DispatchtheThe newsletter for Watco Companies, LLC and Watco Transportation Services, LLC October 2011, Volume 12, Issue 10

Watco teams conclude a successful Summer Spike programby Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

One of the main tenets of Watco’s Cus-tomer First Principles is to not only put our Customers First, but that everything must be done in a safe manner throughout the process. Each season brings with it certain hazards and distractions and the summer months have always been a troublesome time of year for the rail industry as a whole. Because of this fact, Gary Vaughn, Watco’s senior vice president of safety and envi-ronmental health, implemented a Summer Spike program to place awareness on the hazards summertime brings and to reduce the number of incidents that occur because of those hazards.

“I’m proud to say that this has been our most successful Summer Spike ever,” said

Vaughn. “Our number of RPI’s (reportable personal injuries) was reduced by more than 50 percent this year. Although one injury is too many, it’s encouraging to see how focused our team was throughout the summer.”

The switching team came out on top, mak-ing it through the entire summer without any injuries. There are a total of 23 different locations that provide switching services who have been able to maintain their high safety standards. The transload and intermodal ser-vices division had one incident this summer and as they ramp up to provide more services at various locations, it is imperative that they continue this focus on safety.

The mechanical division showed the most improvement this summer, reducing their RPI’s by 67 percent over last year.

“The mechanical team has really stepped up and made safety a

by Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

It’s always an honor to be recognized for a job well done but when you receive that recognition from someone who sets the bar in that area it’s icing on the cake. ExxonMobil is known throughout the industry as a leader in safety so it was a big honor when they called the team at the Baton Rouge Southern Railroad (BRS) to let them know they wanted to treat them to a lunch for their attention to safety and detail when switching the company’s tank cars.

BRS team members, Daniel Pinkston, engineer and conductor Dillon Hall were out working in the yard this past March when they heard a muffled bang and noticed smoke coming from the top of a hopper car. They immediately reported it to their supervisor who contacted the Exxon-Mobil Baton Rouge Area Rail Manage-ment group.

It was determined that the team members had observed what is referred to in the plastics industry as a “cool flame”, where the residual hydrocar-

bons released from the plastic pellets inside the car had built up and been ignited by what is believed to have been a static discharge. The result was a flash burning of the hydrocarbons that left bits of the vented hatch cover smoldering on top of the car.

Because of Pinkston and Hall’s attention to detail, and reporting of the issue, the Customer determined the root cause of the issue and established changes in

their manufacturing process that have eliminated the chance of this recurring.

Amy Parady, vice president of sales and market-ing, Gulf Region, said, “We are proud of the BRS Team and their commitment to ExxonMobil and our Customer First Foundation Principles. We are truly appreciative of the communication and relation-ship that we have with ExxonMobil and through

that relationship we have been able to implement best practices that benefit both parties.”

Pat Quint, Baton Rouge Area Rail Logistics Group Lead said, “Exxon-Mobil is both proud and appreciative of the actions taken by the BRS team. At ExxonMobil, we place the highest priority on the safety of our people and the quality of our products in all facets of our operations, including transpor-tation. We want to thank the Baton Rouge Southern team for their prompt reporting of the issue they observed that demonstrates their commitment to the same beliefs and standards that we are committed to on a daily basis. We’ve all been able to take learnings from this event and improve our every day processes.”

ExxonMobil thanks Baton Rouge Team with luncheon

Standing left to right: Kevin Cutrer, EM; Irvin Heatly, EM; Alvin Maney, BRS; Scott Henderson, BRS; Kendrick Bates, BRS; Cliff Wilbert, EM; Pat Quint, EM; Stephanie Ard, EM; Roderick Gardner, BRS; Paul Schacht, EM; Mary Jo O’Dear, EM; Rita Gut-tirrez, EM. Sitting left to right: Errol Flint, Jr., BRS; John Anderson, BRS; Richard Ryder, BRS; Jeffery Poole, BRS; Johnny Smith, BRS; Leslie McCoy, BRS; David Riley, Jr., BRS.

