ROANOKE, Va. -- The Roanoke Times reports that temporary layoffs are coming for about 1,000 union workers in Roanoke and Altoona, Pa., Norfolk Southern announced Wednesday.

Railroad officials said they want to cut expenses even further, this time cutting into the locomotive shops.

The Roanoke layoffs will begin June 24 and end July 14. That means 162 workers will not get paychecks for three weeks. These workers make up the majority of those left at the East End Shops.

The company employs about 2,000 workers in the Roanoke Valley.

More than 800 workers at the Juniata shop in Altoona will be out of work for two weeks. That shop usually closes one week every July.

"It's a surprise, but not a surprise," said Rick Howard, a 32-year railroad worker in Roanoke. "I hope it's temporary."

"Workers are always the last to know," said Howard, also president of Local 165, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

"You don't know from one day to the next what they're going to do," said Doug Honaker, local chairman of the Machinists, who learned of the layoffs when called by The Roanoke Times. "It keeps everyone on edge and puts a whole lot of stress in the shop and on the workers' families."

NS spokeswoman Susan Bland said the furloughs are a cost-cutting measure and a reaction to a weakened economy and a reduced need for locomotives. Also, some of the railroad's large customers, including automakers, traditionally shut down for several weeks in connection with the July Fourth holiday.

"If the economy is so soft and NS doesn't need the locomotives, why are they getting rid of their dedicated employees and, in turn, using an outside contractor to do the work?" asked Joe Duncan, general chairman of the Machinists union. He said NS has been doing this throughout its system, not just in Roanoke.

"It appears to me that NS is trying very quickly to get out of the locomotive and car - repair business, which will affect many employees before this is over.

"It's a really serious situation," he said.

It has been about 20 years since NS shut down the Roanoke shop for a few weeks in the summer. That was when the coal mines were closed for vacation.

NS laid off 110 employees for an indefinite period in April 1999 because of a depressed coal market. Of those, 67 employees worked in the Roanoke East End car shop, and 43 worked in the locomotive shop. Since then, a handful of the workers in the locomotive shop were called back to work, and the car-shop workers were laid off in August. The East End car shops have been idle since then, and NS won't speculate on its property, leaving laid - off workers anxious about whether they'll ever return to work.

NS said it has been increasing revenues, reducing costs and cutting payroll the past four and a half months, staying close to goals it announced in January.

At the annual shareholders' meeting in May, Chairman David Goode said, "I can tell you that closing facilities is not a popular activity, and our efforts are meeting resistance, but we will persevere because our obligation to you as investors and to our employees is to move forward with sound business decisions to benefit the enterprise."

As part of its cost-cutting, NS reduced its work force by 4,000 since June 1, 1999. The railroad is more than halfway done in disposing of 12,000 surplus freight cars. In the first quarter, it eliminated more than 200 miles of track through abandonment, sales and leases. It plans to eliminate 350 more miles of lines.

NS also closed the Roanoke foundry and the Roanoke reclamation shop. It recently announced it plans to sell a shop in Alabama and one in Tennessee.

It earlier announced plans to close the Hollidaysburg, Pa., car shop Sept. 1. But union officials and lawmakers are fighting to keep it open.