Watco's South Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad Receives CRISI Funding
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The newsletter for Watco Companies March 2020, Volume 21, Issue 3 I-135 I-35 BN Watco's SouthHutchinson KansasBN Newton & Oklahoma RailroadUP receivesHwy 69 KCS CRISI funding Hwy 71 UP Customers on Watco’s first rail line, Kansas City To Many Watco team members End of main track Garden Plain I-135 UP Neodesha Sub BN the South Kansas & OklahomaKingman Rail- Humboldt worked for months on the project WICHITA Moline Sub road (SKOL), will be seeing a change I-35 and provided valuable assistance Hwy 400 in service in the coming years thanks Hwy 400 Chanute with their areas of expertise. BN Hwy 69 Liberal to receiving a $27 million award. The Fredonia Earlton Laura McNichol, Watco senior New Salem Moline Thayer PITTSBURG Cornell U.S. Department of Transportation’sRago Burden vice president, government and Conway Springs Hwy 400 Cherokee BN Federal Railroad Administration’s NEODESHA industry relations, and project Cherryvale I-35 Oxford Carona (FRA) Consolidated Rail Infrastruc- Independence lead, had the privilege of being KellogWINFIELD Hwy 69 Tulsa Sub Altamont COLUMBUS ture and Safety Improvements (CRI- Oswego Sherwin with many of those who helped Liberty UP I-44 Caney BN SI) Program granted the award to the KANSAS UP when she received the exciting COFFEYVILLE Kansas Department of Transportation OKLAHOMA news. MISSOURI BN UP 71 Hwy for use on the SKOL project, with the I-44 “I had just finished a presen- Dewey Oklahoma Department of Transpor- BN tation at the Railroad General Bartlesville Neosho tation as a match participant. Watco ManagersKCS Summit and saw I had will be investing $12.1 million, Vinita a message on my cell phone. making the total investment in the When I sawARKANSAS who it was from, BN infrastructure $40.6 million. Enid I-44 I knew exactly what the call Perry Pawnee Collinsville The goal of the program is to Owasso Claremore was about, and I stepped up in enhance track infrastructure to BN PC front of the team and played the Tulsa Port Authority TULSA eliminate capacity inefficiencies and SS Verdigris message from Senator Moran, Stillwater Sand Springs I-44 River UP increase track speed from 10 mphUP I-35 announcing that we had received Sapulpa KCS to 25 mph on the SKOL’s Tulsa, BN Wagoner the funds." BN Moline and Neodesha Subdivisions “It was the best feeling to see of the SKOL. This will be achieved the faces of the team members through upgrades to track structure Infrastructure upgrades are the costliest who had worked so hard on get- and substructure such as rail, ties, ballast, surface, constraint on short line railroads. The heavier ting the funding when they heard the news,” Mc- turnouts and bridges. Of the 433-mile network, 286,000 lb. cars are supplanting the lighter-load- Nichol added. “This was a very robust applica- 239 miles will be upgraded enabling the tracks ed cars and are now the industry standard, espe- tion process, and I’d like to thank all of the Watco to handle additional stress caused by transport- cially on the nation’s Class I railroads. Lighter- team members who assisted. Without them, it ing heavier railcars. With the completion of this loaded cars cause operational chokepoints due would never have happened.” project, 95 percent of the SKOL will be able to to insufficient operating capacity on main lines, Team members included Jerry Waun, SKOL safely transport 286,000 lb. railcars. in rail yards and in locations where railroads general manager; Brandon Craddock, SKOL “We’re excited to see the improvement our cus- interchange with each other. Railcars with larger roadmaster; Shellee Currier, sales manager; Neal tomers will experience in transit times through- loading capacity provide higher operating effi- Jacobs, division engineer; Scott Adams, VP of out the entire Kansas and Oklahoma railroad ciencies by reducing labor, fuel and maintenance engineering; Ailsa von Dobeneck, AVP govern- network,” said Jimmy Patterson, senior vice costs while increasing capacity and synergy for ment relations; Caleb Dellasega, assistant ac- president of sales. “The railcar movements in the rail operations and rail shippers. counting manager; P.J. Forbes, VP of operations; region are so interconnected that our customers With the track upgrades, including a proposed Steve Coomes, SVP of operations; Angela Schae- on the Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad and Stillwa- 140,000 new crossties, the SKOL will be able fer, accounting manager; Ali Denzel, operations ter Central Railroad will benefit from this funding to operate at Class 2 levels safely. On the Tulsa accountant; and Carla Ewing, VP of sales. as well.” Sub, for example, the SKOL is restricted today to Waun, said, “The SKOL team is more excited U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, R-Kan., assisted running at 10 mph or less. The rail line averages about receiving the grant than anyone. The im- with the team’s efforts in obtaining the funding. 