The Eastern Idaho track and locomotive departments celebrated a suc-cessful Summer Spike program. Standing - Sean Crowe, Matt Fetzer, Landon Williams, Jim Pelton, Doug Kerley, John Anderson, Shane Martin, Damien Williams, Dion Dedrick, Steve Gonzalez, Lee Dempsey, Troy Tracy and Ken Parkin. Kneeling - Jack Lisle, Jordan Hitt, Keith Goodsell, Efrain Ramirez, Robert Deluna and Sean Corr. (Continued on page 2)

by Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

The old saying is that the grass is always greener on the other side, and that’s what Gary Bernhardt, locomotive manager for the Kansas and Oklahoma Rail-road (KO), is hoping as he embarks on his retirement. The grass he hopes to be greener is that which lies on the putting greens at his local golf course.

Bernhardt shared his post-retirement plans to play golf with his fellow team members at a retirement party that was held for him on September 22. The third generation railroader began his career in 1971 as an electrician with the Great Western Railway in Loveland, Co. During Bernhardt’s tenure in the rail industry he performed locomotive maintenance for 13 years for the Adolph Coors Company; managed leased locomotives for the Livingston Rebuilt Center, in Liv-ingston, Montana; provided quality assurance for wreck repairs for Mid-America Car in Kansas City, Mo.; and managed locomotive and cane car repair for US Sugar in Clewiston, Fla.

In July of 2006 Berhardt joined the KO team in Wichita as the locomotive manager and has held that position ever since. Bernhardt stated that the best thing about working for Watco was the opportunity to work for Shane Stalford, locomotive director for the Central Region.

“Shane is the most knowledgeable boss that I’ve ever had,” said Bernhardt, “When it comes to locomotive mechanical and electrical work he really knows what he’s doing.”

In additional to getting some playing time at the golf course, Bernhardt also plans to travel north to Montana to visit his son Dan, his daughter-in-law Leah and his grandson Wyatt. He will also be spending more time with his wife Barbara as well.

“Gary has been a great manager and will definitely be missed,” said Stalford. “Not only has he been an asset to both the locomotive department for the KO and the Central Region, he has been a key part of training the young managers that are now running the KO and we owe him greatly for that.”

priority. Their numbers keep dropping and safety numbers are like golf scores, the lower the better. In our industry 0 would be par. We look forward to seeing each one of our teams turn in a score-card showing they’ve met par,” said Vaughn.

The good news for the short line group is that their number didn’t increase, but they didn’t decrease either. The group added one more short line to the mix since last years program.

Vaughn said, “The bottom line is, we need to work to improve this number next year. There are many different variables that can be safety factors for each service; the addition of new properties, weather related issues, and so

on. It’s imperative to focus on being safer each day than we were the day before regardless of the obstacles that may be thrown our way.”

To celebrate their success many of the different ser-vice areas held dinners and barbecues to thank the team members for their continued focus on safety. Many of the events included spouses and family members because they are the ones who we do this all for so that our team members can go home to them at the end of the day, or night, depending on the various work schedules.

Gary Vaughn, senior vice president of safety and envi-ronment, treated his assistant Michele Howard and her son Troy to a Royals game to thank her for all the work that went into tracking and organizing the program. Vaughn also treated many television viewers to a display of how not to catch a foul ball.

“Congratulations on a very successful Summer Spike period performance which resulted in a new historic low in RPI’s,” said Watco president, Terry Towner. “This also follows the recent report that Watco as a whole is on course to achieve an RPI below 2.00. We are very proud of these achievements and know the hard work and diligence it takes to earn these improve-ments. Thanks to all for your dedication to this effort and lets continue to achieve even more by clos-ing out 2011 on an even higher note.”

page 2Dispatchthe

The Austin Western Railroad celebrated the success of their Summer Spike program with a family get together. The event was held on September 11 at Main Event Entertainment in Austin, Texas. Team members and their families enjoyed arcade games, billiards, bowling, laser tag, putt-putt golf and all-you-can eat barbecue.

