Way to go Jeff McCracken (NS Pontchartrain repair mastermind)

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Is there another legend like SP’s Jim “The Bear” Mahon in the making?

Most of us have seen the pictures of the cranes along the NS Lake Pontchartrain bridge–Now here is the story behind the pictures.

From the 9/19/05 Wall Street Journal (page B1) column “In the Lead” by Carol Hymowitz:

"Jeff McCracken, a chief engineer at Norfolk Southern, led the job of rescuing five miles of railroad tracks that had ripped off a bridge connecting New Orleans and Slidell, La. Without the tracks, which fell into Lake Pontchartrain, Norfolk Southern couldn’t transport products from the East Coast to the Pacific.

Before the storm hit, Mr. McCracken, based in Atlanta, traveled to Birmingham with repair equipment he thought he might need. He then headed to Slidell with about 100 employees, removing about 5,000 trees that had fallen across roads along the way.

He conferred with dozens of engineers from Norfolk Southern and three bridge companies, and decided to try to rescue the miles of tracks from the lake. The other choice-to rebuild the tracks-would have taken several weeks at least. “It was worth a try, even though it was something we’d never before done,” he said.

He gathered 365 engineers, machine operators and other workers, who slept in campers and worked in shifts around the clock.

Last Monday, the workers lined up eight huge cranes, and over the course of many hours, lifted the five miles of track in one piece and then bolted it back on the bridge.

Everyone cheered when a train crossed the reset tracks early the next morning. “It was a colossal job that took more than 400 moves with heavy equipment,” says Mr. McCracken. But what pleased him most was “working with people from all parts of the company-and getting the job done without anyone getting hurt.”

Jay

2

Heck of a job…

LC

3

It has always been said that those folks over at the NS are smarter than the average bear.

Jay

4

That was an ingenous way to solve a really tough problem, especially when time is money…Alot of credit to NS for having the guts to allow it to be tried and to the man who thought it up…Helluva JOB! Congratulations

5

I,and I am sure,many others,would like to see an article in Trains on how this major project was completed [:)].

6

NS definetely knows how to get things done. I was amazed at how fast NS got the Pontchartrain bridge repaired.

7

Brilliant!!!

8

I’m so glad to have a name to associate with that job! It would appear that Jeff is a man who is a flat-out brilliant engineer, an engineer who works and thinks the way an engineer should think.

I’ve been using this story ever since it hit the press to illustrate to folks just how good railroad service can be, and just how forward thinking railroad pros are.

Good job, Jeff!

If someone on the forum knows him, I hope that he gets to see this thread sometime.

9

Don’t know about always, during the days of the Conrail acquisition troubles, I seem to recall reading on this and other boards how Goode and those on down were essentially a bunch of idiots who didn’t know what they were doing. Or is my memory getting even more faulty than I fear?[:D]

10

Your memory is probably OK. I wasn’t paying much attention to railroads at the time, so I can’t say what opinion I might have formed. When I was involved in the transportation business-up to about 1990-the NS and predecessors were fairly highly regarded by both shippers and competitors. No doubt their popularity dropped off immediately after the merger.

If you have had a chance to read Frailey’s article in the current Trains, you will note that the time for the NS to plan the merger was quite short, and their recovery from the problems was fairly rapid.

There are probably some, on and off the railroad, that still have a low opinion of NS management. I don’t.

Jay