Autos and the NS

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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The Virginian-Pilot - Virginia / March 4, 2007

Auto industry turmoil tests Norfolk Southern’s railroad network

One by one, they arrive at what amounts to a big parking lot in Chesapeake. Ford F-150 pick up s, fresh from the assembly line just more than a mile away in Norfolk, ready to be loaded onto trains and big rigs to travel to dealerships throughout the country.

The trucks appear to be in every color of Ford’s palette: white, blue, black, red and gray. Some with crew cabs, some without. Four-wheel drive seems to be a popular option. Nearly 1,000 of them, all in nice, neat rows.

Three times a day, five days a week, trains from Norfolk Southern Corp. stop by to haul away bi-level rail cars, each stuffed with eight F-150s.

A year ago, the trains pulled away a total of 70 to 80 rail cars daily from the 17-acre yard, which is owned by the railroad.

Now the loads are down to about 30 a day as production at Ford’s Norfolk Assembly Plant winds down, part of a broad retrenchment by Detroit-based automakers in the face of declining sales.

“In this business, you get used to changes,” said Otis Martin, manager of the yard, called the Chesapeake Auto Terminal, as he stood amid the trucks last week.

The auto industry cutbacks can be felt throughout many businesses, from those that supply parts to the plants to those that take away the shiny finished products. Among railroads, which typically carry 70 percent of all new vehicles in addition to moving parts, Norfolk-based Norfolk Southern has the most exposure.

Full story here

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Well written article.

I am surprised an auto rack only holds 8 pickups.

ed

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out west of Phoenix, there is a an old SP line that UP uses for storage. Currently, there are clost to 20 miles of auto racks parked knuckle to knuckle. Figure it takes up to about 13-16 trains to use those. Quite a bit out of the system.

They have also stored seasonal grain cars out there too at times over the years.

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go on rt 12 east of fostoria along the old nickel plate line.Ns has an auto mixing center there too as well.

stay safe

joe

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Hmmmmm, Guess we should be seeing many, many more parked Auto-Racks

around here; especially as of today, Ford just curtailed their production of all

vehicles at their two plants here.

(Navistar engines to one plant)

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Not surprised, especially with the thousands upon thousands of auto worker jobs by the Big 3 American cars makers are disapearing. Looks like railroads will have to depend on the likes of Toyota, Niesan, Mitsubishi and BMW, who have most of their plants located in the south.

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You could be very right, Toyota-Georgetown,Ky Doesn’t seem to be feeling a pinch.

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Those would have to be the big pickups, being transported on bilevel racks. A typical auto rack can haul five standard-length cars on an 89-foot-plus deck; if your truck length exceeds about 18 feet, you couldn’t fit that many on.

Locally, we seem to have dodged the bullet on the cutbacks so far–those track-eating auto racks, loaded and empty, still provide their share of grief for us in the yard.

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NS is still handling a lot of auto business into the Northeast. THe yard where they unload the racks in Jersey City is still full and busy all the time. Several auto trains a week come through town here on the NS (Macungie, PA).

Nevertheless, there’s no disputing that auto business is down, which is bad news for the railroads, not only for car shipments but for parts, which is also a large bulk business traditionally handled by rail.