North Dakota Team Gets Icy Reception
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theDispatch The newsletter for Watco Companies, LLC and Watco Transportation Services, LLC February 2013, Volume 14, Issue 2 Watco purchases Ann Arbor Railroad When Watco purchased Ann Arbor Railroad ingrained in the AA Team.” we didn't just get a top-notch short line, we got The AA has 43 team members who will con- a piece of history. The Ann Arbor Railroad tinue providing service to Customers along the originally began service in 1878 and at the time line which is in the middle of an automotive ran from Frankfort, Mich., to Toledo, Ohio. industry corridor. Finished automobiles are The railroad also had a very unique aspect, it processed at AA's three vehicle distribution fa- owned and operated a car ferry and was the cilities in Toledo and serve Customers Chrysler, first railroad to provide transportation services General Motors and Ford. across Lake Michigan. In addition to just-in-time automobile parts Throughout the years the railroad has and finished automobiles, the AA also handles been purchased and operated by a few differ- a full range of commodities such as bulk mate- ent companies and on October 1, 1977, the rials (flour, sugar, grain, plastics, sand, cement Michigan Interstate Railway Company was and recyclables), paper, lumber and petroleum. designated the operator of the line. Car ferry Ann Arbor joins the Grand Elk Railroad service was discontinued in 1982 and in 1983 An Ann Arbor GP38-2 switches the south end of the railroad's Ot- as Watco's second short line operating in Michigan Interstate filed for reorganization. tawa Yard in Ann Arbor at a complex aptly named Chrysler Drive. Michigan and its first short line operation in The trustee purchased the portion of the Ann Photo by Stefan Loeb. Ohio. Another interesting tie in is that Watco's Arbor Railroad between Ann Arbor, Mich., mechanical shop in Wood River, Ill., repairs the and Toledo, Ohio in September of 1985 and it Central, Indiana and Ohio and the Wheeling and autoracks used by AA's major Customers. was then sold to the Ann Arbor Acquisition Corpo- Lake Erie. Bob Billings, AA general manager, said, "We are ration in 1988 and has since been operated under Although the short line may be new to Watco, extremely excited about joining the Watco family that entity prior to its sale to Watco. its team members are not new to putting Custom- and look forward to a seamless transition. The com- The Ann Arbor (AA) consists of 50 miles of ers first. Mitch Becker, Watco's senior vice presi- bination of both companies creates synergies and mainline track and has direct connections with three dent of transportation services, said, "Ann Arbor's new opportunities that will benefit our customers as Class I railroads and three short lines. It connects existing focus on Customer service is aligned with well as our team members. We will continue to fo- with Class I's; Canadian National, the CSXT, and Watco’s Customer First Foundation Principles and cus on providing excellent service to our customers, the Norfolk Southern and short lines Great Lakes the mentality of high service expectations is already connecting railroads and the people that we serve." North Dakota team gets icy reception Although the Watco Team has warmly welcomed tank cars didn't stop our team members our newest terminal team in Fryburg, North Da- from serving our newest Customer, Great kota, Mother Nature hasn't been so kind. The team's Northern Midstream. start-up date of January 22 showed a very chilly Great Northern Midstream (GNM) temperature of -10 degrees on the thermometer. owns the facility in Fryburg and the However, the snow on the ground and icicles on the Watco Team operates it. The team will be loading unit trains with sweet crude oil on the 18-unit enclosed loading rack. The crude will then be shipped to a variety of destinations depending on how the mar- kets are trending. GNM contacted Watco in August of 2011 and at a very early stage they began working together to build a state of the art facility. "With our combined efforts, we expect The newest members of the Watco Team (l-r): Jason Stewart-oper- to load unit trains at least two hours ator, Pete Lehman-operator, Marie Voegle - operator, Kim Talberg quicker than sites with different designs," - operator, Tom Kraft - operator, Jebidiah Osborn - engineer, Eric Icicles hang from a tank car at the Fryburg, North Da- said Phil Penner, senior vice president of Leigland - terminal manager, Matt Hoch - utility, Jim Lundy - op- kota terminal facility. WTPS business development. erator, and Lonnie Halbert - operator. theDispatch page 2 February 2013 STAYING SAFE A Letter from