The Elkins Railyard was a bustling and dangerous workplace where workers serviced passenger and freight trains and repaired locomotives and rolling stock in the adjacent roundhouse and maintenance shops. The labor was often difficult, with long grueling hours, and one employee recalled that if you worked on the railroad, you were either at home sleeping or at the railroad at work. The shops employed hundreds of people specializing in pipe fitting, machinery, blacksmithing, construction, and painting, while the railyard itself was an elaborate maze of sidings with 18 tracks and 105 switches. With the switch from steam to diesel engines in the 1950s, fewer employees were needed, and improved highways and increased reliance on cars and trucks brought rapid decline for the railroad. On November 28, 1981, a fire destroyed the roundhouse and led to the closure of the railyard.