April 2015 Railway Age

RailwayAge

April 2015 | www.railwayage.com

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RailwayAge

APRIL 2015

visit us at www.railwayage.com Features Easy on, easy off Dispatcher’s delight All tied up Ontario on the move How do your couplers measure up?

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News/Columns From the Editor Update Watching Washington Perspective Financial Edge

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Departments Industry Indicators Industry Outlook Market People 100 Years Ago Meetings Products Advertising Index Professional Directory Classified

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34 On the Cover Toronto’s new Bombardier streetcar. Photo: Derek Stryland, Toronto Transit Commission Railway Age, USPS 449-130, is published monthly by the Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation, 55 Broad St., 26th Fl., New York, NY 10004. Tel. (212) 620-7200; FAX (212) 633-1863. Vol. 216, No. 4.

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April 2015 Railway Age 1

From the Editor William C. Vantuono

Editorial and Executive Offices Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corp.

55 Broad Street, 26th Fl. New York, NY 10004 212-620-7200; Fax: 212-633-1863 Website: www.railwayage.com

A rolling showcase—of steam

I

am going to be a little unconventional this month and tell the tale of an iconic steam engine’s second restoration and return to operation. The story revolves around a famous name in the railway industry, and how the railway supply community is supporting the effort.

The iconic locomotive is Norfolk & Western Railway J Class 4-8-4 611, built in the N&W’s Roanoke Shops and placed into fast passenger service on May 29, 1950, making it, with sisters 612 and 613, one of the last three steam locomotives built for passenger service in the U.S. The famous industry name is Claytor— Preston Claytor, son and nephew, respectively, of legendary brothers Robert B. Claytor and W. Graham Claytor Jr., of N&W/Norfolk Southern and Southern Railway/Amtrak fame. Bob Claytor had 611, a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, restored in 1982, and she enjoyed 11 years of glory hauling steam excursions before her second retirement and consignment to static display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke.

Under the guidance of 611 Project Director Preston Claytor, the Museum, with $3 million in capital, is restoring 611 and constructing a maintenance facility. Norfolk Southern donated $1.5 million to the capital campaign, and the railway supply industry has stepped up to get the streamlined steamer’s 70-inch driving wheels and polished drive rods churning once more.

I’ll let Preston tell the inspiring story: “Norfolk Southern has been one of our many friends in the railroad industry. Though built in 1950, 611 to this day enjoys the support of suppliers who have made her return to service possible.

“One such notable company is GrahamWhite Manufacturing Co., manufacturer of the ‘Salem line’ of locomotive accessories and air-operated systems, and a company local to the Roanoke Valley. Graham-White has been in the railway supply business for more than 110 years, far pre-dating the 611.

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“Our locomotive is a rolling showcase of Graham-White parts, including air brake valves, air driers, sanders, and even the bell valve (we did decline Graham-White’s offer of one of its new electronic bells!). GrahamWhite graciously donated many of these parts and provided rebuilt brake system parts as well. As if this is not enough, Graham-White also is a significant donor to our capital campaign and museum.

“Our locomotive’s appearance is one of the most important aspects of the rebuild.

Axalta Coating Systems made a very generous donation of the paint that is being applied to 611. When 611 was last painted in the 1980s, we applied DuPont Imron.

This paint shined for more 25 years. Scott Lindsay, our Chief Mechanical Officer, would accept no substitute, and we sought out Axalta, which had purchased the railroad coatings line from Dupont. Axalta Senior Business Development Manager-Rail Jim Napoleoni has visited the project and has been invaluable in providing surface preparation and application instructions.

“To apply the paint, we turned to another company local to the Roanoke area.

FreightCar America builds freight cars in the former Norfolk Southern East End Shops complex. This great company has supplied its top paint applicator, Chris McBride, to apply the finish to 611.

“We at the Virginia Museum of Transportation are most grateful for these railway industry suppliers. We wanted to call your attention to their contributions in the event that Railway Age and other rail publications can recognize them for advancing our work in preserving and maintaining Norfolk & Western 611.”

How many industries can boast of companies like Graham-White, FreightCar America, and Axalta that donate their resources and time to preserving its heritage? Not many, I would think.

