All rail yards had a specific business purpose to handle, that is why they were constructed in the first place. That being said, in century and a half, century or half century since their original construction the business of railroading and the business purpose of the yards where they continue to exist have changed. In many cases during the 'Plant Rationalization' era of the Class 1's during the 1980's &90's many yards were flat out eliminated, rail and ties were picked up and removed from the ground and real estate has been repurposed - given another use by the owning railroad or sold off for industries to create their own uses for the land. In other cases the yard remains in place but its job function has materially changed from the function it was created to support. Many yards were created to support industries in the near area of the yard. As the years have passed so have many of those industries. Some industries have gone bankrupt and ceased to exist. Some have had their name remain but their actual business has changed such that rail support is not required. In the 1970's I worked at B&O's Locust Point Yard. The yard supported all the break bulk piers that constituted the Locust Point Marine Terminal. The yard also supported the Indiana Grain grain pier for the export of grain, United Fruit's Banana Pier and Company tug boat lierage of cars across Baltimore Harbor as well as industries such as Proctor & Gamble, American Sugar, Philadelphia Quartz, Coca-Cola, McCormick Spices, Bethlehem Steel Shipbuilding drydocks - a customer base of approximately 1000 names. But in the following half century all those operations mentioned, except American Sugar are no longer existent in the Locust Point area.
