NEW ORLEANS — Texas North Western Railway track inspector Raul Guerrero has been honored as Safety Individual of the Yr, and Austin Milton, director of security and teaching at Indiana Rail Highway, was named Security Qualified of the Yr by the American Shorter Line and Regional Railroad Affiliation.
Also at the ASLRRA Yearly Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans, 3 lines — Arkansas’ Kiamichi Railroad, and Pennsylvania’s Looking at & Northern and Strasburg Rail Highway — obtained the association’s 2023 Small business Enhancement Awards.
ASLRRA President Chuck Baker explained Guerrero and Milton live security, the leading precedence of shortlines, each and every working day, “driving their fellow railroaders to execute safely, working day in and day out. Their behaviors influence and elevate safety society on their respective railroads and in their communities, resulting in superb basic safety overall performance on their railroads. We are delighted to honor their decades of assistance to the field.”
Guerrero is Texas North Western’s “most vocal worker about security,” according to Chris Martin, the railroad’s manager of running techniques. An staff with extra than 14 years of railroad working experience, Guerror has been a member of the Worker Security Committee, a voluntary group of employees from parent organization TNW Corp. that encourages secure tactics at the company’s 3 Texas railways. In his principal part, he is liable for inspecting 165 miles of monitor and has aided keep the enterprise no cost of keep track of-brought on derailments for extra than two many years.
Peter Jesperson, Indiana Rail Road’s typical supervisor, functions, claims his company’s security good results “is because of to the difficult perform and dedication of Austin and his particular motivation to currently being safe and creating positive all INRD personnel have the expertise and instruments to function harmless.” Milton joined the railroad in 2011 as an operator, grew to become manager, protection and working techniques in 2017, and was promoted to his present-day situation in 2022. He has assisted the Indiana Rail Road access an FRA damage frequency index and educate incident level of zero in 2022, instituted its “Keys for Driving Security Success” software, enhanced its safety means and elements, and designed operate practides to make improvements to safety compliance of just about every discipline section.
Small business Advancement Awards
The a few award winners were being honored for revolutionary systems to increase visitors.
“The Organization Improvement Award honors the hallmarks of limited line railroading – having a keen comprehending of consumer requires, relentlessly looking for options to improve consumer small business, and executing creative shopper support alternatives to advantage their consumers and the communities they provide,” claimed ASLRRA’s Baker.
The Kiamichi Railroad convinced Tyson Meals to build a $65 million poultry feed mill on its line in McNab, Ark., offering a 145-acre internet site with home for further more enhancement, access to three Course I railroads and a freeway. Though Tyson crafted the mill, the Kiamichi used $9 million upgrading incorporating key line switches and a aspect track at the, and upgrading the full 180-mile Tyson route. It also worked with Tyson and condition organizations to increase the highway to the site. The ensuing business saw the Kiamichi haul in excess of 3,100 carloads, foremost to the employing of four new staff members.
The Reading & Northern (formally, the Looking at, Blue Mountain & Northern) was honored for the biggest industrial development job in its background, a transload facility in Tunkhannock Township, Pa. In spite of an extremely damp autumn, the railroad accomplished the required only 6 months to full a task that involved bringing in practically 10,000 cubic yards of rock and grime and building two tracks with capability for 34 automobiles, along with regions for trucking, transloading, and workplaces. The railroad handled 2,200 carloads of frac sand considering that acquiring its very first unit educate in May 2022, and expects to triple that determine in 2023.
The Strasburg was recognized for the opening earlier this year of its new lawn in Paradise, Pa. [see “Strasburg Rail Road opens six-track freight yard,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 13, 2023]. Even though significantly much better identified for its tourist operation, Strasburg’s freight operations have developed from 10 to 500 cars a yr, and the new property positions it for more progress.