ARTHUR J. McGINNIS, Jr., President and Chairman JONATHAN CHALON, Publisher jchalon@sbpub.com WILLIAM C. VANTUONO, Editor-in-Chief wvantuono@sbpub.com Douglas John Bowen, Managing Editor dbowen@sbpub.com Luther S. Miller, Senior Consulting Editor lmiller@sbpub.com Contributing Editors: Roy H. Blanchard, Lawrence H Kaufman, Bruce E. Kelly, Ron Lindsey, Ryan McWilliams, David Nahass, Jason H. Seidl, David Thomas, John Thompson, Frank N. Wilner Creative Director: Wendy Williams Art Director: Sarah Vogwill Corporate Production Director: Mary Conyers Production Manager: Lily Man Production Director: Eduardo Castaner Marketing Director: Erica Hayes Conference Director: Michelle Zolkos Circulation Director: Maureen Cooney Western Offices 20 South Clark Street, Suite 1910, Chicago, IL 60603 312-683-0130; Fax: 312-683-0131 Engineering Editor: Mischa Wanek-Libman mischa@sbpub.com Assistant Editor: Jennifer Nunez jnunez@sbpub.com George Sokulski, Associate Publisher Emeritus gsokulski@sbpub.com International Offices 46 Killigrew Street, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 3PP, United Kingdom Telephone: 011-44-1326-313945 Fax: 011-44-1326-211576 International Editors: David Briginshaw, Keith Barrow, Kevin Smith Customer Service: 800-895-4389 Reprints: PARS International Corp.

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Industry Indicators SHORT LINE AND REGIONAL TRAFFIC INDEX

TRAFFIC ORIGINATED

CARLOADS, FEBRUARY 2015

CARLOADS, FEBRUARY 2015 MAJOR U.S. RAILROADS

Commodity Grain Farm Products ex. Grain Grain Mill Products Food products Chemicals Petroleum & Petroleum Products Coal Primary Forest Products Lumber and Wood Products Pulp and Paper Products Metallic Ores Coke Primary Metal Products Iron and Steel Scrap Motor Vehicles and Parts Crushed Stone, Sand, and Gravel Nonmetallic Minerals Stone, Clay & Glass Products Waste & Nonferrous Scrap All Other Carloads Total U.S. CarLoadS

FEB. ’15 87,855 3,769 39,082 25,337 123,484 56,431 412,454 5,848 14,632 23,869 19,573 14,442 37,122 13,111 64,786 76,067 16,000 26,486 11,431 17,432 1,089,211

FEB. ’14 79,204 3,280 39,666 25,102 121,048 55,506 433,529 6,208 13,409 24,464 16,058 14,273 40,048 17,054 66,208 71,427 18,147 28,060 11,166 17,080 1,100,937

% CHANGE 10.9% 14.9% -1.5% 0.9% 2.0% 1.7% -4.9% -5.8% 9.1% -2.4% 21.9% 1.2% -7.3% -23.1% -2.1% 6.5% -11.8% -5.6% 2.4% 2.1% -1.1%

282,550

5.7%

1,383,487

-4.8%

FEB. ’15 117,527 811,868 992,395

FEB. ’14 117,493 876,286 993,779

% CHANGE 0.9% -7.4% -6.5%

5,705 218,046 223,751

7,490 205,740 213,320

-23.8% 6.0% 4.9%

123,232 1,029,914 1,153,146

124,983 1,082,026 1,207,009

-1.4% -4.8% -4.5%

Chemicals Coal Crushed Stone / Sand / Gravel Food & Kindred Products Grain Grain Mill Products Lumber & Wood Products Metallic Ores Metals & Products Motor Vehicles & Equipment Nonmetallic Minerals Petroleum Products Pulp, Paper & Allied Products Stone, Clay & Glass Products Trailers / Containers Waste & Scrap Materials All Other Carloads

298,716

COMBINED U.S./CANADA RRs 1,387,927 INTERMODAL, FEBRUARY 2015 MAJOR U.S. RAILROADS

by Commodity TRAILERS CONTAINERS TOTAL UNITS

COMBINED U.S./CANADA RRs TRAILERS CONTAINERS TOTAL COMBINED UNITS

Source: Monthly Railroad Traffic, Association of American Railroads

average weekly U.S. Rail Carloads: all commodities (not seasonally adjusted)

% CHANGE 10.7% -7.5% 8.9% -4.6% 9.9% -6.6% 8.6% -57.1% -2.5% -4.5% -1.1% -5.5% -1.0% 10.7% 8.6% -10.3% 0.6%

FEBRUARY 2015 - 291,362 FEBRUARY 2014 - 288,049 200,000 210,000 220,000 230,000 240,000 250,000 260,000 270,000 280,000 290,000 Copyright © 2014 All rights reserved.

