Weekly Rail Carloading Report - Week 29, 2009

There is an interesting report available on the web that is "A Weekly Report of North American Rail Freight Traffic by Major Railroad and Commodity." It is currently showing data for week 29 of 2009.

http://railfax.transmatch.com/

Here is an example of the information available on this web site. This graph shows Total Traffic for 2008-2009 vs. 2007-2008. There are more graphs and tables on the web site showing data by railroad and by commodity.

Note: This web site has new tables and graphs every Thursday. So, if I am late or miss a week with this blog posting, you can check for new data on Thursdays.

7 year old boy rides 52 miles on freight train between cars

The following news item is from KCTV5 TV station in Kansas City, and was posted on their web site on 7-29-09. Someone definitely must have been watching over that little boy that he was not killed or injured.

Missing Boy Found Miles Away On Train

Boy Rides Train 52 Miles Riding Between Train Cars

POLO, Mo. -- Seven-year-old Colton Smith rode a train more than 50 miles in between train cars, leading his family scrambling to find the missing boy.

Colton has ambition to work on the railroad and plenty of toy trains. However, his family never expected the boy to end up on a train by himself.

When Colton went missing Saturday morning, Colton's mother Heather Smith thought he had gone to a friend's house. When he wasn't found on his block, the mother started to worry.

The family started an all-out search and eventually got the help of police, friends and even K-9 units from a nearby prison. The search team searched the railroad tracks, too.

"And I'm thinking 'Oh no, something tells me he got on one of those trains,'" Heather said.

A few hours later, the family discovered Colton rode on the couplings between to rail cars for 52 miles to Chula, Mo. The train traveled at speeds of up to 45 mph.

"After I found out he rode on the couplings, I was really shocked," Dakota, Colton's older brother, said.

When the train stopped in Chula, sheriff's officials said, Colton walked to a nearby house. The house happened to be owned by a woman who works as a first-responder. Officials said Colton did not require any medical attention.

Heather said she is convinced someone was watching over Colton, and based on how he described his experience, she said she is pretty sure it's the last time Colton will be testing fate on a freight train.

"I asked him, I said, 'Did you have fun?'" Heather said. "And he says, 'No, I hated it. It was scary.'"

Dakota said he doesn't quite get his little brother's obsession with trains, despite his own obsession with skateboarding.

"One day he liked tornadoes and the next day he was just the biggest fan of trains I've ever seen," Dakota said.

Norfolk Southern Reports Second-Quarter 2009 Results

Received the following via email.

July 28, 2009

Norfolk Southern Reports Second-Quarter 2009 Results

For second-quarter 2009:

· Railway operating revenues were $1.9 billion.
· Income from railway operations was $468 million.
· Net income was $247 million.
· Diluted earnings per share were $0.66.
· The railway operating ratio was 74.8 percent.

Financial Statements [pdf]
Quarterly Financial Review [pdf] Second Quarter 2009
Earnings Presentation Slides Second Quarter 2009

NORFOLK, VA. - For the second quarter of 2009, Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) reported net income of $247 million, or $0.66 per diluted share, compared with $453 million, or $1.18 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2008.

"Second-quarter results obviously reflect the impact of the recession," said Norfolk Southern CEO Wick Moorman. "However, the measures we are taking to control expenses while maintaining our industry-leading service levels have enabled us to post solid second-quarter results, while at the same time we continue to invest in projects that position us for the eventual economic recovery."

Second-quarter railway operating revenues were $1.9 billion, down 33 percent, compared with the second quarter of 2008, primarily the result of a 26 percent reduction in traffic volume and lower fuel-related revenues.

General merchandise revenues were $978 million, 33 percent lower compared with the same period last year. Coal revenues declined 34 percent to $511 million compared with second-quarter 2008 results. Intermodal revenues decreased 31 percent to $368 million compared with the second quarter of last year.

Railway operating expenses for the quarter were $1.4 billion, a decrease of 29 percent over the same period of 2008.

The railway operating ratio was 74.8 percent, compared with 71.1 percent during second-quarter 2008.

