advertisement

---

Norfolk Southern Corp. has appointed Tom Schnautz assistant vice president of research and advanced technology.

He will assume some of the responsibilities previously assigned to Gerhard Thelen — who retired March 31 as VP of operations planning and support — including positive train control (PTC) and research.

Most recently director of advanced train control, Schnautz joined NS in 1993 as a management trainee in the engineering department and later held various engineering positions.

Schnautz has been leading NS' effort to comply with Congress' PTC mandate, and has the knowledge and experience to take on the technical challenges of modern railroading that Thelen had handled as "an invaluable intellectual asset to Norfolk Southern," said Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Manion in a press release.

A native of Weiler, Germany, Thelen joined NS in 1998 in the middle of his 36-year railroading career. He became VP of mechanical in 2004 and VP of operations planning and support in 2006.