Railroad employment, Class I linehaul carriers, FEBRUARY 2015 (% change from FEBRUARY 2014)

CANADIAN RAILROADS TRAILERS CONTAINERS TOTAL UNITS

ORIGINATED FEB. ’14 35,161 19,566 19,223 10,373 20,317 5,325 7,733 7,836 15,613 7,329 2,040 1,815 16,268 8,564 28,275 8,380 74,231

TOTAL CARLOADS, FEBRUARY 2015 VS. 2014

CANADIAN RAILROADS ALL Commodities

ORIGINATED FEB. ’15 38,908 18,102 20,929 9,891 22,231 4,973 8,398 3,362 15,218 7,000 2,018 1,716 16,113 9,477 30,695 7,519 74,712

Commodity

Transportation (train and engine) 73,028 (+10.49%)

Executives, Officials, and Staff Assistants 9,986 (+1.27%)

Professional and Administrative 14,292 (+2.34%)

Total employees: 172,195 % change from FEB. 2014: 6.09% Transportation (other than train & engine) 6,607 (-0.62%)

Maintenance of Equipment and Stores 31,111 (+4.83%)

Maintenanceof-Way and Structures 37,171 (+3.05%)

Source: Surface Transportation Board

Employment registers significant year-over-year gain Figures released by the Surface Transportation Board show Class I total railroad employment rose a healthy 6.09% in February 2015, measured against February 2014. The increase was powered by a 10.49% yearover-year rise in Transportation (train and engine), which led gains in five out of six employee categories. Transportation (other than train and engine) was the only category to experience a decline, an almost negligible 0.62%.

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Railway Age

April 2015

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Industry Outlook

2015 freight car deliveries: 85,000 Based upon a record backlog of nearly 143,000 units, Economic Planning Associates is projecting deliveries of 85,000 freight cars and intermodal platforms in 2015. Close to half— 40,000 cars—will be tank cars.

“Demand for railcars continues to expand,” EPA’s Peter Toja noted in the analyst’s most recent quarterly freight car forecast. “Orders for 37,431 cars and platforms in the fourth quarter of 2014 far outpaced deliveries of 18,491 units, sending end-of-2014 backlogs to a record 142,837 cars.

As a result, carbuilders in 2015 started the year with formidable levels of cars set to be assembled this year and in the foreseeable future. Equally important, with the exception of coal cars, rail equipment demand is broad-based, as both expanding traffic and replacement pressures lifted the need for a variety of car types. And, the railroads are providing significant support for equipment demand.”

EPA is projecting deliveries of 85,000 cars and platforms this year, followed by 80,500 units in 2016.

Longer term, EPA expects deliveries “to moderate at significantly high levels. After 75,800 cars are delivered in 2017, deliveries will remain at the healthy annual level of some 75,000 cars through 2020.”

A few highlights: • “Our analyses of the major customer markets indicate that investment plans are well-founded. We anticipate a mod6

Railway Age

April 2015

est growth in coal traffic and continued expansion in grain movements this year that will provide a major boost to rail commodity haulings. Demand for the long neglected boxcar has strengthened. After strong orders of 3,510 cars were placed in the third quarter, 800 more cars were ordered in the fourth quarter. According to industry sources, second-half orders were primarily for equipment destined for TTX. It now appears that after years of neglect, TTX is looking to upgrade its extremely aged general service cars.”

• “Demand for all types of covered hoppers continues to expand. Demand for hi-cube equipment scored an impressive gain last year. Orders for 7,250 cars far outpaced deliveries of 2,449 units, sending backlogs from 5,689 at the beginning of 2014 to 10,490 cars at the end of the year.

Industry sources continue to point toward plastic pellet and chemical demand for hi-cube equipment. Corn for ethanol use has been increased as fuel consumption data indicate expanding current use and support forecast increases in demand. Due to the strength in current backlogs and the anticipation of continued growth in the corn to ethanol process, which will keep DDG demand on a high note, we look for deliveries of some 4,500 hi-cube covered hoppers this year and 5,000 cars in 2016. From 2017 through 2020, deliveries will be in the range of 4,000-4,500 cars per year.”

