop; viewed from East 180th Street station

The East 180th Street Yard is situated at 1145 East 180th Street in the Bronx, just east of the Bronx Zoo. The yard consists of eight storage tracks and an adjacent 12-track shop building with a connection to the nearby 19-track Unionport Yard, which lies to the northeast of East 180th Street Yard. The yard is the home of the R142s for the 5. There is considerable fleet interchange with the 2. All new car engineering's acceptance testing for newly delivered IRT type cars are performed from here. A new shop building replacing the original 1918 vintage shop building opened in 1999, just in time for acceptance testing of new R142/142A's, which Bombardier started delivering the R142's to this facility on November 16, 1999.

Jerome Avenue Yard

The Jerome Yard, also known as Mosholu Yard, is located at 3191 Jerome Avenue in The Bronx. This yard is home to all R142s and R142As for the 4. It is one of the three yards in the system to be under a housing complex (Pitkin Yard and Lenox Yard are the others). Rail access to the yard is by a pair of tracks that branch off of the elevated IRT Jerome Avenue Line just north of Bedford Park Boulevard – Lehman College station. The riveted steel pylons that support the elevated branch tracks give way to stone pylons just north of 205th Street before they enter the yard. The yard is surrounded by a wall and covered by a parking deck used by residents of the Tracey Towers housing complex.

Lenox Yard

Lenox Yard in 1902

Lenox Yard, formerly the Lenox Avenue Shops, is located near 148th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem. This station is only used for storage of the R62s that operate on the 3 service, and has no maintenance facility, although the yard had been the first overhaul shop for the IRT when it opened with the rest of the new subway in 1904. The original IRT subway cars were lowered from the street via inclines into the yard, where they continued into the West Side Main Line. Formerly extending between 147th and 150th Streets, in the 1960s the yard was downsized from 26 acres to seven acres, which eliminated the repair shops and NYCT offices. Around that time, a public school building (currently housing Frederick Douglass Academy) and the Esplanade Gardens apartment complex were constructed on pilotis above the formerly open-air yard. Two tracks were taken from the yard for the Harlem – 148th Street station opened in 1968, which is the current northern terminal for the 3.

Livonia Yard

Northwest end of Livonia Yard

The Livonia Yard is located at 900 Hegeman Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn on an entirely elevated structure at the east end of the IRT New Lots Line. Located between Elton and Linwood Streets, the yard extends from Hegeman Avenue south to Stanley Avenue, passing over Linden Boulevard. One of the smallest maintenance yards in the system, it is where the R62s on the 3 are inspected and maintained.

The yard consists of four inspection tracks inside the Livonia shop and thirteen layup tracks. A signal tower is located at the northwest corner of the yard. Many 3 trains are stored in the Lenox Yard in Upper Manhattan, as Livonia is not very large. Additionally, a large amount of space within Livonia is used for the storage of some R142s and R142As for the 2, 4 and 5 trains.

Livonia, along with 240th Street Yard, are in need of rehabilitation due to not meeting the configuration standards for "current industry practices". An extension of the New Lots Line has been proposed up to the end of the yard, or through the yard right-of-way to Flatlands Avenue, to serve the developing Spring Creek area.

Unionport Yard

Unionport Yard is associated with the nearby East 180th Street Yard, used primarily as a lay-up facility for 2 and 5 trains. It is named after Unionport Road which lies just east of the yard. There are no shop or wash facilities at this yard, which was expanded in the 1990s from five tracks to its present 19. All but one track ends in bumper block. The newly expanded yard was fully operational in 1997. The yard connects to the IRT White Plains Road Line to the south and the IRT Dyre Avenue Line to the north.

West Farms Yard (demolished)

The West Farms Yard was an elevated rail yard that was demolished in 1952 along with the redundant 180th Street – Bronx Park station. It used to serve trains of the 2 and 5 services.

Westchester Yard

The Westchester Yard, also known as the Pelham Yard, is located in the Bronx and has 45 layup tracks. The yard maintains and stores the R142As and R62As for the 6, as well as the twenty R62As used for the 42nd Street Shuttle, and Maintenance of Way diesel trains for both the A Division and B Division. It is connected to the IRT Pelham Line in both directions between Westchester Square – East Tremont Avenue and Middletown Road stations.

There is a four-track inspection shed for electric trains and a two-track diesel repair shop. Pelham Yard also has a car wash used by the entire A Division.

B Division yards

The B Division's maintenance yards comprise the 207th Street, Concourse, Coney Island, East New York, Jamaica and Pitkin maintenance yards, plus five other non-maintenance storage yards. The six maintenance shops are responsible for performing daily subway car maintenance and inspection of 3,442 subway cars.

The 207th Street and Concourse yards are shared with the A Division and are listed in Yards in both divisions.

