NS Executive Train

HOD Bill · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:49 pm

Nice looking KCS units. Must be promoting the new intermodal train from UP in Dallas to Atlanta. A joint venture of UP, KCS, & Norfolk Southern. This train avoids the bottlenecks encountered in Memphis.

The NS business train came thru Al in August or September. Was really a sight. Had a former Southern Cresent dome car and several UP business cars with it. It was on its way to Dallas loaded with big-wigs. I assume surveying or promoting the new intermodal train.

Bill

Robin Warren · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:36 pm **Posts:** 139

Now all that is needed is for UP to put together an intermodal using Sharks!

zugmann · **Posted:** Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:28 pm

superheater wrote:

There’s no special knowledge there. Last I looked, locomotives were intended to last longer than 10 years. In any case, there are, right now, two manufacturers capable of delivering road locomotives. The big roads buy from both-so you have the best and the next best available equipment. It also seems like there’s no shortage of new SD-70(whatever the new suffix is) and ES-40’s- and its easy to tell because its painted right under the road number.

Sure engines last longer than 10 years (had a gp40 today), but even if it is "new" doesn't mean it is flawless.

superheater wrote:

Interestingly enough, the (as of right now) minor players in the market-are REMANUFACTURERS, are using major components from older locomotives, so they have some life in them, even after the big roads consider them shot or disposable.

I’m equally as sorry, but you because you know how to run a train, doesn’t mean that you know how to run a railroad. You clearly don’t understand how a business operates, how it attracts customers, capital, generates “goodwill”-where it gets its value from. If I was a shipper, reading this and other innumerable e-posts by individuals identifying themselves as railroaders, I sure as heck would want a ride over the road-and I’d be looking for the condition of the track, how trains are running, etc. You get paid to deal with delays, bad order power etc. Shippers don’t. They pay your salary and perks. First hand experience is the best form of evidence.

I'm sorry, but all the fancy Fs in the world won't save you if you can't deliver their train on time, safely, and for a good price. That is what will attract and keep customers.

superheater wrote:

Moreover, many of us do have a clue- which is why we are in other professions. My parking lot over looks a fairly active NS yard and as I walked in this morning, I knew that in two months, it’ll be dark and cold and I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be there in the lousy weather flopping switches or even sitting in the cab.

Not all can handle it. We are just a different breed I guess. But let me tell you - the nicest people I know are RRers. Even if we do complain a lot.

superheater wrote:

Then may I suggest that you made a choice and live with it. But sorry-it isn’t the money. I know of few other occupations where people say their job is awful, but then (if such a thing exists) go home to look for places to read about it, especially where you think outsiders supposedly have a totally idealized and unrealistic view of you job and the industry.

Actually, I read this board for preservation issues. One of my many, many, many interests. Just sad to see this board becoming like all other railfan outlets, badmouthing RRers for stating their opinions. And yes, the outsiders do have an idealized, unrealistic view. Which is also why I like reading railfan boards.

superheater wrote:

You want a tough job, try being on a shortline, where the pay is less, craft-lines nonexistent, and you might be nursing some 40 or 50 year old roster along. Or for that matter, step into another job. Try being a miner. Try being a corrections officer in the prison systems. Try working in a nursing home (aka God’s waiting room). Try working with special needs kids or adults. Try working in a factory-and worrying about being outsourced. Try answering a boss who wants to know why you missed your sales quota by 5%. For that matter, try running a small business-dealing with hostile regulators and tax authorities, employees that are unreliable, banks that charge you for everything, including even exchanges.

Try innumerable occupations where there’s no hours of service rule-you work until the job is done and the only retirement you get is the IRA you set up and fund yourself.

Suddenly my job doesn't sound as bad as you made it out before, does it?

superheater wrote:

You are right, you make (good) money-there’s two ways to make money-have a skill and put up with some grief. Most require a little of both. Where else can you badmouth the company and not only expect not to get canned-but expect that you need to have your culture tolerated. Last I checked protecting the affairs of the company was a rule in most books.

I didn't badmouth my company at all. The worst I said was that the dash-9s are 10 years old.. That isn't badmouthing - that is reading the blue card.

superheater wrote:

This isn’t “NS-SU**S.COM”. I already acknowledged the fact that among professional railroaders, its something of a requirement to complain. Complain all you want, but pee in your own Cheerios. Your fellow traveler uses the tagline “I get paid…”, so it can’t be that bad. Oh yeah, unlike one of my ancestors-you’ll never have to climb on a boxcar ten minutes before quitting time to fall and get cut in half-diagonally-and have your brother sent HOME for some sheets to pick up the parts. No investigation, no SOFA case study, a last paycheck and that was it. That's history. Those guys must roll over in their graves listening to you talk about "denying history".

