NORFOLK SOUTHERN Short Line Newsletter

iNShort The NORFOLK SOUTHERN Short Line Newsletter

VOLUME 2, 2ND HALF OF 2016, DECEMBER 2016

WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST IN THIS ISSUE SHORT LINE PARTNER KANAWHA ...... RIVER RAILROAD Watco Kanawha River Railroad - Cover Over 100 years ago the New general merchandise rail York Central Railroad knew operation for West Virginia. Becoming More Truck-Like: Improving Assest Utilization - 3 that to compete with the Pennsylvania and Norfolk & The West Virginia Secondary Norfolk Southern Supports Hurricane Matthew Recovery Western lines, that they needed track evolved over time as the Efforts in Southeast - 4 more friendly access to NYC merged and became the Flooding on the Nittany & Bald Appalachian coal deposits. Penn Central and later Conrail. Eagle Railroad - 5 Thus a century long But when Norfolk Southern Remember to Save the Date! cooperation began with the ended up with parallel routes NS Short Line Meeting, New York Central and the through West Virginia, the May 22-24, 2017 - 7 Virginian Railway. What began necessity for access to this Upcoming Events for 2017 - 8 as a lifeline for the NYC route for NS became minimal. became the most important The changes in the coal market, Share your Santa Train Events - 8 remoteness of the Charleston, WV area to NS centers of Norfolk Southern System Map – 9 operation and the physical challenges of the route all brought forward the decision iNShort

that something different and better was needed for both NS and the local communities.

As traffic declined, NS discontinued the through route to Columbus in 2016, causing inconvenience for both merchandise and some coal percent. The KNWA finally part of building something new. shippers. Knowing that this was terminates at Elmore Yard on This included the KNWA’s new not the best solution, NS, upon the Pocahontas Division. General Manager, former NS careful consideration of Trainmaster Derrick Jackson. options, ultimately selected A challenging railroad for any This not only gave him the Watco Companies to take over organization, Watco took this background to “handle the the operation and reconnect challenge with gusto. On day territory”, but also the insight the pieces. Watco formed the one at the Dickinson Yard office on how to reach back into the Kanawha River Railroad near Charleston, Watco’s “Go NS organization to solve the (KNWA). This 309-mile railroad Team” was in place with next “crisis du jour”. extends from just outside of experienced Road Foremen, Columbus, Ohio with the NS Locomotive Engineers and The customer base has had its Lake Division through Trainmasters. Working 24/7 to surprises for Watco in the first southeastern Ohio, then across anticipate the needs of a new couple of months. First, was an the Ohio River and along its operation they worked around unanticipated bump in unit coal namesake river through a cleaning crew sanitizing the train permits pushing the Charleston, West Virginia. former NS crew base both to After several more river miles it show that this is a new day and takes a dramatic turn into coal to give their team a clean and country across the river and bright work environment. through rugged valleys of back to back eight and ten degree Several experienced railroaders curves with grades up to 1.8 accepted this challenge to be a

1 iNShort | The NORFOLK SOUTHERN Short Line Newsletter available new crew base. available additional resources opportunity to move fly ash Second, on only their second and provide backup plans as in significant quantities. day a coal mine in Ohio which needed. Each side praised the had not loaded one single train other for the combined “let’s Watco and NS Short Line in months and did not show up get this done” attitude that has Marketing personnel have on the customer list, ordered in been a part of every conversation. been making joint customer a unit train for that week. calls and developing sales Since startup, three new priorities. Joint team members Operationally, the Kanawha customer opportunities are on are evaluating existing River Railroad showed that the the front burner for Watco’s sidings and adjacent land, unexpected would not stop marketing team of John working to develop an industrial their safe and successful Gogniat and Brigid Rich: development site inventory startup. The eight miles to help locate the next surrounding the lines crossing • An existing shipper handling opportunity. the Ohio River is over historic recyclables wants to double CSX trackage rights. A their volume. Watco’s Recently the daily operational technical question about the Industrial Development problem solving calls between transfer of these rights delayed Department is assisting with NS and KNWA were eliminated. Watco from connecting the track plans and approvals. This is a solid indication that the northern and southern portions startup is over and that trust of the railroad for about three • A major new methanol has been built on both sides, weeks. Due to the unpredictable plant has located a site for signifying an ability to handle flow of the coal trains NS and construction at Institute, today’s and tomorrow’s next Watco agreed to a trip lease of WV and the NS Industrial challenges as a combined needed motive power. As some Development team is partnership team, dedicated of this power was currently assisting with this 2017 to building the future. stored at Roanoke and had not project. operated for a while, both KNWA and the NS operating • A line not previously known department communicated for its bulk transload except daily to overcome issues, place for coal, there is a solid

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Marketing has worked in department has been able conjunction with the to work with our short line BECOMING Modalgistics team to design a partners to discuss major pinch MORE TRUCK- Customer First Mile Dashboard points in the network in an LIKE: IMPROVING to track the total days that effort to reduce the overall days system cars are on other roads. on line. As of October 2016, the ASSET This tool tracks the time that it Short Line team has been able UTILIZATION takes a car to go from to achieve a 63% reduction in interchange to place, place to total days on line for all of our The Short Line Marketing team release and release back to short line partners collectively. at Norfolk Southern has been interchange to determine the The group has been very focusing on improvements in overall total days on a short encouraged by the cooperation asset utilization. With its short line. Since the inception of this that we have received from all line partners Short Line tool the Short Line Marketing of our rail partners. We will continue to use this tool to keep Norfolk Southern and our short line partners’ networks running in the most efficient manner possible.

