Editing Classification yard (section)

==Gravity==
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'''Gravity yards''' were invented in the 19th century, saving shunting engines and instead letting the cars roll by gravity was seen as a major benefit, whereas the larger amount of manual work required to stop the rolling cars in the classification tracks was judged to be not that important. Gravity yards were a historical step in the development of classification yards. They were later judged as inferior to hump yards because it became clear that shunting engines were needed anyway (at least in inclement weather like strong winds or icy temperatures when the oil in the bearings became thick) and because manual labor was becoming increasingly expensive. Thus, only a few gravity yards were ever built, sometimes requiring massive earthwork (one example is the first German gravity yard at Dresden). The historic technique of a gravity yard is today partly presented in [[Chemnitz]]-Hilbersdorf gravity yard (museum).<ref>Denkmalpflege in Sachsen, Jahrbuch 2019, Sandsteinverlag, Dresden, 2020.</ref> 

Most gravity yards were built in Germany (especially in the kingdom of [[Saxony]]) and Great Britain (such as Edgehill, 1873),<ref>{{cite book |last=Köpcke |first=Mitteilungen |title=aus dem Bereich des englischen Eisenbahnwesens |publisher=Der Civilingenieur |location=Leipzig |date=1890 }}</ref> a few also in some other European countries, for example [[Łazy]] yard near [[Zawiercie]] on the [[Warsaw–Vienna railway|Warsaw–Vienna Railway]] (in [[Poland]]). In the US, there were very few old gravity yards; one of the few gravity yards in operation today is CSX's [[Readville (MBTA station)#Railroad yards|Readville Yard]] south of [[Boston, Massachusetts]].