The Norfolk Southern Lawmen debut music video for Heartland Corridor

Catch the new Norfolk Southern music video on YouTube?

No joke.

To celebrate the opening of the Heartland Corridor project next week, the Norfolk Southern Lawmen, the railroad’s house band, recorded an original rockabilly-style song – “Raise ‘Em Up” – and made a music video, available at here.

The roughly three-minute video features the five-man Lawmen band performing their new tune, backed by a line of female vocalists in cowboy hats. Laced throughout are quick clips of heavy construction work inside some of the 28 Appalachian tunnels that were modified during the three-year project. There are also lots of moving trains, lots of dancers – and even a shot or two of the port of Hampton Roads.

More than 200 Norfolk Southern employees appear in the video, which was shot in Atlanta. The song was recorded in the city’s Doppler Studios, where the Lawmen can now say they followed in the footsteps of Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett and Aerosmith.

A sort of Northwest Passage for double-stack rail traffic between Hampton Roads and the Midwest, the Heartland Corridor will shave around 250 miles and about a day of transit time from existing routes.

Combined with the port’s 50-foot channels and ready access to the open sea, it’s anticipated to have a magnetic effect on East Coast container traffic.

The project is scheduled to open Sept. 9 with a commemorative event at Cowan Tunnel near Radford, Va.

- Robert McCabe

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