Successful Summer Spike program(Continued from page 1)

The Vicksburg Southern and Mississippi Southern Railroad Teams celebrated the ending of the Summer Spike program with a dinner for them and their spouses at the Lone Star Steakhouse and Saloon in Jackson, Miss. Pictured left to right are: Terry Snell, VSOR conductor; Justin Dempsey, VSOR assistant trainmaster; Danny Sims, MSR engineer; Milo Jackson, VSOR engineer; Stacy Swinford, VSOR con-ductor; Jay Anthony, MSR conductor; Justin, Rhodes, VSOR trainmaster; Randy McIntire, VSOR electrician and Darrell Thompson, VSOR, MSR and ARS general manager.

The organizers of the Summer Spike program enjoy a Kansas City Royals baseball game. Left to right are Gary Vaughn, SVP safety and environmental heath, his wife Monica, Michele Howard, administrative assistant and her son Troy.

Locomotive manager goes where the grass is greener

Above: Members of the KO locomotive team with retiring Steven Reida, Eric Slimp, Kyle Moody, Gary Bernhardt, George Villa, Ray Russell, Mike Pyeatt, Jason Hislop, Craig Stansbury). Left: Gary Bern-hardt cuts into his retirement cake.

page 3Dispatchthe

by Ted KadauMarketing Manager, Great Northwest Railroad & Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad

The team on The Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad (PCC) works each and every day to follow Watco Companies’ Foundation Principles – and each and every day they follow those values safely.

As evidence of this, on June 29 the PCC team cel-ebrated three years of working injury-free – a huge milestone in the railroad business or in any other industry. In celebration of this landmark event, the PCC team was treated to a jet boat ride for them-selves and a guest on the Snake River near Lewiston, ID, last month. The boat ride was followed by a dinner and the presentation of wristwatches commemorating the occa-sion.

“This is a huge accomplishment,” Rob Thrall, Vice-President of Operations for Watco’s West Region, said. “It takes every-day effort and focus to achieve this monu-mental goal. I just want to thank the team members on the PCC for making safety part of their culture and making the goal of working injury-free their top priority every day.”

The jet boat ride and dinner included team mem-bers from the PCC’s operations, track, car repair and locomotive repair departments.

“It is a pleasure to recognize the hard work and safety awareness by our team members on the PCC,” Brian Simpson, General Manager, said. “It’s not every day a railroad goes three years without a single injury event. So, it’s a special day when we can recognize the team that brought us to this milestone. The boat ride was a lot of fun, but this really was a day for our team members. They kept safety in mind every minute of every day for three years. I can’t thank them enough for their commitment to safety and the Watco Foundation Principles.”

The PCC has been moved mainly agricultureal related products for nearly 20 years in the state of Washington.

“I really enjoyed the event,” Mike Burley, PCC engineer, who has worked nearly 15 injury-free for Watco, said. “It was great to be recognized. It was one of the most enjoyable activities I can remember while working for the PCC.”

Burley said the he believes a key component to working safe every day is communication.

“We hold job briefings. We report anything un-safe, any unsafe conditions. We work to keep safety foremost in our minds,” he said, adding that he and his team members on the PCC have also known and worked together for years and, as such, are able to anticipate many safety hazards on the job.

“You need attention to detail, a good knowledge of your surroundings. That helps a lot,” he added.

Rick Swinney, track inspector on the PCC, said he believes a key component to operating safely is to

have a plan, follow that plan and then communicate, communicate, communicate.

“We start out with a job briefing every morning,” Swinney said. “With track inspecting, you never know what you are going to run into. We have a plan and we communicate. Communication is the big thing. If it takes five or 10 minutes longer, let’s do it the safest way we can. I am getting too old to not be safe. We look for what things can go wrong. We try to perceive it before it becomes unsafe.”