Norfolk Southern Corporation is a leading North American transportation provider. Its Norfolk Southern Railway subsidiary operates approximately 21,000 route miles in 22 states and the District of Columbia, serves every major container port in the eastern United States, and provides efficient connections to other rail carriers. Norfolk Southern operates the most extensive intermodal network in the East and is a major transporter of coal and industrial products.

Norfolk Southern contacts
Media Frank Brown 757-629-2710 fsbrown@nscorp.com
Investors Leanne Marilley 757-629-2861 leanne.marilley@nscorp.com

Norfolk Southern Declares Quarterly Dividend

Received the following via email.

July 28, 2009

Norfolk Southern Declares Quarterly Dividend

NORFOLK, VA. - Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) today announced the regular quarterly dividend of 34 cents per share on its common stock, payable on Sept. 10, to stockholders of record on Aug. 7.

Since its inception in 1982, Norfolk Southern has paid dividends on its common stock for 108 consecutive quarters.

Norfolk Southern Corporation is one of the nation's premier transportation companies. Its Norfolk Southern Railway subsidiary operates approximately 21,000 route miles in 22 states and the District of Columbia, serves every major container port in the eastern United States, and provides efficient connections to other rail carriers. Norfolk Southern operates the most extensive intermodal network in the East and is a major transporter of coal and industrial products.

Norfolk Southern contacts
Media Frank Brown 757-629-2710 fsbrown@nscorp.com
Investors Leanne Marilley 757-629-2861 leanne.marilley@nscorp.com

Michigan trip Day 3

Received the following via email from Kermit Geary, Jr. Text and captions are his. Photos are by Nate Haydt.

Spent the day tracking ALCO switchers across Ohio. The AC&J was high on the list....for some reason, it had always escaped my notice. Operations usually start at 0500 and are over by 0900....hmm, need to go back during the longest day!! The Toledo Lake Erie & Western still has all its Alco's, but condition of both track and equipment has really deteriorated since the last time I visited them.Tomorrow....Lake States!!!

Kermit Geary, JR
Nathan Haydt

PC 9752 at Grand Rapids, OH on TLEW

AC&J 107 (ex FP&E, nee NKP) at Jefferson, OH

AC&J 7371 at Jefferson, OH

Day Two of Michigan Trip

Received the following via email from Kermit Geary, Jr. Text and captions are his. Photos are by Adam Christman.

Day two of our excursion to Michigan found us tracking down a few Pennsylvania Shortlines. Unfortunately the digital SD card corrupted between the time I removed it from the camera and inserted it the computer.
NNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thankfully Adam has graciously allowed me to send out a few of his shots from the day, Thank You Adam!!!

Kermit Geary, JR
Adam Christman
Nathan Haydt
Jon Eau Claire

WNYP 421 leaving Oil City, PA

B&P 452 leads Northbound train out of DuBois, PA

LVRR 238 at Avis, PA

LVRR 5510 - 5514 at Faxon, PA

Weekly Rail Carloading Report - Week 28, 2009

There is an interesting report available on the web that is "A Weekly Report of North American Rail Freight Traffic by Major Railroad and Commodity." It is currently showing data for week 28 of 2009.

http://railfax.transmatch.com/

Here is an example of the information available on this web site. This graph shows Total Traffic for 2008-2009 vs. 2007-2008. There are more graphs and tables on the web site showing data by railroad and by commodity.

Note: This web site has new tables and graphs every Thursday. So, if I am late or miss a week with this blog posting, you can check for new data on Thursdays.

Middletown & Hummelstown Photo Freight

Received the following via email from Kermit Geary, Jr. Text is his, photos are by Nate Haydt.

Greetings All: Spent a WONDERFUL Sunday with good friends and a GREAT ALCO S-6....WM 151 on the Middletown & Hummelstown RR. This was the superb photo freight charter by Brian Saul of Brian's Model Train Shop of Myerstown, PA. Enjoy these photos of the event taken by my good friend, Nate Haydt.....I was shooting Kodachrome!!!

MIDH 151 crossing Swatara Creek (Westbound)

Amtrak 934 passing Middletown & Hummelstown 151 at Middletown, PA

MIDH 151 at Clifton, PA

WM 151 at Horse Thief Cave, PA

WM 151 crossing Swatara Creek, PA

MIDH 151 passes Kuppy's Diner in Middletown, PA

This is one long load!