174th Street Yard

The 174th Street Yard is an underground rail yard on the IND Eighth Avenue Line, used to store C trains. It is composed of five tracks to the east of the two mainline passenger service tracks. The yard is located six blocks north of 168th Street and adjacent to 175th Street. The inner tracks at 168th Street lead towards the yard and are used by terminating C trains. This yard can hold only three ten-car 60' trains and two six-car 60' trains despite having five tracks; however, C service is not affected by this, as the route only requires two of the ten-car tracks in revenue service. The northern end of the yard is against a concrete wall and a cinder-block wall adjacent to the Trans-Manhattan Expressway, as the line was originally intended to go over the George Washington Bridge's lower level.

Canarsie Yard

South end of Canarsie Yard

The Canarsie Yard (also known as AY Yard from its telegraphy letters) is located on the south end of the BMT Canarsie Line adjacent to Canarsie – Rockaway Parkway. It is the primary layup yard for the L train and hosts the only car wash for the entire BMT Eastern Division, washing trains for J, L, M and Z services.

New signals were installed in 2003 in conjunction with the BMT Canarsie Line automation project.

Church Avenue Yard

The Church Avenue Yard, also referred to as the Church Avenue Interlocking, is an underground rail yard on the IND Culver Line, used to store trains for G service. It is composed of four tracks directly under the four main line tracks above. This yard is directly connected through the line's Church Avenue station which is the south terminus for G service. At least one of the yard's 4 tracks is in continuous use to reverse equipment to the opposite direction. There are two ramps between each local and express track south of Church Avenue station for access. Each track can hold one full-length train between the bumper blocks and the crossovers.\

Coney Island Complex

Coney Island Complex

Inside view into a workshop

The Coney Island Complex is the largest rapid transit yard in the state of New York, and one of the largest in North America. Located in Brooklyn, New York, it covers 74 acres (300,000 m²) and operates 24/7. The complex was built in 1926 on former marshlands that, along with Coney Island Creek, used to separate Coney Island from the main body of Brooklyn. Much of this land had originally been proposed for use as a ship canal and port facility.

Regular scheduled maintenance is performed here for a fleet of nearly 800 cars of R68s, R68As, and R160s, serving the B, G, N, Q, and the Franklin Avenue Shuttle. However, train sets for the D, F, and R are also stored here when required. The shop facility, along with the 207th Street Shops, performs inspection, heavy maintenance and overhaul for every one of the approximately 6,000 cars in the subway system, including the Staten Island Railway, and also contains car washing and painting facilities.

In addition to heavy maintenance facilities and track facilities for cars undergoing maintenance and overhaul, the complex includes three related railroad storage yards. The main yard facility, known as Coney Island Yard, includes direct connections to the adjacent BMT Sea Beach Line (N trains) and a two-track elevated structure to the BMT West End Line (D trains). The main yard also serves trains on the BMT Brighton Line (B Q trains) via tracks C & D (also known as 3 & 4, respectively) of Coney Island – Stillwell Avenue station. The adjacent but separate Culver Yard (also called City Yard or Avenue X Yard) connects to the IND Culver Line (F trains) at the eastern border of the yard complex. Another yard, the Stillwell Yard, used mainly for off-peak train storage, is located across the Sea Beach Line from the main yard complex in a "V" between the divergent Sea Beach and West End Lines.

In addition to the maintenance shop and yards, there is a Health Center (gym) and medical center for Transit Authority employees, a firing range for the New York City Police Department (NYPD)'s Transit Division, and a firefighting training school. The range was originally built for the New York City Transit Police Department, which was merged with the NYPD in 1995.

The Coney Island Yard Electric Motor Repair Shop and Coney Island Yard Gatehouse were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Gatehouse

Coney Island Yard Gatehouse
Further information U.S. National Register of Historic Places Coney Island Yard Gatehouse, May 2009 Location SW corner of Shell Rd. and Avenue X, Brooklyn, New York Coordinates Area less than one acre Built 1929 Architect Ridgeway, Robert Architectural style Bungalow/Craftsman MPS New York City Subway System MPS NRHP Reference # 06000017
Added to NRHP	February 9, 2006

Coney Island Yard Gatehouse is a historic gatehouse located at the Coney Island Complex. It was built about 1929 and is a small masonry building with prominent clay tile roof with deep overhanging eaves.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

East New York Yard

East New York Yard (also known as DO (District Office) Yard from its telegraphy letters) is primarily used to store and repair trains assigned to the J, L, M and Z. Subway equipment is inspected and maintained there on a regular basis.

It is located at the junction of the Canarsie and Jamaica Lines near the intersection of Broadway and Jamaica Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn. A separate part of the facility houses the East New York Bus Depot, formerly a trolley depot. The yard is entirely equipped with hand-operated switches. Only the Fresh Pond Yard and 36th–38th Street Yard share this characteristic.