In 37 years of railroading, 15 of those with Watco, Swinney has only been hurt once – a back injury many years ago.

“And that was one too many,” he added. Swinney noted that he has carried over a culture

of safety into his life off the job, being aware that most injuries can be prevented with awareness and forethought.

“I carry it over into my home life,” he said. “You can use it in all parts of your life. You just have to slow your brain down and think about what could happen. If you can eliminate 99% of what could hap-pen, you are going to do well. And, God gave you a noodle - you should use it once in a while.”

Larry Smith, engineer on the north end of the PCC, has been a Watco team member for 16 years – and has worked each of those years injury-free. He noted that working safely isn’t just an important part of railroading, it’s the most important part of the job.

“Number one, you don’t want to get hurt. We do job briefings and we work hard to follow the rules and look out for each other every day,” he said. “We work to keep safety foremost in our minds to make sure we never get hurt.”

Joe Bennett, trainmaster on the PCC, said the best part of the celebration event was that it allowed team members and their families the opportunity to interact and have a great time away from the work environment.

“It was a great team-building experience,” Bennett said. “It was great to get away, in a casual atmo-sphere, and have a great time. I really appreciated it.”

Bennett has been a team member with Watco for 18 years. And, he’s worked injury-free every day during his tenure with the company. He added that his family is the driving force for his focus on safety.

“My family is my focus,” he said. “What it would do to them if I did not come home. I want to make sure my boys have a father around. I work hard to not get complacent. I don’t want to get hurt. That’s what keeps my focus on safety.”

When asked the secret to operating injury-free, Simpson noted that each PCC team member cares about their fellow team

members and works on keeping each other pro-tected.

“I think this is a close, tight-knit team which cares about and looks out for each other,” he said. “Their primary goal every day is to go home safely to their families.”

Simpson added that he is looking forward to an-other celebration commemorating four years injury-free, and many celebrations to come.

“I would view the PCC team as stewards of safety and role models for the rest of the Watco team with regard to safety and service,” he said.

Jerry Carter, director of operations for Watco’s West Region, said he is looking forward to many more injury-free years of outstanding safety and ser-vice on the PCC. Carter noted that although this was a celebration commemorating three years injury-free on the PCC, many PCC team members have gone more than 16 years without an injury.

“This team is just unbelievable,” Carter said. “For them to go three years injury-free is just outstanding and we appreciate the effort and time spent meeting this achievement. We thank them and their families for their commitment and look forward to going many more years injury-free.”

PCC team members are: Scott Lynas, track em-ployee; Shawn Gatlin, track inspector; Ty Gatlin, track employee; Joe Bennett, train master; Larry Smith, engineer; Joey Gallegos, engineer; Rick Swin-ney, track inspector; Mike Burley, engineer; Loren Parr, Chief Mechanical Officer; AJ Mee, locomotive mechanic; Dan Paul, car repair supervisor; Mike Kincart, car repair; Taylor Carter, car repair; and Cameron Jarvis, car repair.

Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad celebrates three years injury-free

Top photo front row, from left: Cameron Jarvis, Taylor Carter, Katrina Baune, Misti Lewis, Matt Lewis, Amy Carter, Jerry Carter, AJ Mee, Mandy Mee, Dan Garrett, Ted Kadau, Joe Bennett. Second row, from left: Trisha Gatlin, Jan Smith, Rose Grant, Candy Kadau, Wendy Heitter-Keatts, Liesbeth Garrett, Teri Parr. Third row, from left: Shawn Gatlin, Larry Smith, Stacy Grant, Dan Paul, Brian Simpson, Mike Burley, Loren ParrBottom photo: The jet boat travels down the Snake River with PCC team members.

by Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

It’s been said that they do everything bigger in Tex-as and the Refugio Transload Team’s newest member is proof of this. She weighs in at a whopping 415,000

lbs. She would appear to be a candidate for the Big-gest Loser contest but this she, a SD40-2 locomotive, is the first ever locomotive to be put into service for a Watco transload facility.

