J Mann Wrote:
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> Sorry if this is a dumb question, but why run the
> wole train around the baloon track? Why not hook
> the power to the other end and pull the train
> straight out of town?

Instead of being a traditional hump yard, West Colton is a gravity yard. The Receiving Yard is at the west end and cuts are shoved eastward to the "crest" then roll into the bowl. It's sort of like pushing them off a cliff - easy to get 'em going, harder to stop 'em (which is why the hump engines are three-unit consists, and the Brake Sleds that SP made out of retired locomotives). Cuts from the bowl are then pulled eastward into the Departure Yard and most trains depart eastward. Trains that want to go westward then run around the balloon as shown.

It's possible to physically depart from the west end of the Receiving Yard, but most trains that have been humped leave from the east end of the Departure Yard.