Bi-partisan legislation was introduced last month in the Senate to remedy what are termed “significant challenges in the federal environmental permitting process” that delay and discourage railroads from constructing additional capacity.

Senators Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Joe Machin (D-W.Va.) are co-sponsors of the Track, Railroad and Infrastructure Network (TRAIN) Act to reform and streamline the rail project environmental permitting process the two say will “promote additional investment” in rail infrastructure.

“Our nation’s railroads move 29 million carloads every year and take millions of trucks off the road,” Manchin said, “but critical investments are needed to remove bottlenecks and improve the efficiency of the system.

Unfortunately, these important projects languish on the vine year after year due to a relentlessly bureaucratic federal permitting process.”

Blunt said that “freight rail traffic is growing, which means we need more infrastructure to move goods and services and ensure that rail remains a major component in our economic future.”

Railroads “strongly support” the bill, which they call a “common sense” reform.

In 2012, Congress approved a similar reform and streamlining process for highway projects, and in 2014 passed similar legislation to reform and streamline domestic waterways projects.

The bill must receive a favorable hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee before proceeding to the Senate floor for a vote. Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) has signed on as a co-sponsor.

Similar legislation could be introduced in the House, or the Senate version could be sent to the House for a vote.

William C. Vantuono

TRAIN Act could reform infrastructure permitting

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Market

DART’s first “modern streetcar” entering service

North America THE GREENBRIER COS.: Received new orders in its second quarter ended Feb. 28, 2015 for 10,100 railcar units valued at $1.09 billion. Orders for the quarter include doublestack intermodal cars, covered hopper cars primarily for grain transportation, refrigerated and insulated boxcars, gondolas, and tank cars, both for transportation of crude oil and other commodity types. These orders include 3,500 units valued at approximately $400 million received in December 2014 that Greenbrier previously disclosed on Jan. 7, 2015.

Southern California Regional Rail Authority: Awarded a technical services contract to RailPlan International to provide modifications 8

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April 2015

to the Positive Train Control powering system in Metrolink’s fleet of Hyundai Rotem cab cars. In order to ensure consistent behavior of the PTC powering system, RailPlan will provide modifications to 57 of 59 Hyundai Rotem cab cars. Those modifications aim to prevent incomplete software uploads by providing sufficient battery life. RailPlan said its wiring modification to the SCRRA cab cars will bring Metrolink’s battery wiring systems into compliance with applicable laws, regulations, standards, and recommended practices of the USDOT, FRA, FTA, SCAQMD, APTA, AAR, and the State of California.

Worldwide TRANSNET (SOUTH AFRICA): Will acquire 1,064 locomotives, estimated

to cost $4.3 billion, for its Transnet Freight Rail subsidiary. CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive, China, and Bombardier will supply 599 electric locomotives, while GE and CNR will deliver 465 diesel locomotives. All but 70 units will be assembled in South Africa. Transnet signed two funding agreements March 2 to cover the Bombardier and GE locomotives. The US Exim Bank has provided a 14-year funding guarantee for 233 ES40Aci Evolution Series diesel locomotives from GE. Canada’s trade finance agency, Export Development Canada (EDC), will provide up to US$450 million in financing for Transnet to partially finance” the US$1.2 billion contract with Bombardier Transportation South Africa (Pty) Ltd. (BTSA, for the delivery of 240 TRAXX dual-voltage locomotives.

DART

When the Dallas-Oak Cliff Streetcar opens for business this month, it will be operating a first-of-its-kind vehicle. The vehicle, which was designed and built by Brookville Equipment Corp., will be the first streetcar in the U.S. that utilizes “wireless” traction power: It will be powered by catenary on surface streets, but operate with an on-board ESS (Energy Storage System) as it crosses the historic, 101-year-old Houston Street Viaduct. The ESS, as described by Brookville, is a special feature of its partial-low-floor Liberty Modern Streetcar built for DART. It’s a redundant lithium ion battery system charged through the overhead catenary system (OCS) that provides power while the vehicle is crossing the one-mile viaduct. An integrated battery management system (BMS) monitors the current charge state of the ESS “to ensure successful runs on the line,” says Brookville. “The battery ESS is ideal for longer off-wire runs, due to its ability to store high power loads and its low discharge rate.” The project is a partnership of DART, the City of Dallas, the Federal Transit Administration, and the North Central Texas Council of Governments. The streetcar starter line runs 1.6 miles from Dallas Union Station to Oak Cliff.

