by Bob Walsh
Wook can get expensive. Especially when it is 4.7 million railroad ties that must be installed.
Norfolk Southern Railway has recently been ordered to replace the ties because they are deteriorating at a faster than normal rate. They are suing the supplier, Boatright Railroad Products in federal court over the matter.
Allegedly Boatright employees doctored the ties they supplied so they LOOKED like they had been treated with the proper preservatives when they had in fact not been. Allegedly they did this at the orders of someone fairly high up the food chain.
Win or loose NS will still have to replace the ties as a safety issue. It won't be cheap even though the process now is largely automated. I actually saw one of those work trains doing it's thing once, it was really need. The machinery pulled the spikes, jerked the old tie, shoved the new tie in along with some fresh gravel and spiked everything down. Slick as snot.
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