Watco Hosts Customer Appreciation Days by Tracie Vanbecelaere Brad Snow, All Aboard Foundation President

The newsletter for Watco Companies November 2018, Volume 19, Issue 11 Watco hosts Customer Appreciation Days by Tracie VanBecelaere Brad Snow, All Aboard Foundation president. The All Aboard Foundation was created to im- Managing Editor "I've been attending these for 18 years and have prove the quality of life in the communities that developed some great relationships over that Watco operates in and the money raised by the The Watco Team's favorite time of year has time. I really look forward to seeing everyone auction will help fulfill that mission. come and gone, leaving many exhausted but each year." On Thursday, guests met again for breakfast pleased with the time spent with Customers The expected rain held off for most of the and then headed out to their respective venues for and vendors. Each fall, Watco hosts Customer events with just Thursday afternoon and evening another fun-filled day. Appreciation Days, a three-day event filled with seeing some moisture. The event started off Tues- That evening, a bonfire warmed the guests golfing, guns, and good times. day evening with a dinner at the Kansas Cross- while the Thompson Brothers, a welding supply With the assistance of several generous spon- ing Casino, and then the group met early the company out of Coffeyville, Kansas, proceeded sors, Watco hosted its largest event ever this year, next morning at the Watco office for a welcome to cook an array of delicious treats on the T&C with more than 350 attendees. The event started breakfast and instructions for the day. Groups Wildlife grounds. out years ago as an excuse for Watco Executive then headed out to the various locations for clay Thanks to everyone who made the event possible Chairman Rick Webb to goof-off and hunt with shooting, golfing, and hunting. That evening, -we look forward to seeing you again next year! a couple of Customers, and it has grown into they gathered back together at the casino an annual event that gives the Watco Team the for dinner and a silent auction to raise Crestwood Country Club opportunity to thank many of our Customers for funds for the All Aboard Foundation. choosing to do business with us and allowing us The auction raised $8,525 with the help to grow our businesses together. of generous bankers, vendors, and Custom- "Customer Appreciation Days is like a ers. big family reunion," "Our bankers really step up and said help out with a lot of the auction items," said Snow. "Without them, T&C Wildlife the auction wouldn't be possible. This year we also had some items from our vendors and Cus- tomers." Kansas Crossing Claythorne T&C Wildlife Watco Things are "salty" in Cincinnati by Tracie VanBecelaere Watco took it over. We've been able to add new equip- Managing Editor ment, build a new maintenance shop, and complete other much needed improvements," said Smith. "The Things are "salty" at the Watco terminal in Cincin- salt pad project was needed to meet EPA standards nati, Ohio, but don't confuse it with the slang term of and puts our facility a step ahead of others that have being salty because the Team isn't angry, agitated, or not made accommodations to meet the guidelines." upset, they're just moving a lot of salt. After recently The facility receives road salt and warehouse salt completing a $4 million project, the team is positioned via barges that navigate the Ohio River. The road salt to move even more salt in the future. is trucked out to various locations, and the warehouse The project consisted of installing a salt pad, and salt is either barged to their largest Customers, Morton storm water system to catch the runoff of saltwater Salt or Compass Minerals, where it is bagged and sold that occurs following heavy rains and snow. The run- to stores, or it is trucked to water treatment plants. off is funneled into a pipe which directs the flow to an In addition to the dry bulk business, the terminal environmentally approved location. also has a liquids division that handles petroleum and Terminal manager Rusty Smith said that since chemicals. The products are both barged in and go out Watco took over the facility in June of last year, the by truck or rail or they are trucked in and go out by facility has seen the completion of several important barge. The facility has 11 tanks on site with a 238,704 capital projects, the storm water project being one of bbl capacity. them. There are currently 18 Team Members at the facility "The facility has had an amazing makeover since who have gone injury free since start-up. Photo by Amanda Evers #WATCO MOVES by Jay Benedict coordinate when they can do an inbound inspec- Digital Communication & Social Media Specialist tion. The idea is to capture any damaged cars before they enter the facility. Customer: Martin Marietta “We try to work with the Customer so we don’t Commodity: Railcars hinder their operation, but at the same time we do Location: Cove, AR, Dallas, TX, Medina, TX, and our due diligence and ensure that their trains are Mill Creek, OK safe,” said mechanical operations support Cam- eron Lundy. Most Watco Moves articles are about various The Teams perform the inspections as the trains commodities that are transported on our railroads arrive and make notes of any necessary repairs. or through our terminals and ports. This month’s They then decide if they perform what are called edition is a little different, because instead of it be- in-line repairs. These vary from simpler things ing about Watco moving a product, it’s about Watco like brake shoes, air hoses, springs, valves, and Team Members being on the move to serve our knuckle pins, to heavier repairs like changing The Mechanical Services Team provides for Mar- tin Marietta at four different locations. Customer. wheels, brake beams, and more if they’re in a Most are familiar with Watco Mechanical Servic- safe spot. They’re called in-line because they can es’ (WMS) shops rejoining the Watco Team recently, be done without breaking up the train and switch- bers work in pairs. Almost everything is repaired in however, there’s another arm of WMS that is fairly ing those cars out. a 24-hour cycle, and if a car is set out as a bad order, new and not as many people are aware of. That’s “If at all possible, if we can do it in-line, it’s much it’s back in service within 16 hours. what we call Mini Mobile Repair. The majority of more efficient for us and it’s much more efficient for “Every Team Member that we’ve had here, except them are at what we call dedicated sites. They’re our Customer,” Lundy said. “That way we can do for one, so ten out of the 11 here had no rail experi- Teams that are set up on the Customer’s property in our repairs, they can grab that train and start loading ence at all,” Garza said. “So, for them to rise to the their plants. These include rock quarries, chemical or unloading it, depending on where it’s at.” challenge, and quickly and safely repair the cars facilities, refineries, and others. If it’s deemed it’s not safe enough to do heavier for the Customer every day is a tremendous accom- Four of these sites are dedicated to our Customer, repairs in-line, the car is placed in bad order. The plishment for them.” Martin Marietta. Martin Marietta produces aggre- Team notifies the Customer that the car needs Martin Marietta has an agreement with Union gates and building materials, and Watco provides switched over to a designated rip track, which each Pacific that their trains have to run at a minimum of our repair services at their quarries and unloading location has. There, the repairs can be safely done 90 cars if it’s a 95-car set or 130 cars for their larger facilities. Beyond these four main hubs, our Team is without delaying the rest of the train. train. In the two years the Mini Mobile Team has able to respond to any need this Customer has at 28 “We do job site inspections before every task,” been on the property, they haven’t had a short order satellite locations as well. Dedicated locations typi- said operations supervisor Jason Garza. “Our team yet, meaning they’ve always had more than the cally do not to work for other Customers because goes over the whole area where they’ll be working minimum. That wasn’t always the case. our agreements include a guaranteed number of the train for any hazards. It might be something as “Repairing the cars in-line has really increased hours worked for that specific Customer. If they do simple as loose rock that fell off the train that could our ability to keep up with the demand. We have other work, it’s typically after the hours for the main cause a fall hazard. We’ll clean it up and notify our Team in the right place and open lines of com- Customer have been completed. the Customer about it to watch for it as well. If it’s munication with the Customer,” Garza said. “That’s The Team at Medina facility in Hondo, Texas has something as simple as that, we’ll proceed with the what’s driving our success here.” been running for about two years now.

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