3 iNShort | The NORFOLK SOUTHERN Short Line Newsletter NORFOLK SOUTHERN SUPPORTS HURRICANE MATTHEW RECOVERY EFFORTS IN SOUTHEAST

NORFOLK, Va., Oct. 11, 2016 – Norfolk Southern is donating $50,000 to the American Red Cross to assist with Hurricane Georgia, South Carolina, North customers, and community Matthew relief efforts across Carolina, and Virginia. More neighbors to know that Norfolk five southeastern states. than 13,000 people in those Southern is there to help where states sought shelter in Red it’s needed most.” Hurricane Matthew brought Cross and community heavy rains and flooding across evacuation shelters as the Norfolk Southern employs NS’ service territory in Florida, storm moved up the coast. 9,500 railroaders in the five states and operates over 5,000 “Many of our Norfolk Southern miles of railroad there. For the employees and facilities are most part, NS train operations located in these affected areas, have returned to normal since and Red Cross recovery efforts the storm moved up the are timely, effective, and vital,” Southeast coast. said James A. Squires, NS chairman, president, and CEO. “We want our employees,

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After a storm that dumped through the weekend and had more than seven inches of rain the track back in service at 3:40 FLOODING ON in three hours, Buffalo Run, p.m. Sunday, October 23rd, THE NITTANY Spring Creek, and Bald Eagle returning to full train service & BALD EAGLE Creek water levels rose on Monday, October 24th. dramatically. Local officials said By Tuesday, October 25th, the RAILROAD this event was the worst case of entire railroad was restored to flooding the area had seen track speed, allowing immediate, since hurricane Ivan in 2004. uninterrupted freight service to customers. The primary damage to the NBER was ballast and rip rap Thankfully, no rolling stock was related. There were several damaged or affected by the significant washouts and debris flooding, as it was all positioned deposits that necessitated a out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, quick response. In order to the weekend’s Fall Foliage Train quickly restore the railroad and be able Unexpected downpours led to to serve the devastating flooding in Central customers PA on Friday, October 21st. as soon as Milesburg, PA and the possible, the surrounding area were hit very NBER’s hard. Homes were flooded, Maintenance people were stranded, and the of Way (MoW) county declared a State of Department, Emergency. The Nittany & led by Pete Bald Eagle Railroad (NBER) Symons, also saw the impact of the worked flood waters. tirelessly

5 iNShort | The NORFOLK SOUTHERN Short Line Newsletter Department known locally as Strawberry in ballast Ridge that receives unit trains distribution. of bituminous coal, and the USG Drywall plant at NS runs 18.6 Washingtonville that receives unit trains per unit trains of Synthetic Gypsum month (2016 from western PA power plants. average) over Had NBER’s response not been the NBER main so quick NS would have had to which runs thru detour these trains over a Milesburg, longer more circuitous route. PA-one of the areas worst impacted by the described flooding. In fact, NBER called NS Excursions, sponsored by the dispatchers/operations Sunday Bellefonte Historical Railroad night after the Friday storm to Society, were canceled. advise them that they could again run trains on the NBER The NBER is extremely main Sunday night as the main thankful to Glenn O. Hawbaker line had been repaired. NS for keeping their business response was that they were open through the weekend, okay until Monday-but no NS making nearly 3,000 tons trains were disrupted as a of ballast available for the result. NS unit trains that run repairs to the washouts. over NBER supply two very The NBER is also thankful important NS customers- The to K.W. Reese crews that Talen Energy Generating station assisted the NBER MoW

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REMEMBER TO SAVE THE DATE! NS SHORT LINE MEETING, MAY 22-24, 2017 ______

Make plans now to join NS at the 16th annual Short Line Meeting to be held May 22-24, 2017 in Norfolk, Va.

The format will be similar to the previous years with golf and tours available on Monday morning/ afternoon and the welcome reception on Monday evening. Tuesday will begin with the general meeting session followed by lunch with Chairman, President and CEO Jim Squires. The afternoon will be filled with breakout sessions until 5:30 p.m. The reception and trade show will run until 6:45 p.m. and be immediately followed by the awards dinner. Additional breakout sessions will be scheduled as needed on Wednesday until noon.

You will receive an email before the end of the first quarter. Norfolk Southern looks forward to seeing you in May.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact: Kisah Hutchings | 757-668-1568 | [email protected] or Erika Karl | 757-629-2465 | [email protected]

7 iNShort | The NORFOLK SOUTHERN Short Line Newsletter UPCOMING EVENTS SHARE YOUR SANTA FOR 2017 TRAIN EVENTS! ______

MARCH Railroad Day on Capitol Hill – 3/2/2017 NS Caucus Meeting – 3/29-31/2017

MAY NS Short Line Marketing Meeting – 5/22-24/2017

SEPTEMBER ASLRRA Southern Region Meeting – 9/25-27/2017

OCTOBER ASLRRA Easter Region Meeting – 10/23-25/2017

NOVEMBER ASLRRA Central Region Meeting – 11/13-15/2017 During this “most wonderful time of year”, many of you bring smiles and happiness to children of all ages with your “Santa Trains”. For the NS Short Line website, NS would like to feature your railroads and stories. Please send a short write-up (with pictures if available) to Erika Karl ([email protected]).

Have a wonderful Holiday Season!

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NORFOLK SOUTHERN SYSTEM MAP ______

9 iNShort | The NORFOLK SOUTHERN Short Line Newsletter iNShort The NORFOLK SOUTHERN Short Line Newsletter

VOLUME 2, 2ND HALF OF 2016, DECEMBER 2016

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