Originally built in 1980, the former BNSF locomo-tive will be used to switch railcars of sand within the

facility. The sand will arrive in unit trains and the transload team will switch and take approximately 25 railcars at a time to unload. The train will then be reassembled, air tested and released to the Union Pacific.

The Refugio site is a 24/7 operation that features six unit train tracks, a repair shop and locomotive fueling tracks. This facility will be North America’s largest sand transload facility. Watco is providing the transload, switch and utility crews and switch en-gines and will be responsible for performing running repairs and track repairs.

The SD40-2 is one of two locomotives that will be on site to switch the cars at the new facility. Both cars are traveling to Refugio from Houston, Texas, where they were recently painted and stenciled with the WTIS letters.

Eddie Garcia, location manager said, “The team and I are very excited and honored to start a new chapter in the WTIS division. We look forward to these new challenges and hope to set the standard on the transloading side”.

page 4Dispatchthe

Transload Team has new addition

Left photo: The newly painted SD40-2 is ready to provide switching services at the Refugio, Texas, facility for the Transload Team. Right photo transload team members (l-r): Guy Garnette, William Buddemeier, Donald Wilson, Jerry Garcia and Richard Buddemeier.

Mechanical Team cleans upby Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

When Mike Henderson with The Greenbrier Companies contacted Mike McGinn, in early July he was looking for someone who was into some heavy duty cleaning. What needed cleaned were 20 cement cars that had to be made ready to be qualified to be put into service as sand cars. Getting the cars cleaned wasn’t going to be a problem, McGuinn, the plant manager of Watco’s Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha, Neb., mechanical shops, knew his experienced team could get the job done, the time frame was the challenge.

“We didn’t have an opportunity to inspect the cars prior to delivery into the shops so we didn’t know what their status really was. Also the cars were in a stor-age facility so we weren’t sure of actual delivery dates to the local rail yard,” said McGuinn.

Once the cars arrived on site in Omaha, some required extensive blasting while others were subject to pressure washing. Moisture can get into the cement cars causing cement to cling to the ceiling and walls of the cars. When being put into

service for a different commodity, traces of the former commodity have to be removed. The teams inspected, repaired or replaced hatch cover gaskets as needed and new gate seals were added as part of the scope of work.

McGuinn said, “Our team members in Omaha and Council Bluffs took on the challenge with gusto. We combined our inspection efforts, ad-dressed the material requirements and kept the Customer informed with weekly status updates. The effort was well worth it, not only did we meet our deadline goal, we received a very nice thank you from our Customer. He stated that as a result of our diligence, their customer was very pleased with the cars and that the condition of the cars had exceeded his customer’s expectations.”

This photo shows the amount of cement that accumulates on a typical railcar through-out a loading cycle.

Tax Credit calls neededby Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

In a recent conversation, a young man compared requesting money from the government similar to poor Oliver Twist meekly holding out his bowl asking for “more porridge please”.

That’s how we in the short line industry feel, standing in a line of many, ask-ing our representatives for more tax credits please. We really don’t even want more, just an extension of the existing Section 45G short line railroad reha-bilitation tax credit that is currently in place. The extension is needed so that short line railroads can better plan for improvements to their infrastructure on a long term basis.

Just as young Mr. Twist needed the porridge to build his strength, the short lines need the tax credits to build a strong infrastructure. The work sup-ported by this credit includes replacing worn out wood ties, upgrading the steel rail, and re-distributing the ballast under the track. This past year has been wrought with tornados, hurricanes and droughts that have impacted the infrastructure of many railroads and the tax credits would enable railroads to more quickly recover from the damage inflicted by such disasters. What would take years to repair is accomplished in a shorter span of time with the aid of tax credits.

