# Yardmaster

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{{Short description|Railroad employee in charge of the rail yard}}
[[File:Yardmaster.jpg|thumb|A yardmaster in [Amarillo, Texas](/source/Amarillo%2C_Texas) in 1943]]

'''The yardmaster''' is a railroad employee in charge of a [rail yard](/source/rail_yard). Duties involve managing and coordinating all activities in combining [rolling stock](/source/rolling_stock) into trains, breaking down trains into individual railroad cars, and switching trains from track to track in the [rail yard](/source/rail_yard).<ref>{{cite book |author=Richard A. McDavid and Susan Echaore-McDavid  |title=Career Opportunities in Transportation |year=2009 |quote=Duties: Manage and coordinate the activities involved in making and breaking up trains and switching trains from track to track in railroad yards ... | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZjhzVdBbCrAC&dq=yardmaster&pg=PT160 }}</ref> In the [United States of America](/source/United_States_of_America), yardmasters are eligible to join the [Railroad Yardmasters of America](/source/Railroad_Yardmasters_of_America).

For a person to work as a railroad yardmaster, they must work as a brake or signal operator, which requires the person to have a high school diploma. The training for yardmasters takes place in programs offered by the employer.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What Is a Railroad Yardmaster? |url=https://learn.org/articles/What_is_a_Railroad_Yardmaster.html |website=Learn.org}} Retrieved June 27, 2025.</ref>

==Notable former yardmasters in the U.S.==
*[Al Alquist](/source/Al_Alquist) at the [Southern Pacific Railroad](/source/Southern_Pacific_Railroad)
*[Walter Ellsworth Bachman, Sr.](/source/Walter_Ellsworth_Bachman%2C_Sr.) (1879–1958) at the [Lehigh Valley Railroad](/source/Lehigh_Valley_Railroad)
*[John Walker Barriger III](/source/John_Walker_Barriger_III) (1899&ndash;1976) assistant yardmaster at the [Pennsylvania Railroad](/source/Pennsylvania_Railroad)
*[George B. Swan](/source/George_B._Swan_House), at the [Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad](/source/Chicago%2C_Rock_Island_and_Pacific_Railroad)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commonscatinline}}
*[http://utu.org/yardmasters/ Yardmaster information] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315202039/https://utu.org/yardmasters/ |date=2016-03-15 }} from [United Transportation Union](/source/United_Transportation_Union)

Category:Rail yards
Category:Yardmasters

{{rail-transport-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Yardmaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yardmaster) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yardmaster?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.