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I know CSX has the large office building in Jacksonville...the old ACL HQ but where are their other large regional offices?  NS has three huge buildings in Atlanta, Roanoke, and Norfolk...all of which are fully owned by NS...but NS is smaller than CSX and the CSX office is only as large as one of the NS buildings...so there must be more.

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To get from Enola, Pa to CSX Hagerstown, Md. we used to run over the CSX from Shippensburg to Hagerstown over the CSX Lurgan Sub., ex Western Maryland RR. CSX closed their Dispatch Center in Baltimore when they moved to Jacksonville. To the best of my knowledge all Dispatch operations for CSX were out of Jacksonville soon after that. I worked for Conrail at the time so cannot say for sure if they kept any other operations at locations other than Jacksonville or not.

Is CSX really larger than NS?

If so, it cant be by much.

Just because NS owns several buildings doesnt mean that every office in those buildings is dedicated to RR operations. I'm sure a lot of that office space is leased out to other companies.

CSX pretty much runs everything out of JAX. But every yard and branch has their own little local offices.

Both operate 21,000 + miles of trackage.  CSX has two regional divisions, a north and a south with 10 "divisions" split between these two.  The northern regional division operates out of Calumet City, IL, the southern regional division and corporate headquarters are in Jacksonville, FL.  N&S has six "regional" divisions and has headquarters and principal operations out of Norfolk, VA.  

 

CSX may be more "distributed" as the composite railroad was merged from smaller parts in a shorter and more recent period of time.  While N&S also consists of the merger of many smaller older lines much of that consolidation was over a longer period of time and the final merger was of two large regional railroads.

 

Both "railroads" have other interests and that may contribute to their differing administrative footprints.

Beginning in 1987 CSX started moving all of their Dispatchers to Jacksonville, FL.

About 750 dispatching jobs were moved there, however by consolidations etc., the total was reduced to about 550.  I always thought it was a bad move but it looked good on paper for saving money.....

After 20 years CSX began moving some dispatchers out of Jacksonville.  One dispatching center is at Huntington, WV which handles about all of the old C&O plus parts of the old L&N in Kentucky.  Dispatcher were moved back to Baltimore also.

Not sure what their territory covers.  I believe they also moved dispatchers to other locations but I don't know where..........

It has been about six years since I was last at Selkirk but, CSX had a dispatch center in one of the yard office buildings that was dispatching at least some of the old NYC lines.

 

Here in the Atlanta area, both CSX and NS maintain training centers for the various crafts.  The CSX REDI-Center is on Marietta Street in northwest Atlanta and the NS training center is south of town in McDonough, GA.

 

Curt




quote:
Here in the Atlanta area, both CSX and NS maintain training centers for the various crafts.  The CSX REDI-Center is on Marietta Street in northwest Atlanta and the NS training center is south of town in McDonough, GA.




 

One of my son's friends is a CSX heavy diesel mechanic in Selkirk. They sent him to the Atlanta area for training a few years back.

Originally Posted by Dominic Mazoch:

...why do you want to place all of your DS personal right in the middle of hurricane country?

Good question...and it has happened.

 

I don't remember when, but on at least one occasion the entire CSX railroad ground to a halt for several hours because the dispatch center had to be evacuated. It took the railroad several days to get back on schedule.

 

I have been in that big round room in Jacksonville, and it is very impressive. But this is one area where centralization may not be the best way to run things.

Last edited by Rich Melvin
Originally Posted by OGR Webmaster:
Originally Posted by Dominic Mazoch:

...why do you want to place all of your DS personal right in the middle of hurricane country?

Good question...and it has happened.

 

I don't remember when, but on at least one occasion the entire CSX railroad ground to a halt for several hours because the dispatch center had to be evacuated. It took the railroad several days to get back on schedule.

 

I have been in that big round room in Jacksonville, and it is very impressive. But this is one area where centralization may not be the best way to run things.

And UP's central DS center is in tornado alley!