In addition, short line tax credits provide nourishment for the economy. They allow short lines to continue investing heavily in their infrastructure while creating local well-paying construction jobs. Shippers benefit from the efficiencies obtained when using rail and those saving can be passed on to the consumers of their products. Tax payers benefit when rail is used instead of trucks because there is less wear and tear on highways, a simple freight train can take the load of 280 trucks or an equivalent of 1,100 cars off our crowded highways. This in turn is a benefit to the environment since a ton of freight can be moved 484 miles on a single gallon of fuel.

How can you help? Call your representatives and let them know that you would like their support for the short line tax credit. Ask them to sign on as a co-sponsor for the short line tax credit as contained in H.R. 721. The web address for the US House of Representatives is: http://www.house.gov This site is very useful in providing a variety of information on your district’s rep-resentatives so that you, in turn, can hold out your bowl and ask “more tax credits, please?”

October AnniversariesCongratulations to the following team members celebrating anniversaries this month:

1 Year: Miguel Auces, Corey Black, Colt Booth, Murphy Carter, Richard Dale, Timothy Dykes, Daryl Field, Gerald Garner, William Gray, Harry Hart, Joshua Knisley, Joshua Olvitt, Chad Pantier, Valerie Petocz, Kenneth Pettit, Jonathan Randall, Dale Scalisi, William Sorensen, Jona-than Whitman2 Years: Chet Ackerman, Bryan Anderson, Vicente Barboza, Rebekah Bolton, Eric Bred-vick, Merlin Bridge, Edward Brien, Earl Bruce, Joseph Carlucci, Lynn Clark, Chad Davis, Joseph Degenstein, Bryan Dervin, Tommy Dervin, Mark Dryer, Dale Dunn, Kevin Flammang, Matthew Gibbs, Mike Hainds, Buddy Hall, Chad Holland, Donovan Hudson, Chad Jasmin, Elvis Johns, Todd Johnson, Derrick Keys, Gerry Knutson, Craig Long, William Nash, Dennis Neufeld, Peter Pappas, Melissa Parker, Brian Pitt, Kelly Rambel, Joel Reeder, Larry Richardson, Jeremy Sepulvado, Stephen Smith, Stephen Swafford, Verlan Tagestad, Michael Toler, James Walker, Ray Watson, Dion Weichel3 Years: Sherrie Baykowski, Ralph Beshears, Mark Bowen, David Cain, Brian Carter, Chad Cold, Lucas Conrad, James Culbertson, Clinton Dansby, Guy Evans, Guy Evans III, Troy Forbis, Karl Fuchs, Michael Harris, David Heller, Justin Huguenin, Steve Janak, Jon Johnson, Sharon No-votni, Justin Ray, Donald Savage, James Shoop, Bryan Welker, Douglas Wolnik4 Years: Jana Austerman, Billy Barton, Gu-maro Castillo, Shaneena Clark, Chad Farmer, Ryan Gordon, Roger Howard, Richard Johnson, Dennis Newson, Armando Ortiz, Bradley Peck, Rik Rainville, Steven Roland, Fernando Rosa, Amanda Santana, Jason Seger,Sterling Teague5 Years: Greg Baker, Nathaniel Degraff, Jocelyn Gates, Curtis Hanna, Christopher Henning, Cody

