NNG: Norfolk Southern suing over millions of defective rail ties

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Norfolk Southern Railway blames an Alabama company that produced its railroad ties of failing to use proper protective coating on more than 4.7 million of them, the railroad said in its lawsuit filed this month in U.S. District Court in Alabama.

Instead of using materials that preserve the wood, officials with Boatright Railroad Products Inc. ordered workers to “make them black by whatever means necessary” so they appeared to be properly treated but were not, Norfolk Southern maintains in the suit.

“So long as the railroad ties had the same physical appearance as a tie that had been properly treated, it did not matter to defendants if the substance used to ‘make it black’ was actually a wood preservative at all.”

Motor oil, anti-freeze, paint and other substances which would not effectively preserve the wood were used on the ties instead of creosote — the chemical which should have been used, the company alleges.

Boatright also provided misleading samples to a consultant for the railroad who was checking on the quality of its work, the lawsuit alleges. The Alabama firm’s employees were instructed to take the consultant out hunting at the same time he was to be inspecting railroad ties being treated at the facility, the lawsuit states.