The yard scheme MikeM linked from 1988 is a fantastic and yet very depressing resource. By that time, pretty much anything west of Lonyo Street [[the Westbound Class Yard) was out of service, and removed not all that long later. This was as a result of Conrail's big shift in the early 1980s to rationalize their routings. Whereas prior to about 1981 traffic going west from Detroit [[to Grand Rapids, Elkhart Indiana and Chicago) actually went west, beginning around 1982 most traffic began going on a Toledo routing, switched at Toledo, and then toward its destination. Around the same time, Conrail began abandoning the former Michigan Central [[CASO) route across Ontario, diminishing their need for the Eastbound Class Yard as shown in the '88 diagram. Again, traffic going east on Conrail from Detroit went to Toledo and thenceward east over the old NYC Water Level Route mainline. In the span of about a decade, Livernois/Junction Yard went from being a major classification yard to becoming a much more localized facility, with an intermodal component. The yard was further diminshed beginning around 2000 when Conrail became the Shared Assets of CSX/NS, not just one of several local yards around the Detroit area for handling local traffic, building and breaking up a few trains, laying over locomotives and and storing cars.

That intermodal component continues to drive much of the use of the east end of the yard - as clearly visible from the aerial imagery. The two roundhouse sites - among the few yards in Michigan to have two roundhouses - are now under blacktop for expanded container transloading. The old coal tower remains as one of the last vestiges of the yard's prior life as one of Michigan's largest and busiest. West of Lonyo, only the two main tracks, a running track or two, and a yard lead remain. The humps are still obvious and a few have tracks leading west, but don't see much if any use. One of the roundhouses suffered a fire in the late 70s - a bunch of diesels inside got rather toasty.

Due to the yard's proximity to the Detroit River Tunnel and the large number of intermodal shipments handled through here, security is tight and the railroad police have a regular presence. The crossings at Lonyo and Central, and views from John Kronk are all public right of way...but much of the yard is hard to see from these angles.

Try www.michiganrailroads.com or www.railroadfan.com to get you started on Michigan railroading!