by Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

Long before the Customer First! initiative was put into effect there were mem-bers of the Watco Team out in the fields practicing the theory just because it’s the right way to do business. Today we hear stories everyday from Customers who they feel our team has gone that extra mile for them.

One Customer in the Gulf Region taking notice of Watco’s focus on Customer First! is Standridge Color Corporation on the Alabama Southern Railroad (ABS). Rob Marks, who heads technical sales at Standridge wrote ABS general manager Alex King expressing appreciation for the service they received from the ABS.

Marks said, “I want to take a moment to say thank you and express my appreciation to you and everyone at ABS for the assistance you gave Standridge Color last week. Without your assistance we would not have been able to pull off what we did last week.

A railcar had been hung up in Birmingham, Ala., for several days and by off-loading the critical raw material into bulk trucks, our customer, Kimberly-Clark, was able to avoid a critical shut down situation at their mill in Corinth, Miss. The ABS assisted us in locating the car and put us in touch with the cor-rect people at CSX, however, it wasn’t until the car arrived on the ABS that we were able to make something happen. You allowed this off-loading of material at your site and we were able to keep a very critical Health Care production run from shutting down.

I’m not exactly sure why, but it’s not often that we get this kind of cooperation and willingness to assist from other providers of rail service.

Please, also thank Todd Johns, assistant trainmaster and Dusty Gardner in Customer Service for all of their help!”

Ricky Martin, MRP controller at the Kimberly-Clark Corinth Mill added, “I would like to thank you on behalf of Kimberly-Clark as well. The service and

support we received was by far above and beyond any I’ve seen in the 15 years that I’ve been in this position. The ABS has set the standard for

the entire rail industry.”Listen, understand and grow. Those are the three key components in the Customer First! vision. The Louisiana

Southern Railroad (LAS) recently initiated meetings with Customer Weyerhaeuser in to facilitate better communi-cation and an understanding of each other’s operational processes and what measures each were taking to ensure the safe operation of all moves within the Weyerhaeuser yard.

Marketing manager Christopher Slasinski proposed the meeting as an opportunity to fully encompass the needs of

the Customer on not only a service level, but as a preventive measure as well.

“I thought that it would be beneficial to everyone if we fully understood each others operational goals and how to employ the safety

measures required by both parties to ensure all goals were met,” said Slasinski. “I think because we better understand our Customer we can now take the neces-sary steps for growth of the business.”

Stacey Miles, Weyerhaeuser rail manager and Kathy

DispatchtheThe newsletter for Watco Companies, Inc. and Watco Transportation Services, Inc. April 2010, Volume 11, Issue 4

Austin Western Railroad shares trackby Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

Monday, March 22, marked a new day in history for the Central Texas based Austin Western Railroad (AWRR). At 5:25 a.m. passengers boarded the MetroRail, now shar-ing the rail with AWRR. The 32-mile commuter line runs from Leander to Downtown Austin with nine stations located on the line. Early morning ridership was slow the first day but by the afternoon traffic had picked up and most trains were packed; some exceeding the capacity of 200 people. Eventually the trains are predicted to have approximately 2,000 boardings daily.

Allan Roach, senior vice president of business development, said, “Watco and the AWRR are very excited about the Austin commuter startup. All the planning, scheduling, and test runs that our Operations Team put together in conjunction with Capital Metro Transit Authority (CMTA) to move freight and commuter traffic on the same line has proven success-ful. Commuter and freight service are moving together exactly as planned. With our existing freight business, and new freight opportunities just around the corner, it’s extremely im-portant that we ensure that commuter operations are successful.

Commuter rail is important to the AWRR because

The MetroRail began operations Monday, March 22. The Austin Western Railroad will operate it’s freight service around the commuter rail service.

Photo courtesy of Carol Hamilton, AWRR Administrative Assistant.

Customer First! in action

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Willoughby, plant general manager, were pleased at the opportunity to meet and discuss efficiencies within the plant. Some of the topics discussed in the meeting were derailing at correct locations, responsibility for turning on and off the derails and how to enhance communication between the train crew and Weyerhaeuser personnel.

Kevin Jeter, LAS general manager said, “We learned a lot more detail about the processes and in-teraction between the crew and the Customer. There are a couple of items I am working on obtaining for our Customer to help them function more efficiently because we saw a need that they had as a result of the meeting. Stacey and Kathy were very gracious and the chance to learn more about this Customer will help us better serve them and helped us develop a better vision for our future relationship.”