Update Supply Briefs Mechanical Rubber Products buys Prestige Rubber Manufacturing

Look! Above the train! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a drone

Warwick, N.Y.-based Mechanical Rubber Products Co. has acquired Prestige Rubber Manufacturing Co. of Fairfield, N.J. Mechanical’s asset purchase included extrusion dies, mandrels, compounds, expansion joint forms and customer order records. Mechanical Rubber will be 100% operational with all of Prestige’s manufacturing capabilities, offering a “one stop shop” for all custom rubber elastomeric needs. Prestige manufactures rubber elastomer expansion joints as well as mandrel-cured wrapped rubber tubing. Mechanical’s rail offerings include fabricated window and door seal gaskets; proprietary compounds to meet flammability and toxicity requirements; and reverse engineering for aftermarket part supply. The company serves freight, HSR, light rail transit, passenger, regional, and streetcar transport needs.

Someday in the near future, this scene, imagined here in a composite illustration, may become common on BNSF.

Harsco Corp. has acquired Newton, N.J.-based Protran Technology, providing design and production of safety systems for transportation and industrial applications. Protran’s railway track worker and train operator safety systems are in use throughout North America and internationally to help protect railway personnel from potential collisions and other hazardous situations. Protran’s voltage awareness units provide audible and visual safety warnings during the testing of third rail and overhead catenary systems.

Protran will be operated as a unit of Harsco Rail, providing railway track maintenance equipment and services.

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Railway Age April 2015

O

ne need not look to the wild blue yonder to find the BNSF air force. Soon, it will be patrolling BNSF tracks from altitudes no higher than 500 feet, but not within three miles of any airport and always during daylight hours.

Such are the restrictions imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in granting BNSF authority March 12 to operate lighter than 55-pound drones—unmanned aerial

vehicles (UAVs) as they are formally known. So far, BNSF—which was a pioneer in the design of Positive Train Control (PTC)—is the only railroad that has sought such FAA authority.

BNSF said it will use four versions of the drones, equipped with cameras, to inspect its track and monitor its trains.

Other applications will be investigated.

An official of the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and

Photo/Sean Kelly; Composite/Railway Age

Harsco CORP. acquires Protran Technology

Transportation Workers (SMART), asking not to be identified, said SMART conductors could have claimed work associated with BNSF drone operations, but lost the opportunity when they voted down a tentative agreement with BNSF last year that focused solely on PTC. The agreement specifically mentioned drones as within the scope of work reserved for SMART-represented conductors.

That failed contract would have allowed BNSF, as part of a pilot project, to create a Master Conductor craft to monitor, for safety compliance, trains equipped with PTC. The monitoring was to be done from a fixed or mobile location rather than aboard trains.

Such trains would operate with only a locomotive engineer.

Where such operations were commenced, BNSF would have fully protected affected conductors from furlough, and promoted many to the new craft of Master Conductor. The failed contract also would have assured all ground service workers represented by SMART higher pay and career income protection.

The union’s National Legislative Office led the effort to defeat the tentative agreement, telling affected conductors that members of Congress would provide a better protection package as PTC and other technologies are introduced. After the tentative agreement was voted down, one of the two congressional sponsors of the legislation was defeated at the polls. The legislation never received a committee hearing, and was declared dead-on-arrival by the Republican congressional leadership should it be reintroduced.

The union’s National Legislative Office also promised that Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo, a former SMART predecessor-union official, would bring forth a rule prohibiting railroads from reducing crew size even where PTC is in place.

Szabo resigned in early 2015, the rule has yet to be published, and railroad attorneys say it likely would not stand judicial challenge as there is no data

demonstrating such a rule would improve rail safety.

When remote control technology was introduced more than a decade ago, the United Transportation Union—now SMART’s Transportation Division—told members that new technology cannot be obstructed, but can be managed with innovative labor agreements. The UTU then negotiated such an agreement that reserved remote control work within yards and terminals for UTU-represented members, along with higher pay and income protection.