(Train sightings on 7-19-09.)

CSX 892 is seen heading south down the Trenton Line past former Reading station in Belle Mead (NJ) around 9:15 on Sunday (7-18-09). It is carrying a 348 foot long LNG heat exchanger that is bound for Africa. This particular heat exchanger might be the largest one Air Products has built. From the Air Products plant in Pennsylvania where these are manufactured, the trip to Manville over mainly the Lehigh Line has taken five days due to clearance issues with this heat exchanger's size. Motive power consisted of two GP38-2s (PRR 5296, ex-CR 8102 and NS 5287, ex-CR 5287). Note the run down condition of the Belle Mead station, a sorry state considering how ornate it once was.

NS CEO - Rail Can Help Relieve Highway Congestion Crisis

Received the following via email.

July 20, 2009

Rail Can Help Relieve Highway Congestion Crisis, Norfolk Southern CEO Tells Nation's Governors

NORFOLK, VA - Wick Moorman, CEO of Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC), called on the nation's governors Saturday to consider railroads as "a vital part of the solution to our nation's transportation crisis."

Addressing the National Governors Association at Biloxi, Miss., Moorman said "railroads offer significant economic and environmental benefits while helping relieve highway congestion - which is fast becoming public enemy number one."

"Our nation's transportation network is a complex, interdependent system that demands our combined creative efforts to operate it most efficiently," Moorman said. "Our experience at Norfolk Southern has shown that by working together in public-private partnerships, we can achieve far more in far less time and with far greater public benefits than any of us can by working alone."

Moorman cited two rail routes - the Heartland Corridor between the Port of Virginia and Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago, and the Crescent Corridor linking New Jersey to New Orleans and Memphis, Tenn. - as examples of how public-private partnerships "can create additional capacity in our rail transportation network, with public benefits of jobs creation, less highway congestion, lower environmental emissions, and fuel savings." He said the Crescent Corridor project alone will result in 41,000 "green" jobs over the next decade and move more than a million trucks annually off the highways onto rail, saving more than 150 million gallons of fuel every year and reducing carbon emissions by nearly two million tons per year.

"It's clear we must do something," Moorman said. "Freight volumes in this country are projected to grow 88 percent by 2035 alone. To handle that freight, we must improve our national transportation infrastructure."

Norfolk Southern Corporation is a leading North American transportation provider. Its Norfolk Southern Railway subsidiary operates approximately 21,000 route miles in 22 states and the District of Columbia, serves every major container port in the eastern United States, and provides efficient connections to other rail carriers. Norfolk Southern operates the most extensive intermodal network in the East and is a major transporter of coal and industrial products.

Norfolk Southern contacts
Media Frank Brown 757-629-2710 fsbrown@nscorp.com
Investors Leanne Marilley 757-629-2861 leanne.marilley@nscorp.com

New Norfolk Southern Intermodal Terminal in Tennessee

Received the following via email.

July 16, 2009

Norfolk Southern Selects Fayette County Site for New Memphis Regional Intermodal Terminal, Supporting Crescent Corridor Initiative

NORFOLK, VA. - Norfolk Southern announced today that it will construct a new intermodal terminal in Rossville, Tenn., in Fayette County, to serve the Memphis region, as part of the railroad's Crescent Corridor initiative to establish a high-speed intermodal rail route between the Mid-South and Gulf Coast and the Northeast. The $129 million facility, in which freight is transferred between truck and rail, will occupy a 570-acre site and is expected to open in January 2012.

Norfolk Southern's Crescent Corridor initiative is a multistate network of infrastructure improvements and other facilities intended to enhance Norfolk Southern's 2,500-mile rail network that supports the supply chain from the Gulf Coast, Birmingham and Memphis to Philadelphia and the New York metropolitan area and enable it to handle more freight traffic faster and more reliably. The railroad is in the process of implementing Corridor projects, including straightening curves, adding passing tracks, improving signal systems, and building new terminals.