The Vicksburg Southern Railroad (VSOR) was another Gulf Region shortline to receive kudo’s from a Customer.

Janye Guinn, Ergon rail services manager, had several empty railcars in transit to their plant and if they didn’t receive them they wouldn’t have any cars to put their product in. She was having trouble find-ing out the number of cars that would be available and when they would be delivered.

Scott Nause, VSOR trainmaster, contacted the Class I railroad that was delivering the cars to the VSOR and the let Guinn know that the cars she needed plus 10 additional cars would be delivered to the VSOR and that he would make sure those cars were delivered to Ergon that evening.

Guinn said, “Scott always goes above and beyond to serve Ergon and we’re extremely grateful and thankful for all he does.”

If you travel north about 850 miles from the VSOR, Jake Meyers, Grand Elk Railroad trainmaster and the track crew are key players in a story told by one of their Customers.

The purchasing manager said, “Jake called my of-fice on March 3 to let me know that while his crew was out working on a gate they noticed what they though was a possible water leak. Our grounds manager sent a plumber out to review the situation and it was indeed a leak and a rather serious one since the leak was in our fire suppression system. I would like to make sure they are credited with going the extra distance to make sure that we knew about the leak.”

Rodney Gordon, Grand Elk general manager said he is very proud of his team. “That’s what we’re here for, taking care of the Customer,” said Gordon. “They noticed something wasn’t quite right and

made sure that our Customer was aware of the situ-ation.”

The track crew working on the gate consisted of John Rood, foreman; Quintin Shipper, laborer; Mark Moorlag, laborer and Joseph Grupczynski, laborer. Not coincidentally, the same group received the Full Steam Ahead Award for the 2009 third quarter for their outstanding performance.

Although the West Region railroads are separated from the Kan-sas offices by more than 1,200 miles, they have the same reputation for following the Customers First principals.

Tim Siler, general manager of Whitgo, Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad’s (PCC) largest Customer wrote, “I would just like to say thanks to Larry Smith (PCC trainmaster) and the crew for the excellent service they provide. Larry will call me at home on a weekend just to make sure the cars are placed in the correct locations. If we need extra time to load or have a special request regarding a car placement, they will bend over back-wards to accommodate us. The excellent service the train crew provides has helped us become a more efficient and successful shipper. Thanks again for being a great partner!”

Boise in DeRidder, La., was Watco’s first contract switching Customer and Watco now performs switching for them at the paper mill in Wallula, Wash., as well.

Brian Thompson, Boise Inc.’s, transportation ser-vices analyst, said, “The Watco team at Boise Wallula is always willing to do whatever is necessary to help make Boise successful. They consistently do what it takes to understand our ever evolving business so that they can meet our expectations for both in-bound and outbound rail traffic.

They work safely, and meet all of Boise’s safety standards and requirements. It goes without saying that getting the job done safely is the most important aspect of what Watco does for us.

Boise Wallula is uniquely situated where it is served by two Class 1 railroads that often don’t com-municate well with each other. Watco plays an inte-

gral role in Boise’s demurrage management process by communicating car status to both of the Class 1 railroads that serve the facility. By providing timely and accurate car status to the Class 1 railroads, Boise has virtually eliminated demurrage as an expense at

Wallula.”Clearwater Paper Corp.

of on the Great North-west Railroad (GRNW) is another Customer in the West Region that has been happy with his service.

Ray Leiterman, Clear-water Rail Fleet Manager said, “ Clearwater Paper Corporation has had a great working relation-ship with the GRNW and general manager, Bill Brown. This past winter, we were experiencing severe car shortages for loading our paper rolls, primarily due to the in-

clement weather in the Mideast and East. Empty cars were not being returned as promptly as they should have been. Working directly with Bill on a daily basis, we were able to adjust the Ayer Turn schedule to ensure the GRNW would make the necessary interchanges with the BNSF and UP at Ayer, in order to maximize our car supply.

Due to ever changing production schedules at our paper mill and the month-end sales of our lumber products, we sometimes require additional switching service. Simply by contacting Bill or the local switch crew, they have been able to adjust their switching schedule with other customers to provide this extra service.

