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[Anonymous]

I think the NS is great, they're my favorite and I think the best out there. It is definitely better than the BNSF or the Big Nothing So Far and a whole lot better than the CSX or the Chicken #%&* EXpress.

[Anonymous]

I like the NS because it is not far from me. It also had a bunch of Baldwin AS-616s, including two unique ones, the only high hood versions.
The only problem is that there is a new road out there pretending to be Norfolk Southern, but IT IS NOT! Norfolk Southern left North Carolina in only one spot, and that was at Norfolk. This connection allowed N&W passengers to get on the NS trains down to the beaches of NC. I have pictures of an N&W J with passenger cars sitting next to a NS 2-8-0 with coaches.

Here is a picture of NS 1610

[Anonymous]

gelvr1, you don't do your case much help if the main reason you like NS is that you dislike so many other roads...they all have their protectors and defenders here.

[Anonymous]

My first experience I had with NS was years ago when we used their road motors. They gave you a plastic bag and had a bucket on the motor to take a dump in. Any company that would treat their employees like that, can't be good.

[Anonymous]

Students of the NS who don't have the time to troll for stereotypes should look at teamdon's post--you'll find just about every slur there is.

Norfolk Southern is not Norfolk & Western. And even pre-merger, after time and technology, the old N&W had expanded far beyond its 1950's image of terrible labor practices and 8 mph Mallets "when coal was king."

The pre-merger N & W was a staunch advocate of hauling automotive products and automobiles themselves, on racks, and somehow managed to purchase and operate computers that weren't competely unable to speak with other roads' computers, unlike the NYC/Pennsy discrepancy that apparently wasn't "discovered" until they became Penn Central. And while we're on the subject, the old Southern was a good tight road with great marketing. N&W and Southern did not have completely incompatible cultures, either--just consider the old Washington-BIrmingham line, which was Southern at both ends and N&W in the middle!

To say that N&W is a bunch of hicks, or hillbillies, is simply not true; or perhaps it's because the "hicks" have slowly grown more contemporary over the years. Giving the motorman a bucket in which to defecate is an outrage and shouldn't be tolerated then or now. That would color anyone's perception of what the successor company is like. How long, though, has it been, since the N&W needed motors on its Bluefield division, or the Virginian stopped using electric locos? If we insist on living in 1950, then the N&W IS a hick road with nasty labor practices. Applying the same generations-old logic will also yield the opinions that Pittsburgh is a dirty working-class town with no culture, Norfolk is one huge naval station, Atlanta is a working-class burg far inferior to Marietta --and that all of Appalachia looks like something out of the movie "Coal Miner's Daugher" (set in the late 1950s).

How reactionary can a railroad company be, by the way, if it could win sixteen Harrimans in a row?

Everyone's experiences are different and valuable, but when the above post slurs NS top to bottom, its author speaks for himself.

Allen Smalling

[alentown]

I"m not privy (no pun intended) to 30 year old stories about on-board pottyies, but there is nothing more imposing than a Norfolk Souther deisel slowly moving over the rails here in eastern Pa

[Anonymous]

I like being trackside for NS trains, they are just hard to photograph @ night! =)

[Anonymous]

NS is a very well managed business, which is what all companies have to be if they are to stay in business. To gripe about paint schemes or potties is pointless. I've met many NS train crew members over the years and most are proud of thier company.

[Anonymous]

Well, the proof is in the bottom line, and NS is a pretty profitable company.

I've talked to a trainmaster, and several train crews... they all think that their railroad is a good place to work.

I did see a BNSF locomotive at a division transfer point on the head end of an NS freight. The conductor (an NS guy) said he liked it because it was "new and clean".

Actually comparing BNSF to NS is definately comparing apples to oranges... two different cultures. Both are hard working, good, profitable companies who excel, right now, at what they are doing.

Erik

[Anonymous]

NS should come clean about getting hired, age is a factor and the mill is putting out the horse from Roanoke prefers applicants to be under 40, plus the railroad must have a turnover. I check out the NS website and go the careers page and say every couple of weeks, a hiring session is scheduled. The one craft is being sought is Conductor.
I went with my wife to a session in Elkart and one in Decatur, IL plus others hoping to get on, however I guess my age is a restriction............44

[espeefoamer]

When I read the NS article in OCT. Trains,I was really impressed with the way the railroad has recovered from the Conrail takeover. NS has become an ef-
feciently run railroad and they seem to be always looking for ways to improve.