Altogether, nearly $2.5 billion in Crescent Corridor projects have been identified, and based on the public benefits that stand to be derived in the form of highway congestion relief, NS plans to implement the Crescent Corridor initiative through a series of public-private partnerships. If and when the Crescent Corridor initiative is fully implemented, it is anticipated that more than one million truckloads of freight will be absorbed from the highways to the rails annually, saving the U.S. more than 170 million gallons of fuel per year.

"Because of its strategic location and growing intermodal demands in the South, the Memphis regional terminal will be an anchor for the Crescent Corridor, and the new facility will help make possible truck-competitive freight transportation between the South and major Northeast markets," said Norfolk Southern CEO Wick Moorman. "We commend Gov. Phil Bredesen and the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development for their collective vision and partnership in recognizing the economic development opportunities and job growth potential this project brings to Tennessee."

Annual benefits to Tennessee as a result of the Crescent Corridor are expected to include more than half a million trucks diverted to rail, nearly 27 million gallons of fuel saved, carbon dioxide reductions of almost 300,000 tons, close to $17 million in annual congestion savings, avoidance of an estimated $23 million in accident costs, and the creation of more than 5,100 jobs.

"The Greater Memphis Region is home to the world's largest cargo airport and one of the nation's biggest cargo river ports. The Crescent Corridor and the Memphis intermodal terminal will expand the role of freight rail, further enhancing our competitiveness and spurring economic growth," said Gov. Bredesen. "I appreciate all those who have worked in partnership to bring the benefits of this project to Fayette County, the Greater Memphis Region and the state of Tennessee."

The Memphis terminal also will represent opportunities for economic development and job growth for Marshall County, Miss., and the State of Mississippi. Annual benefits to Mississippi as a result of the Crescent Corridor are expected to include more than half a million trucks diverted to rail, 8.5 million gallons of fuel saved, carbon dioxide reductions of 94,000 tons, close to $6 million in annual congestion savings, avoidance of more than $7 million in accident costs, and the creation of more than 1,000 jobs.

"Mississippi is pleased to participate in this five-state effort, through the Crescent Corridor, to improve the national freight transportation network, and I am enthusiastic about the economic development opportunities it will bring," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. "Working together in a partnership with Norfolk Southern, we are laying the groundwork for thousands of new jobs in logistics at a critical time for the American economy."

NS conducted an extensive site search of the Memphis region for a suitable location. Site selection was given careful and exhaustive consideration to minimize impacts on surrounding communities, roadway facilities, and the environment. For commercial purposes, it was imperative that the site be located along the Norfolk Southern main line east of Memphis.

The Memphis regional intermodal facility will have the capacity to handle more than 327,000 containers and trailers annually. There will be a paved area to park 2,177 trailers and containers mounted on chassis. The terminal will utilize the latest in gate and terminal automation technology, which will reduce the waiting time to get into the terminal, thereby reducing emissions. Four trains will serve the terminal daily. Further, the location selected will allow for adjacent economic development opportunities, including the development by others of an integrated logistics park and possible industrial park. This would add significant employment opportunities to Fayette County, the Memphis region, and Marshall County.

Rail intermodal traffic uses one-third of the fuel required by long-haul trucks on the highway and greatly reduces congestion caused by this truck traffic. These reductions can result in significantly reduced emissions and highway maintenance costs, helping the environment and the burden on state budgets.

Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) is a leading North American transportation provider. Its Norfolk Southern Railway subsidiary operates approximately 21,000 route miles in 22 states and the District of Columbia, serves every major container port in the eastern United States, and provides efficient connections to other rail carriers. Norfolk Southern operates the most extensive intermodal network in the East and is a major transporter of coal and industrial products.

Any statements contained in this news release that are not related to historical facts are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties (noted in the Norfolk Southern's filings with the SEC), which could cause actual results to differ materially.

Norfolk Southern contacts
Media Susan Terpay 757-823-5204 susan.terpay@nscorp.com
Investors Leanne Marilley 757-629-2861 leanne.marilley@nscorp.com

Weekly Rail Carloading Report - Week 27, 2009

There is an interesting report available on the web that is "A Weekly Report of North American Rail Freight Traffic by Major Railroad and Commodity." It is currently showing data for week 27 of 2009.

http://railfax.transmatch.com/

Here is an example of the information available on this web site. This graph shows Total Traffic for 2008-2009 vs. 2007-2008. There are more graphs and tables on the web site showing data by railroad and by commodity.

