The 943 acre Galesburg hump yard was completed by BN in October 1984, built on the site of the double hump yard built by the CB&Q in the 1940s. As a BN yard, the bowl had 32 4,000 ft long classification tracks paralleled by 5 arrival and departure tracks, and classified 1600 cars (out of a theoretical total of 2500) from 40 manifest trains every 24 hours. After the BNSF merger, and with a new retarder system added, eight more classification tracks were added in 1995 and eight more in 1996, for a total of 48, along with two more arrival and departure tracks, each 7,500 ft. long. An expansion scheme from 1997 added 14 more classification tracks, for a total of 62, and ten more arrival and departure tracks.
The yard is located three miles southwest of the center of Galesburg, along the west side of the line to Quincy, south of the line heading west to Burlington. [GoogleEarth View]