(The following story by William Kibler, appeared at altoonamirror.com on December 3, 2008)

ALTOONA, Pa - The Juniata Locomotive Shop is a kingdom of grease and heavy steel, but also "one of the crown jewels" of the Norfolk Southern railway, said company Chief Executive Officer Wick Moorman, who was in town Tuesday.

When Norfolk acquired part of Conrail in 1997, management didn't know quite what it had at Juniata or what to do with it, said Moorman, who has been CEO for almost three years.

Now, "it's developed into quite a competitive advantage," he said.

Norfolk is the only Class 1 railroad to do all locomotive maintenance in-house, and Juniata is a big part of that, being much larger than the company's other locomotive facility in Roanoke, company Vice President Tim Heilig said.

The Juniata shops have helped Norfolk achieve the lowest maintenance costs and best safety record in the industry, Heilig said.
"We do a better job for less," Moorman said.
The 950-person work force is key, they said.

Since the Conrail acquisition, the Juniata workers, including rank-and-file, have demonstrated an "unusually keen understanding" of railroading as a business, said Mark Manion, executive vice president for operations.

Their "core competency" is heavy-duty maintenance: They can tear down a locomotive to its frame and rebuild it, Heilig said.

They do it safely, having recently finished a million man-hours without a reportable accident, over about 200 days, Heilig said.

Management has helped create the conditions for the workers' performance, sending a signal it intended to run a first-rate operation by focusing on safety and ergonomics inside and investing heavily in badly needed track repairs, they said.

The excellent condition of the tracks throughout the system and the fine safety record are in contrast to the "old days," Moorman said.

The number of workers in Juniata, about 200 less than when Norfolk took over, has been stable for a few years and promises to remain so for the foreseeable future.

High fuel prices and highway congestion have helped railroads flourish in recent years, and shipping companies have called on railroads to supplement truck transport in intermodal schemes, Moorman said.

The recent lower fuel prices haven't reduced intermodal enthusiasm much, because shippers see the lower prices as transitory, he said.
Still, traffic has shrunk due to the economic downturn.

An aggressive locomotive maintenance program to minimize breakdowns on the tracks will help insulate Juniata from the downturn for the foreseeable future, Moorman said.

Insourcing of work from other firms also helps stabilize employment there.
Norfolk has tried to take advantage of the best aspects of the original NS and Conrail corporate cultures, Moorman said.

Evidence of Conrail's contribution: The former company has produced two of the three regional managers who report to Manion.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008