the Safety Team sets 2013 goals Vice President of Transportation Safety at Kansas City Safety Summit Watco’s making strides in de- Kansas City is home to the Royals baseball and Team members who attended the summit were: veloping our 2013 safety culture. the Chiefs football teams, but another not-so- Barry Karlberg – RSM Central, David Hambrick- Our long term goal is to become famous team found its way to the city of blues and Switching RSM/Q&A, Geoff Holder-RSM East, Jar- the world’s safest and most-re- barbecue. Watco's Safety Team held a five-day safety ed Carman-Wisconsin Q&A, Jason Cathey-Incident spected rail service provider with summit in early January to cover key topics and get Reconstruction Specialist, Jason Stutzman-RSM world class safety in our industry the new year off to a safe start. West, John Teglovic-RSM East, Josh McCormack- and we are making lots of prog- With a line-up of new faces, the meetings were Wisconsin RSM, Keith Barksdale-AVP of Safety, ress on the safety front. Let’s started with introductions of team members from Michael Gibson-VP of Safety, Michele Howard- take a minute to think about across the coun- safety administra- Michael Gibson certain values and understand try. A year in tive assistant, Paul the importance of them as we go further into 2013. review was held Gage-RSM Gulf, Integrity to earn the trust of each other is very discussing last Pete Tietjen-Gulf important to our safety efforts and to our company’s year's statistics Q&A, Richard reputation. You could make a case that integrity is and Michael Gib- Thomas-RSM obeying the safety rules and not taking shortcuts, son, vice president West, Ron Mar- even though no one is looking. Integrity requires of transportation tin-RSM Gulf, that when our managers make commitments to safety, reviewed Tim Lewis-RSM team members those commitments are kept so our team members know they can trust their manag- the safety vision Central, Todd ers/team and are supported. Integrity in fulfilling for 2013. Johns-East Region our obligations with our safety culture, Customers, Each evening Q&A, Travis suppliers and our team these things are essential to group team build- Top: Michael Gibson, vice president of transportation safety, presents Herod-Director maintaining the safety reputation that Watco has in ing exercises were at the 2013 Safety Summit in Kansas City. Below: The graph shows of Safety, and. our industry. held to unite the the percentage of incidents that occur at particular times of the day Troy Forbis-West Respect for all people with whom we deal means group in their and when to be extra alert. Region Q&A. that we have enough respect for our fellow team goal toward safety. Ron Martin members to obey the safety rules ourselves and to During the days Incidents by Time of Day RSM Gulf, said, remind one another about the importance of safety topics covered items "After this week I have when we see someone taking a shortcut or perform- such as safety rules, test a different point of view 1800-2000 2200-0000 of where we are head- ing a task in violation of the rules. Demonstrating validations, recertifi- 20% 10% ing as a department respect in the way we speak to each other and act cations for engineers towards each other helps create a work environment (Team) and a company. and many other safety It is clear cut that we that even on a very busy day can lend a sense of related items were cov- calmness instead of turmoil. Showing respect to our 1000-1200 will be the best, not try ered. A constant theme 20% 0600-0800 to be the best. I agree team and Customers, either by telephone or in per- throughout the summit 30% that we have to change son, is an absolute must; we are safety and service was truth, honesty, and the culture to be the providers, they are the reason we are in business. respect and what can be best. It's clear that we Excellence in all we do is what’s required to 0800-1000 have to set the example constantly raise the bar on safety, Customer Satis- accomplished when the 20% team is united. and raise the bar to get faction, team member satisfaction and ultimately to where we want to Keith Barksdale, as- revenue growth and profitability. I truly believe be. I truly believe that that it starts with each one of US and we are in this sistant vice president of *displayed in military time we are going to work together. Everything chases safety and we need to transportation safety, together as a team to provide all team members with a safe work environ- said, "I thought that the get this done. I saw that ment. How do we do it - we need to keep our focus Safety Summit was a everyone is passionate in what we are doing and on an unconditional commitment to safety.