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Kansas City Southern's new Transportation Engineering and Mechanical (TEaM) training center in Shreveport, La., soon will feature three box cars, three tank cars and five couplers in a stationary display.

Installed adjacent to the facility, the display will help provide hands-on training to conductors. Conductors had been receiving hands-on training at a Bossier City, La., yard, but the next new class of conductors being trained at the TEaM center will use the stationary car display.

Resting on rails, the display simulates a car's A and B end and all aspects of a coupler, enabling trainees to climb on the cars, cross walkways, maintain three-point contact, set handbrakes, couple hoses, apply air, install an end-of-train device, perform a leakage test and engage all safety appliances, railroad officials said in an item posted on the "KCS News" web page.

"Any new employee who will be around rail cars can benefit from training on this display," they said. "For example, new carmen must practice inspecting safety appliances."