Originally Posted by OGR Webmaster:
 

I have been in that big round room in Jacksonville, and it is very impressive. But this is one area where centralization may not be the best way to run things.

I have visited the CSX dispatch center in JAX twice.  The first visit, I was accompanied by my then CSX national account rep out of Houston.  Jimmy was a fairly rotund man and, as we were touring the big dark room where all the dispatcher stations are located, we stood in one particular spot on the first tier as the manager of the center was explaining something to us. 

 

Now, the layout of the center is such that the dispatch consoles are placed on tiers, much like a wedding cake, with the territory assigned to each console displayed on the exterior wall of the room.  Where we were standing, placed us between one of the consoles and the display on the wall.  I noticed one of the dispatchers behind us growing a bit agitated and finally he stood and asked Jimmy to move to the right as "he was blocking half of Tennessee".  At that point, the entire group erupted in laughter.

 

Jim passed away about 12 years ago but, I still smile every time I think of this story.

 

Curt

 

Last edited by juniata guy

I thought CSX closed the centralized dispatcher center and moved dispatching back to the field offices at each division.  i.e. in Florence SC for the Florence Division. 

 

BNSF has the huge network operations center.  I wonder why NS has never gone the route of any big centralized control centers?  And still use wood ties..no concrete...

Just because NS owns several buildings doesnt mean that every office in those buildings is dedicated to RR operations. I'm sure a lot of that office space is leased out to other companies.

So true...My wife worked for Bank Of America in Norfolk.  They had their own building yet she and a few hundred others worked out of the Norfolk Southern tower.

 

Beautiful modern looking building by the way, right in the middle of downtown Norfolk.

Originally Posted by Mike W.:

I recall CSX used to have a corporate HQ in Richmond...in addition to the operations HQ in Jax.  But I think they closed it..did they move that to Jax as well.  I was told that the 3 large NS HQ buildings are all exclusively used by NS...and even some overflow into neighboring buildings.

Yes, CSX moved its corporate HQ from Richmond to Jacksonville several years ago.  It is odd to have corporate and operational entities there, given that Richmond is probably more centralized to the entire CSX system than Jacksonville. 

Originally Posted by hoghead:
 

Yes, CSX moved its corporate HQ from Richmond to Jacksonville several years ago.  It is odd to have corporate and operational entities there, given that Richmond is probably more centralized to the entire CSX system than Jacksonville. 

Bill:

 

Two thoughts on this. 

 

One, Richmond ain't Florida.  Some of CSX's senior brass live down near St. Augustine and, with all due respect to anyone living in the Richmond area, I'd take St. Augustine.

 

Second, CSX makes liberal use of their corporate jets, so centralized HQ really isn't a concern. 

 

Curt

Last edited by juniata guy

The dispatchers have been moved to Division offices where a little more local control can be handled.

'

I don't remember when, but on at least one occasion the entire CSX railroad ground to a halt for several hours because the dispatch center had to be evacuated. It took the railroad several days to get back on schedule.

 

I have been in that big round room in Jacksonville, and it is very impressive. But this is one area where centralization may not be the best way to run things."

 

It come to haunt them a few times. we have an emergency Dispatching center set up in Louisville as a result. Not as impressive as the one in Orange park, but it did do the trick.

 

Gene 

 

CSX website says they have two main offices/front office , one in Jacksonville and the other in DC, yes DC and it is a few blocks from the Whacky house I mean White house.

it maybe used by lobbyist , a lot of big companies have offices there, you can see them all over the place, you can recognize the lobbyist by seeing a large check book in their arms   Kidding, I have no idea what it is used for but it is there on Pennsylvania AVE.

Originally Posted by OGR Webmaster:
Originally Posted by superwarp1:
All I know is my NS stock is around a 100 bucks and my CSX stock is only around 30.

I sure hope you are joking about this. You cannot compare the value of a stock by the stock share price! Comparisons using only the share price are totally meaningless.

I hope so too. Otherwise, I would leave the investing to someone else.  Hint: "Stock Split"

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