(The following story by Ray Reed appeared on the Roanoke Times website on February 21.)
ROANOKE, Va. — FreightCar America formally launched a first-of-its-kind railcar and the production line that builds it Tuesday in Roanoke, as city officials talked about the economic effect the company delivers.
FreightCar “brings the potential to our area for new jobs,” Roanoke City Manager Darlene Burcham said, and the shiny aluminum coal cars it already has built for Norfolk Southern Corp. “are a welcome sight on our rail lines.”
John Carroll, FreightCar’s president, said the company will build “the first hybrid coal car ever made,” delivering 1,200 of them to Norfolk Southern this year.
The cars combine conventional steel, stainless steel and aluminum to produce a vehicle than can hold more coal than the fleet NS is replacing.
The cars were developed by NS and FreightCar so they can be heated to thaw frozen coal before it’s dumped at the railroad’s pier in Norfolk.
As coal car No. 46100 rolled out of a shed Tuesday to the applause of city council members, Norfolk Southern Railway officials and FreightCar executives, no one mentioned that behind it was a work force of fewer than 400 people, many of whom were off the job temporarily starting Jan. 12 while FreightCar switched to the new production line.
Some of the employees came back to work within two weeks, FreightCar spokesman Bruce Harmon said, and employment at the company has returned near its “steady state,” which it expects to be 400 to 500 employees.
The new production line, which expanded FreightCar’s space in Norfolk Southern’s East End Shops, has come into operation about two weeks faster than expected, Harmon said. About a dozen cars have been built.
That’s the rosy side of the highly cyclical railcar business, which is in a downturn that first appeared in summer and reached noticeable levels by the end of the year.
At least three factors played into a falling demand for coal cars, Harmon said, including warmer winters the past couple of years.
Railroads also are learning to use their fleets more efficiently, getting more use out of their existing cars. Third, railroads serving coal fields in Wyoming and other parts of the west can’t handle any more cars on their lines, FreightCar officials said.
Still, Tuesday’s announcement bodes well, said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, who told the crowd he recalled getting a call several years ago from previous NS President David Goode, who told him NS had 14,000 idle coal cars because of a slowdown in international trade.
Wick Moorman, NS’ current president, said the railroad worked with FreightCar to help the company install production lines in Roanoke, where most of the older coal cars also were built.
Harmon also said FreightCar is holding its own at its other locations, with production continuing at plants in Danville, Ill., and Pottstown, Pa.