Portions of the yard date back to 1885 and the Lexington Avenue Elevated and the yard predates the rebuilding of nearby Broadway Junction, which used to be known as Manhattan Junction or East New York Loop.

The yard and its main lead configuration remained the same before and after the extensive elevated line rebuilding nearby, but additional track and structure was built, so that, at its peak, East New York Yard had direct connections to the Broadway Elevated going west, Jamaica Line going east, Canarsie Line going east, and Fulton Street Elevated both east and west.

Fresh Pond Yard

The Fresh Pond Yard in Middle Village, Queens is located to the back of the Fresh Pond Bus Depot (formerly a trolley depot). Opened with an extension of the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line in 1906, it is used for storing the R160As that run on the M. It is located between Fresh Pond Road and Middle Village – Metropolitan Avenue on the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line, but is only accessible from the latter station. Trains must first platform there and then reverse into the yard. The yard is entirely equipped with hand-operated switches. Only East New York Yard and 36th–38th Street Yard share this characteristic.

Jamaica Yard

Southwestern corner of Jamaica Yard

Employee entrance of Jamaica Yard

Jamaica Yard, view of R160 and R46, March 2013

Jamaica Yard is located in Kew Gardens, Queens at the south end of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park near the Kew Gardens Interchange. It is the primary storage yard for the IND Queens Boulevard Line since its opening in 1936. The yard connects to the Queens Boulevard Line at a three-way flying junction just geographically north of the Kew Gardens – Union Turnpike station. The yard is at surface level, and the four-track approach includes a bridge over the Grand Central Parkway; though the Queens Boulevard Line is underground, the yard lies at a lower elevation than the subway. The site upon which the yard sits at the head of the valley of the Flushing River was originally swampland. It would be occupied by British troops after the Battle of Long Island during the American Revolution.

The yard was built for the Independent Subway System in the 1930s. Work was half finished on Jamaica Yard in April 1935, and the total cost of Jamaica Yard and storage sheds was approximately $560,000. Jamaica Yard served as the south end of the World's Fair Railroad which served the 1939 New York World's Fair from 1939 to 1940. In August 1964 it was planned that Jamaica Yard have car-washing machines installed in May 1965. The yard currently provides carwash, interior cleaning, grease and minor repair services to the R46s and R160s that are assigned to the E, F, and R. Some R160As for the M are stored here as well during weekdays, but are not maintained here, as the M uses shorter, four-car sets maintained at East New York Yard.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to enlarge this yard due to chronic overcrowding at the existing facility, as many trains are stored on the IND Queens Boulevard mainline express tracks east of 71st Avenue and the 179th Street Station's relay yard during off-peak periods. The expansion will double the storage capacity of the facility. The four yard leads will also be equipped with communications-based train control (CBTC) as part of the automation of the Queens Boulevard Line.

There are more subway cars assigned to Jamaica Yard than to any other rapid transit yard in the city. It trails behind the Chicago Transit Authority as having the largest subway car assignment in North America.

Pitkin Yard

Grant Avenue entrance of Pitkin Yard

The Pitkin Yard is located in East New York, Brooklyn. It holds the Pitkin Shops, which maintain the R46s used on the A and Rockaway Park Shuttle. Some R32s used on the C are also stored here.

Track connections from the yard connect both railroad north to Euclid Avenue and railroad south past Grant Avenue on the IND Fulton Street Line. This allows trains to be added or removed from service in either direction.

The site for Pitkin Yard was approved by the Board of Estimate on February 8, 1940 in order to serve the extension of the Fulton Street Line. The total cost for the acquiring the property for the yard was estimated to be $773,000 for 30 acres. The yard opened on November 28, 1948 along with the extension of the IND Fulton Street Line to Euclid Avenue.

Rockaway Park Yard

Rockaway Park Yard eastern part

Rockaway Park Yard is located in Rockaway Park, Queens. It is a layup yard for the R46s on the A and the Rockaway Park Shuttle, although they are primarily maintained at the Pitkin Yard in Brooklyn.

Western end of Rockaway Park Yard

This yard is adjacent to Rockaway Park – Beach 116th Street. Like the IND Rockaway Line itself, the Rockaway Yard was originally a yard for the Rockaway Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It included a water tower, a roundhouse, and an elevated loop track formerly used by Brooklyn Rapid Transit trains.

Yards in both divisions

207th Street Yard

View of 207th Street Yard from the southwest – note the Museum cars.

View of 207th Street Yard from a nearby building

The 207th Street Yard is located in Inwood in upper Manhattan between Tenth Avenue and the Harlem River north of the University Heights Bridge. The outdoor yard extends north from 207th Street to 215th Street. It serves as the home yard for the R32s and the R160s that are used on the C service. Some R46s for the A, as well as some R62As for the 1, are stored here as well, but are not assigned to the yard.