All said, the GRNW has performed admirably in the field of customer service to Clearwater Paper Corp.”

As you can see, many of these examples show how the Customer First! guiding principals are not just thoughts on paper, they are practiced every day at Watco locations throughout the country.

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More Customer First! in action

Stacey Miles, Weyerhaueser rail manager pictured with Kevin Jeter, LAS general manager.

Watco has now ventured into the social media era so next time you’re on Facebook posting a photo or catch-ing up with old friends visit the Watco Companies page and become a fan.

We’ll have photos, videos, team announcements and all kinds of information about Watco. Suggestions for what you would like to see on the page are welcome and you can send them to tvan@watcocompanies.com. The Watco Team is fan-tastic so encourage your friends and family to join and see what’s new at Watco.

Find us on Facebook

Our next best Customer comes from the last Customer we served.

Friday, March 5, was a special day at Watco. From Washington to Florida grills were lit up to celebrate one of Watco’s best assets, the team members

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Watco team gets cooking for team member appreciation day

Coffeyville, Kansas, Mechanical Shop

Great Northwest Railroad

Houston, Texas Mechanical Shop

Stanley, North Dakota Transload

Green River, Wyoming, Switching

Wichita, Kansas Dispatch

Fitzgerald, Georgia, Mechanical Shop

Mission Mountain Railroad

Stroud, Oklahoma, Transload

Neodesha, Kansas, Mechanical Shop

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Transload

South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad

Stillwater Central Railroad

Yellowstone Valley Railroad

Alabama Southern Railroad

Customer keeps Watco family moving by Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

As her 16 year-old son Conor paddled across the swimming pool in a cardboard box Amy Parady, Gulf Region vice president of sales and marketing, had two thoughts; one, I hope he doesn’t sink and two, how we often forget how our Customers touch our everyday lives.

Being a mom, the first thought was obvious. Conor was in the box paddling across the school’s swimming pool as part of a physics assignment to show the theory of water displacement. He and a

partner were required to build a canoe out of card-board using a minimal amount of tape for the seams. Conor and his partner were one of the few groups that actually made it across the pool and got and A on the project.

But Amy’s second thought was more interesting, how can a simple box make a difference in someone’s life and what does that have to do with our Custom-ers?

In addition to teaching her son about physics, that specific box was used when the Parady family moved from Tuscaloosa, Ala., back to Houston, Texas. Her family used it to safely transport their possessions

from one state to another. And lastly, that particular box was produced by one of Watco’s Customers, Smurfit Stone, so essentially, the box provided her family with food, a place to sleep and many other needs.

How much time do we spend thinking about what we can do for our Customers without stopping to reflect on what they do for us? Each commodity that our Customers ship affects our daily life in some way. Just as the six degrees of separa-tion brings everyone to-gether in a human web, the

same theory applies for how we are connected to our Customers. I would venture to say, it would take less than two or three steps at most to find the connec-tion between a Customer or their product and how it touches our lives when you go beyond the basic point of providing us with an income.

Stop and look around you. The item closest to you can be traced back to a Customer, see how many steps it takes. A piece of paper, possibly made in one of our Customers paper mills; an ink pen, many of our Customers ship plastics and petroleum used to make the casing; a wooden desk, look to the West Region Customers if you want to find a supplier of forest products.

Our diversity in products and services guarantees that we will be affected by more Customers than many others in the same business. Although one shortline may ship a limited number of commodities there is a chance that a transload facility in the area serves a different Customer and commodity.

This doesn’t just apply to the rail and trucking/transload areas, without the mechanical shops and their Customers the cars wouldn’t be able to travel the rails and deliver the various products that they contain. If mechanical Customers quit sending cars to the shops to be repaired, the cars would fall in dis-repair and at some point the entire rail infrastructure would be at a standstill.

The next time you use something think how many steps it takes to connect that item to one of our Cus-tomers and how much our Customers truly do for us and then remember to thank them..

Conor Parady, 16, and a classmate participate in a physics experiment on displacing water.

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Grand Elk Railroad to the rescueby Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

In recent years high speed passenger rail has received a lot of attention while freight rail has been the workhorse chugging along in the background getting products delivered across the country. When 342 passengers were stranded in a Michigan snowstorm on an Amtrak train, it was the workhorse engine WAMX 3906 who came to rescue.