Note: This web site has new tables and graphs every Thursday. So, if I am late or miss a week with this blog posting, you can check for new data on Thursdays.

NS and UP New Refrigerated Service Los Angles to Atlanta

Received the following via email.

July 13, 2009

Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific Offer Refrigerated Trailer Shippers the Rail Industry's Fastest Intermodal Delivery from Los Angeles to Atlanta with New Expedited Service

NORFOLK, VA. AND OMAHA, NE., - Norfolk Southern Railway and Union Pacific Railroad today announced they have launched a new expedited intermodal service specifically designed for refrigerated trailer shippers between Los Angeles and Atlanta. This new service gives customers the option to have their refrigeration units serviced during the stop in El Paso, Texas, significantly reducing the risk of protective service failure during transit. New rail customers will find this premier service a seamless shift from over-the-road transportation by providing truck-like speed (more than 500 miles per day) and reliability.

This is the industry's fastest intermodal service between Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) is one of the nation's premier transportation companies. Its Norfolk Southern Railway subsidiary operates approximately 21,000 route miles in 22 states and the District of Columbia, serves every major container port in the eastern United States, and provides efficient connections to other rail carriers. Norfolk Southern operates the most extensive intermodal network in the East and is a major transporter of coal and industrial products.

Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UPN) owns one of America's leading transportation companies. Its principal operating company, Union Pacific Railroad, links 23 states in the western two-thirds of the country. Union Pacific serves many of the fastest-growing U.S. population centers and provides Americans with a fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly and safe mode of freight transportation. Union Pacific's diversified business mix includes Agricultural Products, Automotive, Chemicals, Energy, Industrial Products and Intermodal. The railroad emphasizes excellent customer service and offers competitive routes from all major West Coast and Gulf Coast ports to eastern gateways. Union Pacific connects with Canada's rail systems and is the only railroad serving all six major gateways to Mexico.

Norfolk Southern contacts
Media Robin Chapman 757-629-2713 robin.chapman@nscorp.com
Investors Leanne Marilley 757-629-2861 leanne.marilley@nscorp.com

Union Pacific contacts
Media Tom Lange 402-544-3560 tomlange@up.com

For customer inquiries, please contact your Norfolk Southern or Union Pacific sales representative.

Photo freight on Middletown & Hummelstown RR

Received the following via email from Kermit Geary, Jr.

Just a reminder that there will be a photo charter on the Middletown & Hummelstown RR using their recently restored Western Maryland S-6 and vintage freight cars on Sunday July 19th, 2009. Train leaves Middletown, PA depot at 0800 and will feature street running as well as rural railroading at its finest.

Fare is $45.00.

You will be required to sign a release prior to boarding the train.

For more info and tickets contact:

http://www.briansmodeltrains.com

or

Brian Saul briansmodeltrains@yahoo.com

Send ticket requests to:

Brian's Model Trains
109 West Main Street
Myerstown PA 17067

Space is limited to 50 people...ticket sales have been brisk, order yours TODAY!!!

Norfolk Southern Names Julian To Lead Safety Efforts

Received the following via email.

July 6, 2009

Norfolk Southern Names Julian To Lead Safety Efforts

NORFOLK, VA. - Norfolk Southern Corporation has named David F. Julian vice president safety and environmental, effective July 1, with office in Roanoke, Va. He reports to Mark D. Manion, executive vice president operations.

NS' safety and environmental department is responsible for employee safety training and awareness, grade crossing safety and trespassing abatement programs, and environmental protection, including hazardous materials safety and industrial hygiene.

Julian succeeds Charles J. Wehrmeister, who retired from NS' lead safety position after a 40-year career with Norfolk Southern.

Julian joined NS in 1971 in the mechanical department and later served in a variety of marketing positions, including district sales manager, regional sales manager, director automotive, and group vice president, before being named in 2005 to his most recent position, president automotive and supply chain services. Julian holds a management degree from Jacksonville University and attended the University of South Alabama Graduate School of Business.

Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC) is one of the nation's premier transportation companies. Its Norfolk Southern Railway subsidiary operates approximately 21,000 route miles in 22 states and the District of Columbia, serves every major container port in the eastern United States, and provides efficient connections to other rail carriers. Norfolk Southern operates the most extensive intermodal network in the East and is a major transporter of coal and industrial products.

Norfolk Southern contacts
Media Frank Brown 757-629-2710 fsbrown@nscorp.com
Investors Leanne Marilley 757-629-2861 leanne.marilley@nscorp.com

Weekly Rail Carloading Report - Week 26, 2009

There is an interesting report available on the web that is "A Weekly Report of North American Rail Freight Traffic by Major Railroad and Commodity." It is currently showing data for week 26 of 2009.

http://railfax.transmatch.com/

Here is an example of the information available on this web site. This graph shows Total Traffic for 2008-2009 vs. 2007-2008. There are more graphs and tables on the web site showing data by railroad and by commodity.

Note: This web site has new tables and graphs every Thursday. So, if I am late or miss a week with this blog posting, you can check for new data on Thursdays.

Train versus Tornado

Received the following via email. Link to video follows text.

A spectacular meteorological event was recorded earlier this year (Jan. 7, 2008) by an automatic video camera mounted inside the cab of a locomotive hustling across Illinois. These forward-facing cameras are installed to document information through a locomotive's front windshield of grade-crossing and train/pedestrian accidents. This locomotive (and thus its camera) was, however, facing backwards, as it was the 'trailing' engine of a multiple-unit locomotive consist. The gray Union Pacific covered hopper car visible from the beginning and through most of the clip is the first car behind the engines on a long manifest freight. The passing scenery barely visible along the periphery of the camera's view suggests to my eyes that this train was making perhaps between 40 and 50 m.p.h. at the time it was struck by the hand of Mother Nature.

The tornado that intercepted the train apparently lifted and threw several cars right out of the front of the train, just behind the first car. As the rear of that first car is then dragged off the rails by derailing equipment behind it, the trailing freight cars can be seen independently sliding on their sides down the embankment at left. Lots of sparks! Also note that the track structure behind the engines, where all of those cars had just derailed, remained intact! The integrity of the track is, however, about to be compromised, big time.

The engines grind to a fairly abrupt halt on a bridge: their air brakes went into emergency application when the compressed air brake line between the train's cars was broken in the initial derailment. They had only their own mass to stop. The rest of the train's automatic brakes are still engaging and trying to soak the momentum out of many more thousands of tons of moving steel and lading. This is why, out of the mists like some terrifying specter, being shoved ahead at a pretty high rate by the inertia of the rest of the train still in motion behind it, comes a white -- and derailed -- tank car loaded with Ethylene Oxide, bouncing along the track centerline, throwing sparks of molten metal as freight car steel grinds hard in a most unnatural manner along the steel rails. Had the tank car been breached, these sparks would almost certainly have been a (literally!) "sure-fire" source of ignition.

The careening tank car collides with that derailed U.P. covered hopper still coupled to the rear locomotive (tight-lock couplers DO work), which then unceremoniously flips off the bridge. The still-moving tank car immediately glances off the back of the locomotive and veers over into the vacant area of the bridge spans where there had once been a second track between the girders. A Hi-Cube Norfolk Southern box car that had been coupled behind the tank car then does a hyper-dramatic "high-speed/slow-motion" pirouette around the end of the now-stopped tank car. Just before the whole caravan of angry, twisted steel finally comes to a tangled, crumpled halt, you can see the end of one last Hi-Cube car being launched and plunging down the embankment and into the gully at left, rolling on its side as it dissipates the last of its stored kinetic energy. The physics at work here are staggering, when you consider that the cars, themselves, weight 30-40 tons when empty, and may be carrying up to 100 tons of cargo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azV5bC2br-Q

A quiet July 4th holiday weekend is ending...

(Train sightings on 7-3 & 4-09.)

...with the only real noise being caused by the neighborhood kids setting off fireworks. Went trackside on Friday and Saturday but there wasn't much to see. On Friday, NS 64J was coming east through Flemington Junction with its consist of empty muncipal waste containers for refills.

