Official Magazine of the Employees and Customers of the Reading & Northern Railroad SUMMER 2018 | VOL. 20, ISSUE 3 Table of Contents Keeping On Track ...................................................................................................................................P. 3-4 RBMN Press Release .................................................................................................................................P. 4 Dennis Shaffer Retires ..............................................................................................................................P. 5 P. 6-7 Persistence Pays Off ..............................................................................................................................P. 6-7 Building a System Map ........................................................................................................... P. 8-10 Safety ............................................................................................................................................................ P. 11 P.12-14 Human Resources.................................................................................................................................... P. 11 Dennis shaffer inspecting the new sidetrack facility at Koppy’s propane in october 2016. RBMN Visits the Rotunda .................................................................................................................... P. 11 BY: WAYNE A. MICHEL, PRESIDENT Forty years ago, during a typically hot and humid write and testify about a new Railroad Merger warehouse operation, which was a radical Miles of Memories: Advertising a Fun Passenger Excursion ....................................... P. 12-14 Washington DC summer, I began my career in Policy that made it easier and faster for railroads concept at the time. As a result of their efforts the railroad industry. I had just graduated from to merge. Merge they did; in a relatively short Iowa Interstate won a Golden Freight Car Award. George Washington University Law School and period of time the industry went from over By the way that young man Dennis hired grew up P.15-18 MOW Mainline Milepost 89.50 New Rail Installation .................................................. P. 15-18 passed the DC Bar. My first job was as an attorney twenty Class 1 railroads to seven. At about the to be Bill Clark, Reading & Northern’s Senior VP at the Interstate Commerce Commission, the same time Congress passed the Staggers Rail Coal. Talk about being a small world! precursor to the current Surface Transportation Act of 1980, which made it easier for railroads I first came into contact with Dennis when he RBMN Road of Nature .......................................................................................................................... P. 19 Board. to make deals with customers and to downsize came back home and joined the North Shore Back in 1978 the ICC was a powerful agency. by selling rail lines to shortlines. As a result, the Railroad. shortline industry quickly grew from dozens RBMN at Work ....................................................................................................................... P. 20-22 It was the nation’s first independent regulatory Dennis handled marketing for Dick Robey. I agency having been founded in 1887 and it of shortlines to many hundreds of shortlines first met Dennis when I was running industrial was, in its time, remarkably powerful. By the and regional railroads. Thanks to my position development for Conrail and then when I took Employee Spotlight ................................................................................................................................. P. 23 time I joined the agency deregulation of the I was able to draft many of the regulations and over the Conrail Shortline Program I would spend P. 20-22 trucking and railroad industries was in the decisions permitting these changes; changes that more time with him. I found him to be among the air. Nonetheless, over a thousand employees led to the renaissance of the rail industry. best marketeers in the shortline world. In fact, R&N’s Family Recipes ............................................................................................................................ P. 23 and many Commissioners occupied an entire As it turns out Dennis Shaffer was also front one of the main reasons I invited the North Shore beautiful building at the Federal Triangle. and center during this tumultuous time. In fact, Railroad to join the new Conrail Express program For those of you who were not active in Dennis was already at work in the industry as a in 1996 (an honor also bestowed on Andy Muller Happy Birthday! ....................................................................................................................................... P. 24 railroading at the time, the 1970’s were a very part-time yard clerk and agent for the Reading and the RBMN) was because of how impressed I difficult period for railroads. The industry was Railroad, the original Road of Anthracite, while I was with Dennis’ marketing acumen. both heavily regulated and in poor financial was in junior high! All this and more is set forth Dennis moved on from the North Shore and joined Red Creek Wildlife: Daddy Eagle & Mother Goose ..................................................................... P. 25 condition with many believing the former led to in Tyler Glass’ article on p.5 celebrating Dennis’ PA Distribution, a lumber transload, in 2010. Even P. 25 the later. Deregulation was coming as President career on the occasion of his retirement after an then Dennis and I would keep in touch as RBMN amazing 50+ year career in the railroad industry. was always looking for new business and Dennis A View from Below... Continued ......................................................................................... P. 26-27 Carter had started by deregulating the airlines. The railroads were up next. The bankruptcy of After Penn State Dennis joined the Rock Island always had a high opinion of the RBMN operation. the PennCentral and formation of Conrail as in 1971 (the same Rock Island I later helped Our paths really crossed with his next job when he Welcome Aboard ...................................................................................................................................... P. 28 well as the creation of Amtrak to save passenger dismantle with the sale of the Tucumcari line). went to work in 2011 for local entrepreneur John service had been national news. The midwestern Dennis to this day will tell you that ICC regulation Moran. In addition to running a Moran facility that railroads were nearly bankrupt and it was clear killed the Rock Island. At the time I started my was used as a Norfolk Southern TBT Terminal in Anniversaries ............................................................................................................................................ P. 29 change, and radical change at that, was needed. railroad career as a lawyer Dennis had already Sunbury, a facility that he showed off to me and Dan Gilchrist, Dennis also played a critical role in That made for an exciting time for a young moved on to the Delaware & Hudson where Moran’s efforts to privatize the rail lines owned by attorney. And since most of the older attorneys he was involved in reacting to the formation of P. 26-27 the SEDA-COG Joint Rail Authority. Dennis has Wellness Corner ..................................................................................................................... P. 30-31 were set in their regulatory perspectives the young Conrail. By the time he left the D&H in 1984 he been on the JRA Board for over a decade, only attorneys were given unusual opportunities. As a was the AVP Pricing and Marketing. leaving when he went to work for Moran, and he result, I was soon assigned to a major “merger” As I was joining Conrail in late 1985 and starting knew firsthand that the lines should be privatized. COVER PHOTO type case involving the sale of the Tucamcari line the Class 1 portion of my career, Dennis had He was familiar with articles written by me and REBECCA ENGLE, MOW TRACK WORKER, INSTALLING RAIL AT HECLA, MAINLINE MILEPOST 89.05. from the bankrupt Rock Island to the Cotton Belt moved on to help start the first of two prominent Andy Muller advocating privatization and so he subsidiary of Southern Pacific. The case is more regional railroads. Of note was an action he took as invited Andy and I to meet with him and John’s familiarly known as Rock Island 2. I ended up VP of Marketing at Iowa Interstate. Dennis hired team. drafting the decision approving the sale for the a young man who helped him set up Interstate EDITORS Commissioners in 1981 and was then asked to Reloads, the Iowa Interstate transloading and Continued on page 4. Jolene busher • sAbIne FIDler All photos Are the property oF the rAIlroAD unless otherwIse mentIoneD. thIs mAgAzIne Is prouDly prInteD on recycleD pAper. 3 Continued from page 3. transload and warehouse businesses that are the region who helped this location decision Over the course of a year we got to know Dennis poised for ongoing growth. For his efforts we won and thanks to Dennis for working so hard to even better and were very impressed with his two national marketing awards. accomplish this task. knowledge and work ethic. During his tenure Dennis also drove our industrial As I write this column it is the weekend before Once