Grand Elk Railroad general manager Rodney Gordon received a call Friday, February 26, from the superintendent of Amtrak who was desperate for help. Their locomotive had experienced an engine failure and they were stranded east of Kalamazoo, Mich., on what is called the NS Michigan main. In order to get the train and passengers moving they needed to borrow a Grand Elk locomotive.

Gordon drove 20 miles out to the site, picked up the Amtrak crew and brought them back to the Botsford yard in Kalamazoo. The Amtrak crew then boarded the Grand Elk locomotive and headed to the site to pull in the train with 342 passengers on board headed toward Chicago, Ill.

“Originally our locomotive was scheduled to take the train into Chicago’s Union Station,” said Gordon, “Instead, they were able to use our locomotive around Kalamazoo to add a locomotive from one of their own trains to continue on to Chicago.

We were glad to help our partner Amtrak in getting the passengers moving toward their destination as quickly and safely as possible.”

Shasta Stump, vice president of sales and marketing, drove to the site where the Amtrak locomotive went dead as soon as she heard what was going on.

Stump said, “Once the Grand Elk power arrived snow and ice had to be chipped away from the front of the Amtrak locomotive to enable a secure cou-pling. I stayed at the site until the train and the passengers were safely on their way westbound.

“Although Amtrak isn’t physically located on our property, the Grand Elk demonstrated Customer First! at its best,” said Stump. “The team quickly stepped up to the plate to lend a hand when it was needed.

From e-mails we’ve received the help was greatly appreciated and the Grand Elk’s willingness to help out will certainly be beneficial in the future.”

Grand Elk Railroads locomotive WAMX 3906 hooks up with the Amtrak 350 to pull their 342 passengers back to Kalamazoo, Mich.

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WAT C O

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.

BirthsLillian Isabella Close

Proud grandma Eva Rokezewski welcomed her first grandbaby Lillian Isabella Close on March 20th. She weighed 6 lbs., and 4 oz., and was 19 3/4 inches long. Lillian is the daughter of Deana and Chris Close of Joplin, Mo. Grandma Eva is an accounts payables clerk in Pittsburg, Kan.

Lillian Isabella Close

May GraduationsSoon members of the Watco Team and/or their

family members will be crossing stages across the country to receive their diplomas from various academic institutions. The Dispatch would like to acknowledge the hard work of all graduates from Watco families by listing them in May’s edition.

If you would like to have your graduate listed, send in the information in the following format:Graduates name: relationship to Watco Team mem-ber, Watco Team member’s title and location. The school graduate is attending and location of that school. If the graduate is receiving a degree from a college, university or trade school list the graduates degree type. An example would be: Billy Miskell: Son of Bill Miskell, car department supervisor in Oklahoma City, OK; graduating from Houston Baptist University, Houston, TX with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and Sociology.

Send your graduation information electronically to: tvan@watcocompanies.com. Please put Dis-patch-May Graduation in the subject line. Decem-ber graduations we will be included with the May graduations. Deadline is April 20.

April Anniversaries1 Year: Angela Bunker, Joseph Grupczynski, Dee Lautner, Mark Moorlag, Michael Murphy, Patrick Paille, Bill Richmond, William Self, Troy Sickle, Kenneth Volk, Samuel Weeks.2 Years: Brad Austin, Wanda Carey, Drew Drew-enski, Chad Easterling, David Edwards, Steven Everett, Dusty Gardner, Tye Gray, Chris Haddow, Russell Hamm, Michael Hudson, Brian Kovarik, Jason Lloyd, Joseph Magnone, Jose Martinez, Brian Miller, Steven Mottaz, Curtis Rice, Arnoldo Sandoval, Jeffrey Smith, Cheralyn Songster, Robert Yarbrough.3 Years: Joel Aguilar, Richard Brady, Joseph Brooks, Tony Clark, Nickol Corr, Rebekah Garner, Ray Green, Joseph Holcomb, Jared Koehn, Steven Mattison, Matt McKenzie, Tony Williamson.4 Years: Jeffrey Allred, James Brady, Lisa Brokob, Walter Browning, Shellee Currier, Marcus Field, Gerardo Horta, Grant Rasmussen, Ronald Thompson, David Tinnon.5 Years: Jerad Brunskill, Du'Shane Cole, Brandon Eddleman, Travis Fellers, Pat Foster, Carl Hauk, Justin Rhodes, Travis Tholen, Tracie VanBecelaere, Patrick White, David Wilczewski.6 Years: Jason Alexander, Bertha Herrgesell, Valerie Kahley, Christopher Nause, Loren Parr, Jeremy Warren.7 Years: Shane Engle, Al Felder, Shawn Graham, Judith Johnson, Keith Kitson, Jeffery Smith.