Johnson, Teri Kinyon, Jesse Lambert, Keith Reed, Michael Richardson, Matthew Stover, Asa Walker6 Years: William Bouse, Jerry Brightman, Bran-don Hammons, Annette Lane, Scotty Presley, Jose Saavedra, Diana Scheffel, Delia Winegarner7 Years: Venson Bell, Galen Dyck, Bo Fox, Tra-vis Herod, Christopher Nielsen, Larry Schwarz, Jereud Uscola8 Years: Marvin Albritton, Jeff Baum, David Hambrick, Charles McGinn, Michael Welch, Ricky Wilcox9 Years: William Czapla, Earl Holt, Kevin Nu-gent10 Years: Scott Lynas, James Wren11 Years: David Clapper12 Years: Lisa Berry13 Years: Norman Neal14 Years: Donald Brau, Becky Fearmonti, Heath Morgan, Brian Oleske15 Years: Ivan Ferrin, P Lee, Edward Moore16 Years: Rodney Daugherty, Johnny Guthrie, Steven Korell, Michael Moore, Rollie Pickens, Roosevelt Robinson, Steve Sommers17 Years: Dave Carr, Richard Heverly, Lori Magee, Christopher Smith18 Years: Cirilo Bueno, Albin Harris19 Years: Bruce Huerter, Craig Stansbury20 Years: Tony Clark, Jamie Swaynos21 Years: Kevin Welshans22 Years: Eddie Bennatt, Kelvin Matthews23 Years: Michael Allen, James Filegar, Franklin Miller24 Years: Jesse Lynch, Michael Tappy, Paul Tickner25 Years: James Moore26 Years: Keith LaCaze27 Years: Clarence Parrie28 Years: Phil Penner30 Years: Lonnie Joyce, Gary Nelms, Dave Turner36 Years: Robert Parker, George Rhodes

BirthsLandon Robert Dedrick

Dion and Sara Dedrick are pleased to announce the birth of a son, Landon Robert Dedrick, born on August 19. Landon weighed 5 lbs., 13 oz., and was 19 inches long.

Landon was welcomed home by his sisters Kirsten, 14 and Piper, 3 and brother Elijah, 5.

Dion is a locomotive me-chanic at the Eastern Idaho Railroad’s Rupert, Idaho, location.

Grace Michelle CulbertsonThomas and Ashley

Culbertson of Oklahoma City, Okla., are proud to announce the birth of a daughter, Grace Michelle.

She was born on Sept. 9 and weighed 8 lbs., and was 19 inches long.

Grace is the grand-daughter of James Culb-ertson, conductor for the

Stillwater Central Railroad based out of Cyril, Okla.

Maverick Dean WelkerBryan and Jennifer

Welker are excited to an-nounce the birth of their son Maverick Dean.

He was born on Sept. 13 and weighed 8 lbs., 3 oz. and was 20 inches long.

Bryan works in the Tim-ber Rock Railroad’s (TIBR)locomotive department in

Silsbee, Texas. Maverick also has a proud grandfather, Nick Smith,

who is also a member of the team at the Timber Rock locomotive shop.

page 5Dispatchthe

WAT CO

WO R L D

This section is dedicated to the Watco Team members to give you a chance to share what’s happening in your corner of the Watco World.

Landon Robert Dedrick

October Anniversaries

Grace Michelle Culbertson

Maverick Dean Welker

If you would like to opt out of receiving the newsletter in a print version send an e-mail to

chuskey@watcocompanies.com and put in the subject, Green Newsletter. Include your name, address, the location you work at and the e-mail address that you would like to have your notice sent to when the latest edition of the newsletter

is available online. Each month a link will be sent to you as soon as the newsletter is posted online. At anytime you can go to the Watco web site under the News link and read current and past issues of the newsletter.

Don’t worry though, if you or your location is featured in the newsletter and you would like a printed version all you need to do is send an e-mail and the printed version will be on its way.

Send your births, weddings, stories and photo’s to tvan@watcocompanies.com.

DispatchtheGreen

by Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

When the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) Rail Energy Transportation Advisory Committee (RETAC) was planning their September meeting Tulsa, Okla., seemed the perfect venue. Tulsa is located near Cushing, Okla., where all, or most, things crude flow via pipeline for distribution throughout the coun-try. Although crude oil is not the only energy resource the committee reviews, numerous shale deposits have recently been discovered making crude one of the hottest energy sources moving by rail. Not only does the crude move by rail but many drilling supplies have found a home on rails as well. During their meeting members addressed rail performance, capacity constraints, infrastructure plan-ning and development, and ways to foster more effective coordination among suppliers, carriers and energy users. A presentation was also given on ethanol issues.