SMART currently has contracts in place assuring two-person crews, but those contracts are nearing expiration as they are decades old and keyed to the retirement of employees affected when the contracts were signed. Within the next decade there will be no contract protection for conductor assignments.

With those agreements in their twilight, and no federal legislation or rule to protect conductor work in the future, SMART has obtained from some state legislatures prohibitions on one-person crews in those states.

Were the laws to become effective with the expiration of the labor protection agreements just mentioned, Congress could step in to make federal law permitting one-person crews preeminent (under the Constitution’s 10th Amendment). The reason would be to block the efficiency-scotching nature—the impediment to interstate commerce—of such checkerboard pattern state laws.

For the present, BNSF conductors, having voted down the tentative agreement that would have reserved for them work associated with drone operation, have no claim to such jobs.

As they are created, those jobs will be up for grabs by the first labor union to capture them through a labor agreement. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen already has a clause in its agreements with BNSF to capture remote control work outside yards and terminals should remote control operations be expanded.

—Frank N.Wilner

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April 2015 Railway Age 11

Update CP’s Hunter Harrison accepts Railroader of the Year Award With more than 400 of his railway industry colleagues in attendance, Canadian Pacific CEO E. Hunter Harrison accepted Railway Age’s 2015 Railroader of the Year Award at Chicago’s Union League Club on March 10, carrying on a tradition that began in 1964—the year after Harrison began his career at age 19 as a carman/ oiler on the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco) while attending college in Memphis.

Harrison is a two-time recipient of the award, winning in 2002 as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the recently merged CN and Illinois Central. This time around, he came out of retirement to lead a remarkable turnaround at CP, which prior to his arrival had been languishing in last place among North America’s “Big Seven” Class I’s, in terms of performance.

Left to right: Simmons-Boardman Rail Group Publisher Jonathan Chalon; Canadian Pacific CEO E. Hunter Harrison, and Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. Harrison is the 52nd Railroader of the Year and a two-time recipient.

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Railway Age April 2015

Via Rail pondering the Canadian’s next move After months of late arrivals due to track congestion on CN’s northern Ontario main line, compounded by slow orders arising from CN’s efforts to recover from two tar sands oil train explosions, Via Rail is examining an alternative routing for the Canadian, the continent’s last classic streamliner, originally Canadian Pacific’s premier luxury passenger train.

Via suspended Canadian service between Winnipeg and Toronto March 11, citing the impossibility of maintaining schedules as CN dealt with the oil train mishaps near Gogama.

One option is to shift the train to CP trackage between Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Sudbury, Ontario, something Via Rail CEO Yves Desjardins-Siciliano hinted at last November during an interview with Railway Age. The motive, he said then, would be to provide passengers with a more scenic route

closer to the Great Lakes, while at the same time serving more communities.

The imperative now is simply to get the train running again before the summer tourism season.

A contract would have to be negotiated with CP, and Via’s engineers

would need to be qualified on CP track and operations, something that could take up to two months. Via was to consider whether it can restore northern Ontario service over CN right-of-way, either indefinitely or pending a move to CP.

April 2015 Railway Age 13

Update AAR, API collaborate on CBR first-responder safety course The Association of American Railroads (AAR) and American Petroleum Institute (API) have collaborated on a new crude-by-rail (CBR) introductory safety course for first responders. This course is available free of charge to emergency response organizations and fire departments via the Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response (TRANSCAER®) program, of which railroads and oil companies are members.

The course “covers important safety topics, including the characteristics of crude oil, the railcars in which it is shipped, considerations and strategies for spill response and firefighting, and the importance of following training and the incident command system, to help fire departments and other emergency response organizations learn about the safety of moving crude oil by rail,” AAR and API noted. “It’s

part of a holistic effort to better prevent, mitigate, and respond to derailments of trains carrying crude oil. Fire departments and other state and local officials interested in having the course taught in their area should contact their TRANSCAER® state coordinator. A DVD version of the program is also being produced that will be distributed by TRANSCAER to fire houses across the U.S.” API and TRANSCAER partnered with the FRA to identify states for the initial rollout of this program, which will complement existing training efforts for firefighters and other first responders and will be offered free of charge at hazmat and emergency response conferences across North America. Course offerings are already confirmed or being planned in more than 15 states.

Course materials were to be posted

and publicly available on the TRANSCAER® website.