35-40 track-caused slow orders a month, and a provements are changes the team has wanted to “Farmers and businesses that have made their fully loaded train of 100 railcars takes more than see for a long time, they were just very expensive homes in rural communities rely on rail transpor- 26 hours and three crews to make the round trip upgrades to take on."w tation to move their products to markets around between Owasso, Oklahoma, and Cherryvale, He added, "The improvements will alleve frus- the state and country,” said Sen. Moran. “This Kansas. Post-construction, the efficiency gains trations our team members had in not being able grant will allow the South Kansas &Oklahoma will reduce that same trip by half and slow orders to serve our customers in the most efficient man- Railroad to modernize their railways, increasing by 75 percent. Besides boosting safety, this ner. Being able to move at higher speeds, reduc- the speed of transportation and permitting heavier project will improve and enhance trade opportu- ing trip times, and turning cars around quicker is shipments to move across the region. I’m excited nities and will have significant positive impacts a benefit to all parties involved." for the new economic opportunities this grant on regional economic vitality, innovation and It will take a few months to collect bids and get will afford our farmers and manufacturers in rural performance while leveraging state and federal materials ordered but Waun is expecting to see Kansas.” funds with private capital. the work starting in late Fall 2020. Winners of January Winter Freeze bonuses selected by Tracie VanBecelaere cant hazard, both to the Managing Editor community and the team. As part of the corrective Watco's 2019-2020 Winter Freeze Safety pro- action, the team placed a gram has hit the midway point and is still going locomotive on the head strong. The January winners display the emphasis end of the movement, on teamwork, especially when it comes to safety. eliminating the need Several submissions consisted of teams of two or for a trainman to ride a more as they noticed issues, discussed them and long shove and be better then reported them. protected, as well as pro- Charlene Huskey, administrative assistant, at Trenton Jones vide a better warning to Mechanical Division Elizabeth, New Jersey, terminal shift 2 (l-r): Kyle the Pittsburg, Kansas, office, made a suggestion Outbound Inspector vehicle traffic on the line. Pillsworth, Timothy Pillsworth, Lawrence Rizzo, to increase the training for cyber and communica- Fitzgerald, Georgia Trenton Jones, out- Joel Santana, Raymond Sepulveda, and Brian tions security and has bound inspector, at the Pillsworth. (Not pictured: Oscar Baeza). been active in requesting Fitzgerald, Georgia, was a huge team effort, a lot of folks worked on it additional training for mechanical shop, noticed a torch hose had been and figured out how to resolve the issue." office team members. Her patched with electrical tape in an attempt to fix a Jon Beach, mechanic, Ghent, Kentucky, terminal corrective action sugges- gas leak. Knowing this was an unacceptable fix, noticed the cross member tions are leading to an Trenton tagged the equipment, notified safety and on the frame of a facil- increase in training avail- removed the equipment from service pending re- ity dump truck he was able for security, as well placement. All other equipment was inspected for working on was broken. as general OSHA safety. unauthorized repairs, and team members discussed If not corrected, it could The safety team will be what is required to inspect gas lines, and what to lead to extensive dam- rolling out a program in do if wear is shown. Charlene Huskey age to the driveshaft and Administrative Assistant the near future to better Andre Simon, at the transmission, or cause Pittsburg, Kansas prepare all team mem- Hockley, Texas, me- injury to the operators in bers on communications chanical shop, identified a the area. This spurred an security. This will also long-standing practice of inspection of all similar Jon Beach be offered in Spanish to be more inclusive and to using an air hose with- vehicles to identify and Terminal & Ports Division ensure we can impact all of our team. out a valve on the end to repair issues. Mechanic Team members Andrew Mitchell and Branson blow off water and mate- Morgan Giesy, op- Ghent, Kentucky Herring at the Bogalusa Bayou Railroad reported a rials. This could create an erator, Fryburg, North near miss they caught while switching a customer impact injury if the hose Dakota, terminal, noticed who receives loaded boxcars inside their facility. were dropped while under Andre Simon some of the facility radios While in the engine, Andy determined the hi-cube pressure. Valves were Mechanical Division had their talk alert signal boxcar would hit an overhead pipe in the facil- installed on the hoses, and Quality Assurance rendered inoperative or ity when moved.