Following the meeting, members of the committee had the opportunity to ride the BNSF business cars from Tulsa to Stroud, Okla., on the BNSF and Stillwa-ter Central railroads. The train ran on the BNSF line from Tulsa to Sapulpa, Okla., where they then rode the tracks of the Stillwater Central Railroad (SLWC). That particular portion of track is called the Sooner Sub, borrowing the state nickname, and stretches southwest to Oklahoma City.

Unit crude trains ride the same tracks on their journey from Stanley, N.D., to a premier transload facility in Stroud, Okla. When the trains arrive in Stroud, the Watco transload team trans-fers the crude oil from the tank cars into a pipeline to Cushing.

“This was a great opportunity for members of RETAC and the STB to meet and see what rail is doing in relation to the energy sector,” said Ed McKechnie, Watco EVP and CCO.

While traveling to the Stroud facility, Dave Garin, vice presi-dent Industrial Products, BNSF Railway and Allan Roach, Watco senior vice president, Crude By

Rail, gave presentations on Crude by Rail operations and opportunities that are upcoming due to the shale formations that have been discovered.

“Even the experts can’t pinpoint the exact amount of crude that we can poten-tially extract from the shale formations,” said Roach. “There have been many cases where they have had to up their original numbers once a layer of crude has been taken out to reveal yet another even larger pool of crude that was hid-den by the uppermost layer. Shipping this crude by rail has many benefits; it’s quicker than a pipeline, the crude retains its purity, the shipper has the advan-tage of choosing the market they want their product to go to and job creation.”

Once the group arrived in Stroud they were given a presentation on the facil-ity and then a brief tour.

“The tour was great and we saw a tremendous railroad and transloading team at work in Stroud,” said McKechnie.

RETAC was formed in 2007 to provide advice and guidance to STB members and serve as a forum for the discussion of emerging issues regarding rail-trans-ported energy resources, including coal, ethanol and other biofuels.

The committee is co-chaired by BNSF Railway’s Steve Bobb and Dairyland Power Cooperative’s William Berg. TrinityRail’s Robert Hulick serves as secre-tary/treasurer. RETAC’s voting members include Sameer Gaur, GE Equipment Services, Rail Services; Kent Smith, Arch Coal; Daryl Haack, corn and soybean producer; Paul Hammes, Union Pacific Railroad; Robert D. Gabbard, PPL En-

ergyPlus, LLC; John Gray, CHS, Inc.; Mark Huston, Louis Drey-fus Corp.; Susan Arigoni, XCEL Energy; Dan Kuehn, Lower Colo-rado River Authority; Ed McKech-nie, Watco Companies; Betsy B. Monseu, Alpha Coal Sales LLC; John Hull, Peabody COALSALES LLC; Anthony V. Reck, Four Riv-ers Transportation; Henry Rupert, CSX Transportation, Inc.; Daniel R. Sabin, Iowa Northern Railway Co.; Darin Selby, Kansas City Southern Railway; Mark Hamilton, Norfolk Southern Railway Company; James Stem, United Transportation Union; Darrell R. Wallace, Bunge North America, Inc.; and Jeff Wallace, Southern Company.

Dispatchthe

315 W. Third StreetPittsburg, KS 66762www.watcocompanies.com

PRST STDUS POSTAGE

PAIDPRADMAR CORP

The newsletter for Watco Companies, LLC and Watco Transportation Services, LLCOctober 2011, Volume 12, Issue 10

Energy advisory committee visits Stillwater Central’s Sooner Sub and Stroud transload facility

Tim Wernicke, EOG, discusses the features of the crude oil unloading facility at Stroud, Okla., to members of the STB-RETAC committee.