The 207th Street Shop is one of two heavy overhaul shops in the New York City Subway system (the other being the Coney Island Yard in Brooklyn) and provides overhaul and rebuilding of most A Division cars as well as some B Division rolling stock. The yard stores cars that are being retired or awaiting scrapping. These cars are stripped of usable parts such as seats and doors, historic memorabilia such as rollsigns, and toxic materials such as lubricants and asbestos, after which the cars are scrapped or sunk into artificial reefs. The facility also restores cars designated for the New York Transit Museum. It also contains a garbage transfer station.

South of the yard, connecting tracks lead to the IND Eighth Avenue Line. A separate connecting track and flyover leads to the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line.

A housing development has been proposed to be built above the Yard, in a similar manner to that above the Lenox Yard, Jerome Av Yard and Pitkin Yards and the proposed Sunnyside Yard re-development.

Concourse Yard

Concourse Yard Entry Buildings
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	W. 205th St., bet. Jerome and Paul Aves., Bronx, New York
Coordinates
Area	less than one acre
Built	1933
Architect	Ridgeway, Robert
Architectural style	Art Deco
MPS	New York City Subway System MPS
NRHP Reference #	06000014
Concourse Yard Substation
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	3119 Jerome Ave., Bronx, New York
NRHP Reference #	06000013
Added to NRHP	February 9, 2006

Concourse Yard from the southeast

Concourse Yard maintenance building

The Concourse Yard is located in northern Bronx near 205th Street and Jerome Avenue. This yard is home to the 280 R68 cars assigned to the D, which are also inspected and maintained at this yard, although some trains assigned to the B and 4 are stored here as well. Connecting tracks lead north from the yard to the IND Concourse Line and south to the IRT Jerome Avenue Line. Concourse Yard is spanned across its middle by Bedford Park Boulevard West, and at its northern end by a 205th Street viaduct. The Jerome Yard used by the IRT Jerome Avenue Line lies to the north of 205th Street.

The Concourse Yard Entry Buildings and Concourse Yard Substation were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. The former consists of two, three-story brick buildings with only the top story visible from the street that are built next to one another to form a gateway to the Concourse Yard. They feature ornamental limestone columns and aluminum doors. The buildings are connected by an iron bridge that retains its original Art Deco balustrade. The latter is a one-story brick building measuring 50 feet by 100 feet and featuring a brick parapet with ornamental limestone and aluminum doors.

Other yards

36th–38th Street Yard

File:Work Equipment Snow Preparations (11716060543).jpg

Western portion of the 36th–38th Street Yard, and a hand-operated switch.

The 36th–38th Street Yard is located between Fifth and Seventh Avenues in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, adjacent to the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot and the Ninth Avenue station of the BMT West End Line. Green-Wood Cemetery lies to the north of the yard. This yard is not normally used for revenue-service train maintenance, though some trains for the R are stored here. Its primary function is to store diesel and electrically powered maintenance-of-way and other non-revenue service rolling stock. It is also used to transfer trash from garbage collector trains to trucks via platforms inside the yard just south of 37th Street. There is a control tower for the West End Line at the south end of the yard.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to enlarge this yard to accommodate additional revenue service trains due to chronic overcrowding at their other existing facilities, as many trains are stored on the BMT Fourth Avenue Line's mainline express tracks during off-peak periods. The expanded yard will also provide much-needed storage space for future Second Avenue Subway trains.

This southern part of the yard used to be the center of the South Brooklyn Railway, which extended from Bush Terminal through the north part of the yard, then down Gravesend Avenue and into the Coney Island Yard. The yard is entirely equipped with hand-operated switches. Only Fresh Pond Yard and East New York Yard share this characteristic.

Linden Shops

The switch to Linden Yard at the Junius Street station

Linden Shops is a track shop, where track switches and other components are assembled. It has track connections to the IRT New Lots Line and BMT Canarsie Line, but no third rail, restricting the facility to diesel-powered trains only. There is also a track connection to the Long Island Rail Road's Bay Ridge Branch. This connection is one of two from the subway to the mainline United States rail network (the BMT West End Line is the other).

Clifton Yard

Clifton Yard

The Clifton Yard is the sole yard on the Staten Island Railway, and is located next to the Clifton station. Heavy maintenance of equipment is performed at the Clifton Yard. As there is no connection from the passenger portion of the Staten Island Railway to the mainline U.S. railroad network or the subway, the sixty-three R44 subway cars on the Staten Island Railway must be trucked over the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge to Coney Island Yard if they need maintenance that Clifton Yard cannot perform. Additional storage for revenue trains is located adjacent to the Tottenville station at the south end of the line, while maintenance of non-revenue trains is performed at a Maintenance of Way shop near the Tompkinsville station.

External links

• nycsubway.org—Subway Yards
• New York Subway Barn Assignments. December 2015