Editing Classification yard (section)

{{No footnotes|date=April 2022}}
{{Short description|Rail yard used for sorting and assembling rail cars into trains}}
[[File:Godorf Station at Dusk, May 2018.jpg|thumb|Godorf Station, [[Cologne]], Germany]]

A '''classification yard''' ([[American English]], as well as the [[Canadian National Railway]]), '''marshalling yard''' ([[British English|British]], [[Hong Kong English|Hong Kong]], [[Indian English|Indian]], and [[Australian English]], and the former [[Canadian Pacific Railway]]) or '''shunting yard''' (Central Europe) is a [[Rail yard|railway yard]] used to accumulate [[railway car]]s on one of several tracks.  First, a group of cars is taken to a track, sometimes called a ''lead'' or a ''drill''. From there, the cars are sent through a series of [[Railway switch|switches]] called a ''ladder'' onto the classification tracks. Some larger yards may put the lead on an artificially built hill called a ''hump'' to use the force of gravity to propel the cars through the ladder.

Freight trains that consist of unrelated cars must be made into a train grouped according to their destinations; this [[shunting (rail)|shunting]] is done at the starting point. Some trains drop and pick up cars along their route in classification yards or at industrial sidings.  In contrast is a [[unit train]] that carries, for example, [[automobile]]s from the [[Factory|plant]] to a [[port]], or [[coal]] from a [[Mining|mine]] to the [[Power station|power plant]].