Transport committee  We are doing it right now. Our tank cars are to the latest regulations.

Transport committee  Right now, all of our manufacturers are at the highest capacity ever. This is what it is. If you come to NSC and put in an order for a car, you have to wait until 2015. With other car builders, it's getting to 2016. So we are talking about a big backlog right now.

Transport committee  I'm not on the marketing side to see how we can react. But just to the improvement of the productivity, I think NSC is one of the highest efficiency companies and leaders in lean manufacturing and using all of the tools available. We do all the Kaizen, lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, Shainin.

Transport committee  The new version numbers about 14,000. When we say new version, it's the CPC-1232. Based on RSI data, this is recent, I think it's about a month old. I think it's about 14,000. I ask that you double-check whatever numbers I give you.

Transport committee  The short answer is yes. Max is sitting on the safety task force. He has contributed immensely to putting together the new FRA safety rule S-2044. I really want to emphasize that one. NSC is the most active team in North America. I was sitting on M-976, which is about bogies and suspension, and now I am contributing to the tank car task force.

Transport committee  Can I add something here about training? I'm not quite sure about the SMS system. I'm just coming from design and manufacturing. From day one, when we look at the tank car business the first thing we had to do was everybody—not design engineers, not manufacturers—everybody in our company for whom there was a chance they would go close to the tank cars we are building, touch them or see them, had to go to a very specific training called haz-mat.

Transport committee  Okay, good question. No yes or no answers, and I'll tell you why. In any engineering design, you have to look at a system. A system has different elements in it. You have to look at all the elements, design them, operate them, and maintain them to achieve a certain goal. In this system, if you have spent all your money on one element, you are not going to have an efficient system satisfying your needs.

Transport committee  As I mentioned at the beginning, tank cars are very heavily regulated. If the AAR says it's TC-128, one-half inch, I cannot change it. I cannot go with less. I can go with more; but I cannot go with less. If they say a valve should be within this pressure, it has to be that. I cannot change it.

Transport committee  I have just a quick answer to that one on whether we should change it or not. In adding one-sixteenth to the thickness of material for the unjacketed car, you are adding about 9,000 to 10,000 pounds to that car. Don't forget the gross freight load. I talked about it. Your top load is 286,000 pounds.

Transport committee  The second part of the story is this. Every car is designed to a clearance diagram. If the material has changed, you cannot do much about it. If you made this one from plastic, you can't just.... You have to scrap it and make it from steel or aluminum or whatever. So that's number one.

Transport committee  That's correct. That's my estimate.

Transport committee  That's correct.

Transport committee  We are talking about two types of cars. When we go to CPC-1232, you can have two car types: one is non-jacketed and the other one is a jacketed car. This one just shows the 31,800. In this slide you see an unjacketed car, the CPC-1232. There are major features in this car.

Transport committee  The other thing we have to pay attention to is the difference between legacy cars and this one. At the top you can see the big nozzle around those fittings. We call it rollover protection. If this car is derailed and is rolling, it's protecting the top portion. That's one of the changes.

Transport committee  That's correct.