(The following story by Eric Anderson appeared on the Albany Times-Union website on August 2, 2009.)
ALBANY, N.Y. How do you fillet a freight train? It takes planning, according to Norfolk Southern Railway.
The rail company used the term in a recent article to describe how it would make sure its trains of freight containers would fit through the Hoosac Tunnel in western Massachusetts.
The containers would be stacked two-high on the train between Chicago and the Mechanicville freight yard, with containers destined for Albany on top and Boston-bound containers below.
Albany containers would be removed at Mechanicville, in a process described as filleting the train. The single stack would then fit through the tunnel.
And how is the reverse process, in which a second level of containers is added to westbound freights, described? Norfolk Southern says it will toupee the trains.