8 Years: Robert Allmon, Brent Booth, Lisa Butts, Pat Cedeno, Jason Ebarb, Al Finn, John Galloway, Darren McComic, Joshua Remedies, Kenneth Sau-ter, Terry Towner.9 Years: Shane Collins, Heather Huff.10 Years: Wade Dallas, Jeanne Housel, Byron Marshall, Douglas Peterson, Dock Reese, Ronald Singleton.11 Years: Paul Friedrichs, James Walton.

13 Years: Anthony Ange, Brandy Etheridge, Jeremy Findley, David Jena, Roger Kitzmiller, Tim Swearingen, Rick Vaughn.14 Years: Kenneth Barber.15 Years: Aaron Byle, Donald McCallum.17 Years: Neal Jacobs.18 Years: Michael Hill.19 Years: Cecil Moore.21 Years: Joseph Lidwell.24 Years: Knut Hansen, Zaragoza Trevino.

26 Years: Larry Bray, Harel Harrison, Larry Thomas.27 Years: Anthony Decapio.28 Years: Tony Sanborn, Larry Vail, Dion Wilkens.29 Years: James Bass.31 Years: Carl Leone.32 Years: Robert Neal33 Years: Donald Drobnoek, Walter Legette, Jack York35 Years: David Dial, Richard Duncan, Jerry York

Did you know.....?

Retirement: We’ll Help You Get There

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The newsletter for Watco Companies, Inc. and Watco Transportation Services, Inc.April 2010, Volume 11, Issue 4

More Team Appreciaiton Day Austin is a “very public”

place to do business and we need to be sure that the community is pleased with how the commuter and freight rail work together so that we’ll be suc-cessful in growing our relationship with CMTA and our freight customers. In essence we have a new commodity, people, that we need to ensure are moved with the same Watco Guiding Principles we apply to all our Customers. Watco will provide the right service, at the right time, at the right price, in the right condition, with value added so that in turn the MetroRail can provide the same.”

To accomplish this our AWRR Opera-tions Team commu-nicates continuously with the commuter operator to ensure that people and freight move according to schedule without delaying each other while at the same time planning for contin-ued freight and com-muter growth on the line. No easy task!”

So what do we get from all of this? For one thing a lot of attention, the AWRR is the Short Line/Commuter railroad that everyone in the U.S. rail industry is watching. More and more communi-ties around the U.S. are in the planning stages for commuter lines in their cities and with continued success on the AWRR these communities will look

to Watco as a model for this type of transportation solution. This will allow for job opportunities to open up across the country.

The MetroRail runs in two service periods, the morning route runs from 5:25 a.m. to 9:25 a.m. and the afternoon route runs from 3:45 p.m. to

7:42 p.m. Tickets cost $3 for an all zone one-way fare and various passes are available to passengers. The freight trains run in a window from around 9:20 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. and switchers are busy staging the trains so that they are able to optimize the window in which they have to use the commuter cor-ridor.

“We’ve changed our operating plan to fit the needs of the Metro and things are going well, said Bill Richmond, AWRR general manager. “We are in constant communication with the CMTA to provide the best rail solutions for both of us. The CMTA has spent a lot of time on the detail to make sure that the

MetroRail operations went smoothly and it shows, they deserve a lot of credit.

I rode the Metro and it’s really a great option for the passengers, the equipment is very nice.

We’re helping out with maintenance of the line so it’s a true partnership that we’re excited to be a part of.”

AWRR shares track continued(Continued from page 1)

Passengers disembark the MetroRail at the Abbott stop. Photo courtesy of Carol Hamilton, AWRR Admin. Assistant.

Support Services, Pittsburg, Kansas

Grand Elk Railroad

The MetroRail waits in the Leander station to begin its after-noon run. Photo courtesy of Carol Hamilton, AWRR Admin. Assistant.

(Continued from page 3)

Baton Rouge Southern Railroad