On Saturday, after reading about the freight cars being stored on former CNJ tracks in Asbury, I decided to take a trip and check it out for myself. It is quite an unusual sight and quite indicative of the economic hard times being experienced not only by this country but around the world. There were cars of every type-gondolas, coil cars, spine cars, etc.that could be seen from the Vliet Farm Road grade crossing in Asbury. Hopefully, the economy will soon start to get better and these cars will once again be back in revenue service.

Disney World monorail crash kills driver

This happened early (2 AM) Sunday morning, 7-5-09. Story and photo on CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/05/u.s.disney.monorail/index.html

R&N's 4th of July celebration trip

Received the following via email from Kermit Geary, Jr. Text, photos, and captions are his.

Vacation started out on a good note...the R&N ran an OCS from Reading to Jim Thorpe on 7/3/09 and then used the 425 on the regularly scheduled Lehigh Gorge trips on July 4th....providing much fireworks as she run up the Gorge!!!

R&N 425 passes under PRR Schuykill Branch in Kernsville, PA

R&N 425 pases CNJ 56 at Jim Thorpe, PA

R&N 425 along 'the Wall' in the Lehigh River Gorge, PA

Weekly Rail Carloading Report - Week 25, 2009

There is an interesting report available on the web that is "A Weekly Report of North American Rail Freight Traffic by Major Railroad and Commodity." It is currently showing data for week 25 of 2009.

http://railfax.transmatch.com/

Here is an example of the information available on this web site. This graph shows Total Traffic for 2008-2009 vs. 2007-2008. There are more graphs and tables on the web site showing data by railroad and by commodity.

Note: This web site has new tables and graphs every Thursday. So, if I am late or miss a week with this blog posting, you can check for new data on Thursdays.

There is an old adage...

(Train sightings on 6-28-09.)

...that says when a person is trackside that "ten minutes after you depart, that is when a train will appear." Such was the case on my Sunday morning trip up to the Lansdown Road grade crossing. My goal was to get a shot of the solar powered friction management system NS had installed there as an eastbound train was passing by. With good sunlight this morning, I decided to see if I could accomplish that goal. The first train to come through at 9:06 was NS 22V, Not a bad shot but not what I was hoping for. About thirty-five minutes later, NS 18G came through around 9:42.

Okay, each scene was getting better. At 11 o'clock, with no activity on the scanner, I decided to call it a morning and head for home. Wouldn't you know it, driving home on Route 31, the scanner came alive! It was NS 212 coming east. Since it was too late to turn around and drive back. I opted to catch it at Stanton Station (which was shaded in!) to see it come through with a ex-CR diese l as its leader. Ahhh... if only I had waited ten minutes more, that would have been the shot I was hoping for at Lansdown Road.

Norfolk Southern Quarterly Earnings Conference Call - 2nd quarter 2009

Received the following via email.


Norfolk Southern Quarterly Earnings Conference Call

We cordially invite you to join us on Wednesday, July 29, 2009, at 9 a.m. ET to review our second-quarter results. We expect to issue earnings results after market close on Tuesday, July 28, 2009.

For those interested in participating, we will broadcast via teleconference that will be available by dialing U.S. 877-869-3847 or International 201-689-8261 several minutes prior to the start of the call. At the conclusion of the event, you may listen to an audio replay which will be available until August 5, 2009. The replay numbers are U.S. 877-660-6853 or International 201-612-7415, and the PIN 2861 and access code is 324409 for both numbers.

In conjunction with the call, a live webcast will be accessible and presentation materials will be posted on the company's Web site at www.nscorp.com under the Investors section. Following the earnings call, an Internet replay of the presentation will be archived on the company's Web site. In addition, the replay will be available for download to a portable audio player or computer as a MP3 - or podcast - file. Both the replay and MP3 file can be found at www.nscorp.com in the Investors section.

For electronic notification of future earnings events, we invite you to subscribe to NSInvest, Norfolk Southern's e-mail distribution list for news releases on earnings and issues pertaining to the financial performance of Norfolk Southern. To subscribe, please follow directions on our website under the Investors section.

Sincerely,
Leanne D. Marilley
Director Investor Relations
Norfolk Southern Corporation