Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 3, 1994 TAG: 9412050026
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NS will spend $57 million in 1995 to continue and expand its coal car rebodying program at the company's car shops in Roanoke. It will increase production of rebuilt coal gondolas to 14 a day in early January from the 12 a day it made for most of this year. NS plans to produce 3,500 rebodied cars next year.
In preparation for the higher volume of work, the shops hired and trained 32 additional people this year, said Don Mayberry, vice president of Norfolk Southern's mechanical department, based in Roanoke. The car shops employ 420 people, including supervisors.
NS expects the coal car rebodying program to continue into 1998. Depending on business conditions at that time, the shops may start building new coal gondolas, Mayberry said.
In total, NS plans to spend nearly 10 percent more than this year's $634 million on capital projects. The railroad made a record profit for the first nine months of 1994 and appears on the way to its best year since it was formed in 1982 by the merger of the Norfolk & Western and Southern railways.
More than one- third of the budget, $220 million, is headed for Norfolk Southern's crosstie and roadbed stone programs. Another $148 million will buy 125 six-axle locomotives, and $9 million will go to the company's North American Van Lines subsidiary.
Also in next year's capital budget is $21 million that will go toward a two-year project to replace utility poles and cable that help operate and power signals along 388 miles of NS track, including several miles in Virginia.
Currently, 4,800-volt power lines run atop poles beside NS track providing electricity to operate track switches. Other cables on the poles activate the switches and operate the red and green lights in traffic signals along the track.
The project will replace the company power with electricity from local public utilities and also will charge batteries to act as backups when power fails. In the future, rail line signals will be lit by voltage running along the steel rails and switches will be operated by a microwave radio system.
In this region, the project will involve the removal of poles along the track from Roanoke to Hagerstown, Md.; from Walton in Montgomery County to Bristol; and from Burkeville to Lynchburg, according to Danny Meadows, general signal supervisor in Roanoke.
The project will help eliminate service interruptions like those caused when lines went down in last winter's ice storms, Meadows said. The removal of the poles makes for a more open landscape, he said.
More of the 1995 budget will go toward the first payments on these other multi-year projects:
$52 million to buy 414 multi-level racks to carry automobiles; 300 60-foot boxcars for automotive and aluminum freight use; and 86 rebuilt boxcars to haul auto parts.
$44 million to improve rail-line capacity, particularly in northern Georgia, Cincinnati and northern Indiana.
$36 million for a new computer system for complete, timely reporting of all car movements.
$28 million for new or expanded intermodal, automotive and bulk distribution facilities.
by CNB