IT TAKES A LOT TO STOP A TRAIN. Photon Courier discovers that Norfolk Southern opted to retrieve track washed into Lake Ponchartrain by Hurricane Katrina rather than await delivery of new ties and rail. The gambit paid off, with the bridge repaired and in service 16 days after the storm surge. Resourceful? Yes. Also predictable. This is the company that for many years viewed toilets and in-cab air conditioning in diesels as unproductive additional-cost extras. Why buy new track if track already prepared to be exposed to the salt air has just been washed off the bridge?