NSC is building a new rollingstock fabrication facility in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. This is a computer generated photo of what it will look like when finished!!!! Enjoy Going to be an exciting place to work!!!! Hobo Tim
Wow, that's a major coup. This plant and the new Toyota plant in Tupelo, MS, just 85 miles away, are a major shot in the arm for employment and the area's economy.
Is their new plant entirely self-contained? Paint shop, rip/repair tracks, fabrication, stores, etc? If so that would be nice. Indoors. Out of the weather variables! Which are often miserable.... Boxcab E50
After working in the environs of PC&F 30+ years ago, baking in summer, wet and cold during winter, nailable steel floorboard stacks frozen together, wet gloves turned to ice, winds whipping slag dust everywhere, etc, etc.... If as pictured, this new facility will be a virtual palace. Boxcab E50
Very nice! "The Grey and Grandure Car and Locomotive Works" TGAGCALW for short - won't be as gradios. Um, what kind of incoming cars will it have? What leaves other than finished product.
Good question, Steve. I assume the plant is being developed as a fully integrated computerized operation from initial design through final assembly like modern auto plants. Based on that assumption....... Incoming - car loads of plate steel, coil steel, blasting sand, plastic resins and/or pellets, recycled glass and/or silicates and additives, hazardous cleaning and/or pickling agents, paints, truck frames and/or casting billets, and axle/wheel sets. Though they might outsource trucks because sideframe, wheel, and axle casting and machining are more specialized technologies. Outgoing - probably finished cars due to the quantity of staging tracks shown in the rendering. Though they might ship truckless bodies for final assembly in countries with non-standard track gauges, therefore obscure truck designs. It would interesting to read the plant's summary operations plan. Though that's probably a very sensitive document in such a competitive international market.
Will they have an in house foundry, for recycling their steel scrap? Doing some of their own castings? Hammers for forging? Depending upon what they might build- Possible incoming items? Wheels, axles, sideframes, springs, couplers, cushioning devices, car ends, roof sheets, doors, brake system pieces, piping, nailable steel flooring, and more... A lot of this in gondolas. Some in box cars. Some by trucks. Boxcab E50
Wash your mouth with Soap!!!! :tb-hissyfit: Though, I've seen many flatbed semis on I-10 with wheel/axle sets and even whole trucks......:we-cry:
According to the article linked below, the plant is expected to employ 1800 people and produce 8,000-10,000 units (cars?) for the North American market when it goes into full production in 2009. http://www.expansionmanagement.com/cmd/articledetail/articleid/18925/default.asp
Surely "units" must be corporate speak for cars. I'm trying to recall what we used to do. There were two lines. The "old car line." Which was the dungeon. Horrible place to be. Especially in winter. I can't recall how many line pulls we'd get per day. That was a real ballet with cars longer than ca.40 feet. Then the so-called "new car line." Which we'd pull every 20 minutes. 16 cars a day. Sometimes a few more. I think we did around 19-20 a couple of times. But that was torture! Usually you ended up with equipment starting to break, frequently. Ugh. A lot of cuts, bruises, smashed fingers, burns, and memories... Boxcab E50
