Englewood was built by SP in 1954, with 18 receiving tracks, 64 classification tracks, and 14 departure tracks for a total yard capacity of 7,179 cars. In 1998, the yard was classifying 1500 cars per day. but anything over 1700 cars per day causes the yard to clog up, as happened to SP in 1979 and again in the great UP traffic meltdown in 1997, when UP officials decided to ignore the experience of their former SP colleagues.
The yard is on the south side of the Sunset Route, east of the crossing with the Houston Belt Lines on the east side of Houston.