Sunday was the last day of the annual Railway Passenger Car Alliance meeting in Salisbury, N.C., and Norfolk Southern was in the spotlight. On Saturday night Wick Moorman, NS’s president, chairman, and CEO, became the first sitting railroad chief executive to address the organization. Moorman gave a presentation on his youthful railroad interest in his hometown of Hattiesburg, Miss., then discussed his company's view on high speed rail (bottom line: it's coming, possibly to some NS routes, and can either be a help or a hindrance to the freight carrier, depending on how it plays out), and ended with an overview of NS's office car fleet. Moorman can give an entertaining talk, and he spent nearly an hour afterward meeting people and talking up the railroad. On Sunday, participants went to NS's Spencer Yard at Linwood, N.C., to tour the hump tower and the mechanical department. This yard (image at right), completed in June 1979, is on NS's busy former Southern Railway main line about half way between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. It sees between 6,300 and 7,000 cars each week and about 1,100 locomotives per month. The operation is efficient. David Mitchell, the general foreman for locomotives, said the shop aims to turn out a unit with a 92-day inspection every day; last year, instead of 365 units, the shop turned out 465, and on the day of our visit, a GP50 and an SD40-2 had just completed the process. Next year the organization of passenger car operators takes its meeting to Pueblo, Colo.
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A chance sighting of Clinchfield Railroad office car No. 100, by Jim Wrinn
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