Legacy building at Norfolk Southern and in the rail realm

— by Pat Foran, Editor

Railroaders from around the world sat in on technical sessions, roamed the exhibit halls and practiced the pervasive art of networking at Railway Interchange 2013, held Sept. 29-Oct. 2 in Indianapolis. By the end of the event's second day, organizers already were hailing the every-other-year show a success: Attendance for days one and two was slightly ahead of 2011's three-exhibition-day total, a member of one of the participating trade associations told me shortly before the end of the show's exhibition portion. (An official figure wasn't available as the October issue of Progressive Railroading went to press.)

Capping off my Railway Interchange experience was Norfolk Southern Corp. Chairman and CEO Wick Moorman's keynote at the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association's Annual Chairs' Luncheon on Oct. 1. I interviewed him in August for a profile I was working on (see article) — he is receiving this year's Railroad Innovator Award at our annual RailTrends® summit (see article) — and I figured the quick-witted Moorman would share something (a quip, a quote, a non sequitur) to round out the story. Of course, he did. But hearing him talk about the states of NS and the industry also got me thinking about something Wick had said during the August interview. I had asked him what he thought his legacy might be, if he thought in such terms. "Ask me in another year," he said. After a pause, he added: "I'd like to be thought of as someone who helped move the company forward."

In late summer, I called former NS Chairman and CEO David Goode to talk a bit about Wick. I brought up the legacy stuff with him, as well.

"A CEOs' legacy is leaving the company in better shape than it was when he got there," said Goode, who retired in 2006. "Norfolk Southern is a better company than when I left it, and I feel pretty proud about that. That's Wick's legacy, but it's also mine."

It's actually everybody's, as Moorman said during his AREMA luncheon keynote. "All of us need to keep pushing, to keep driving improvements, so good things keep happening for all of us," he urged.

It's a coaxial that connects rail CEOs: motivating their charges to think about building their own incremental-improvement-oriented legacies. Rail is an interconnected industry, to which anyone attending Railway Interchange this year would attest, and legacy building in the rail realm is an exercise in interconnection. As observers of the work of Goode, Moorman and NS employees probably know full well.