Nope, we do get smarter and safer. Thanks to those that complain.

superheater wrote:

I can’t speak for others, but I harbor no such delusions of perfection.

Oh come on... you know we are perfecyt.

Randy Hees · **Posted:** Tue Oct 30, 2007 12:59 am

From your moderator...

This thread is fast becoming an argument. It is bordering on name calling.

Lets take the heat down a couple of notches please.

Thanks

zugmann · **Posted:** Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:31 am

And I forgot to add..

Yes, those Fs are classy looking. So are the cars they pull. It is funny how small they are compared with the modern super power (70M-2s).

We all work our jobs for our own reasons. And as a result, we have different perspectives. Nothing wrong with that. I think Altoona's museum has a display highlighting complaining RRers (the bar scene - or at least i think that was what it was - it has been years). Any other museums have anything similar? (he says, trying to throw the discussion in a different direction....)

Thomas Travis · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 4:39 pm **Posts:** 78

Randy, Thanks for the intervention, I only intended to give a heads
up that the train was headed westbound into Chicago and did look nice.

Bob Barcus did a nice picture of it heading east on the old NKP line Monday and I do appreciate the nice picture

Regards

Tom Travis La Porte

Gary Gray · **Posted:** Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:13 am

Regardless of one's opinion towards the NS Executive Train, and the management and working conditions on NS, the presence of the F's indicates that this administration is much more appreciative of history than the previous management. I think that this bodes well for the preservation community in NS territory. At least in this area, the relationship between NS and the preservation groups seems to be greatly improved in the last couple of years. Equipment moves seem easier, historic equipment is being "borrowed" by NS, a certain museum south of here is sponsoring an Amtrak excusion, etc. A few years ago, this wasn't happening.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:43 am

I forwarded the KCS/stack photo to a dozen of my RR friends; half of them replied something on the order of "a perfect Photoshop job if I've ever seen one!"

and now for more:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=209016

I replied with the "Sharks on an intermodal" line, and one of my friends ran like heck with it:

"Hmmm....That should be PASSENGER Sharks (BP20) pulling the
American Orient Express. Or... leased double headed Erie
Triplexes shoving against 125 loaded unit coal gons behind
three-cylinder a Union Pacific 4-12-2 out of Powder River Basin
and, hmmm... remote controlled DD40x's cut in mid-train. New
Chinese NS heavy electrics humming those doublestacks out of
Gallitzin tunnels. RF&P Governor and Statesman 4-8-4s all lined
up at Pot Yard for VRE commuter runs. Ex-PRR Amtrak Baldwin
centipedes pulling the ribbon-rail train over the West Philly
elevated high-line. WM decapods switching 100-ton cylindrical
cement hoppers in the streets of Union Bridge for Maryland
Midland. Streamlined CP Selkirk 2-10-4 assisting a Royal Hudson
powered intermodal train snaking around Bear Mountain through Jim
Thorpe, past the Glen Onoko rafters and then up the heart of
Lehigh Gorge. B&O EM-1 with a couple of Q3s pushing a New York
City garbage train towards Grafton, West Virginia on the West
End... mmmm, savory scents. I see three-unit lashups of SAL
citrus EMD E6s (or purple ACLs) speeding successive sections of
the Auto Train south towards Florida - or the Tropicana train
north! ACL two-tone class R1 4-8-4s would also look good - and
be effective - with either of those jobs. Oh, and the obligatory
PAs? Definitely SP A-B-B-A painted Daylight and pulling the
Viewliner-equipped Coast Starlight through Dunsmuir (maybe with a
Ac-12 cab-forward helper.) Well, I'd accept NYC A-A lightning
stripe PAs in Amtrak Empire service. Oh, and we could really
freak 'em out with NS black and white Thoroughbred GG1 electrics
racing strings of Tuscan 28-1 heavyweight parlor cars for Penn
Station past trios of gray, red and yellow CSX P5a freight
electrics lugging hundreds of oxide red H21a and GLa hoppers
loaded with anthracite off the Schuylkill bound for Sparrows
Point or Missabe ore down to Greenville docks. How would
President class Pacifics look painted for MARC service? Van
Sweringen Berkshires all dolled up yellow pulling the NY
Susquehanna & Western's Lake Cities or Erie Limited over
Starrucca? Streamlined Hudsons in MetroNorth? Babyfaced Baldwin
double-enders out of Trenton on the new Delaware River Line
painted for NJTransit - in tangerine and blue, of course...unless
there are some ex-CNJ NJTransit camelbacks available up at
Communipaw."

I'm not sure I want any of what he's drinking or otherwise consuming......

Don C. · **Posted:** Tue Oct 30, 2007 12:41 pm

As a friend of mine replied today concerning the KCS F units, "They look like a Kidde Park train." The units are beautiful but how long will those bright red roofs remain red????

Don C.