Talk:Northup Avenue Yard

Northup Avenue Yard has been listed as one of the Engineering and technology good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Review: August 24, 2022. (Reviewed version).

A fact from Northup Avenue Yard appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 8 August 2022 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Northup Avenue Yard in Providence, Rhode Island, was described as "the finest in the New Haven system"?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2022/August. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Northup Avenue Yard.

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Did you know nomination[edit]

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Z1720 (talk) 22:48, 1 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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Northup Avenue Yard circa 1970

... that Northup Avenue Yard in Providence, Rhode Island, was described as "the finest in the New Haven system"? Source: "Freight Cars Switched Under New System". The Evening Tribune. August 16, 1929. p. 12. "The Northup avenue yard is classed as the finest in the New Haven system" [1]
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Mark Twain Tree

Created by Trainsandotherthings (talk). Self-nominated at 02:46, 21 July 2022 (UTC).[reply]

Article is new enough, of sufficient length, and free of copyright violations per Earwig. The hook is interesting and cited by the reference. All in all, good to go. -JJonahJackalope (talk) 17:32, 25 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@JJonahJackalope: Remember to add a tick template so that this is moved into the Approved area. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 20:56, 25 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Name[edit]

When and why did the name of the avenue (or the yard) change? Mackensen (talk) 11:44, 21 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Mackensen: It's unclear. The source I have from 1899 uses the "Northrup Avenue Yard" name [2]. But another source from 1904 [3] uses "Northup Avenue" and the variation in name continues throughout the history of the yard. The unclear name goes back just about as far back as documentation of the yard's existence does. Curiously enough, the road exists today under the name Northrup Avenue, though it now terminates 500 feet west of the yard. Amtrak simply refers to the yard as the Providence Maintenance of Way Base, but frustratingly I cannot find any real documentation of this. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 23:53, 21 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I looked around a bit and couldn't find much, except (curiously) a source discussing variations of the Northup/Northrup name in Seattle. It's "Northup" on this 1899 map. Mackensen (talk) 00:02, 22 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It's apparently spelled both ways on the same page in 1918: [4]. Mackensen (talk) 00:06, 22 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Good grief. Edward J. Ozog's website [5] on the yard has this to say:

"NORTHUP or NORTHRUP

The street that gave its name to the yard can sometimes be found spelled with a second "r". The street name probably originated with the family name Northrup but over time the simpler form prevailed. Older street maps use the second "r" but new maps use Northup. Newspaper accounts of the building of the hump yard mainly use Northup but sometimes Northrup can be found. New Haven railroad usage was also ambivalent. I have used the short form which I think is most common."

Based on what I've seen in sources researching and writing this article so far, I've found I concur with Ozog on the naming. The alternative name is common enough I left a note of it in the first sentence of the lead. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 00:37, 22 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]