“Freight railroads are fully committed to the safe movement of crude oil and other hazardous materials by rail,” said AAR President and CEO Edward R. Hamberger. “This course is another example of how railroads and their customers work with communities coast-to-coast to help with awareness and preparedness for any type of incident. Railroads train tens of thousands of first responders each year, in their communities and through programs like TRANSCAER®, as well as the Security and Emergency Response Training Center (SERTC) at the Transportation Technology Center Inc., in Pueblo, Colo. SERTC last year launched a specialized training program on CBR that is estimated to train more than 3,000 high level hazmat first responders.”

W o r l d ’s L a r g e s t C r a n k s h a f t M a n u f a c t u r e r a n d R e - M a n u f a c t u r e r

H e r m i t a g e , PA U S A 1 6 1 4 8 Te l e p h o n e 1 - 7 2 4 - 3 4 7 - 0 2 5 0 w w w . E l l w o o d C r a n k s h a f t G r o u p . c o m 14

Railway Age April 2015

OmniTRAX’s Johnson earns ASLRRA top safety award Billie Johnson, General Manager at OmniTRAX Inc. short lines Newburgh & South Shore Railroad and Northern Ohio & Western Railway is the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association’s (ASLRRA) 2014 Safety Person of the Year. Johnson will receive the award at the ASLRRA Convention in Orlando March 28-30, 2015.

From 1995 to 2015, Northern Ohio & Western had no FRA reportable derailments, 663-plus days since a human factor incident, and is 4,050plus days injury free. During that same time period, Newburgh & South Shore is 748-plus days since the last human factor incident, 5,210-plus days since the last reportable derailment, and has had 6,589-plus days since the last reportable injury.

“Billie continues to demonstrate the most outstanding safety achievements of any manager on our network of

railroads,” said OmniTRAX CEO Kevin Shuba. “She is dedicated to safe operations and emphasizes initiatives that improve associate safety in the workplace. I can’t think of a more deserving recipient of the ASLRRA Safety Person of the Year award.”

“In the 18 years I’ve spent working with Billie, she has always been a source of honesty and knowledge,” said OmniTRAX Vice President of Operations Bob Ellman. “ She is willing to help where needed and is a vital member of our leadership team. The fact that she has never had any type of workplace injury, much less an FRA reportable injury, shows her dedication to safe operations.”

Johnson began her railroad career as a keypunch operator at the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad in 1969 and then rapidly was promoted to Terminal Manager. In 1981, she joined

the Chicago Rail Link Railroad, and in 1991 she transferred to the Newburgh & South Shore Railroad, working as a clerk, a conductor, and a certified engineer, and in 1995 was promoted to General Manager of the Northern Ohio & Western and later added Newburgh & South Shore.

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April 2015 Railway Age 15

Update SMART will have new General President May 1 One of the largest rail labor unions— the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART)—will have a new president May 1 upon the unexpected retirement April 30 of SMART General President Joseph J. Nigro.

Joseph Sellers Jr. has been elected to succeed Nigro, who said March 17 he is retiring for health reasons and upon the recommendation of his physician.

Elected to succeed Sellers as General Secretary-Treasurer was Nigro’s Chief of Staff Richard McClees.

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Railway Age April 2015

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Sellers, McClees, and Nigro were officers of the larger Sheet Metal Workers International Association that is the controlling organization in SMART. The former United Transportation Union (UTU) was merged into SMART as SMART’s Transportation Division in 2011 following some four years of legal wrangling that ended with a binding arbitration decision favoring the merger.

Upon the 2013 retirement of UTU President Mike Futhey, who sought to block consummation of the merger his predecessor had negotiated, UTU Vice President John Prevesich became president and reports to the SMART general president.

Some 47,000 of SMART’s 216,000 members are rail workers—overwhelmingly conductors, but also locomotive engineers, yardmasters, and sheet metal workers employed by freight railroads, Amtrak, and commuter railroads. The Transportation Division also represents some 8,000 municipal bus drivers and a small number of airline pilots and flight attendants.

Among other large rail labor unions are the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) with some 55,000 members, and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWE) with some 40,000 members. Both are affiliated with the Teamsters.

Although Nigro said during merger negotiations and afterward that he would eliminate administrative redundancies, the Transportation Division retains its former UTU headquarters operation in North Olmsted, Ohio.

SMART is headquartered in Washington, D.C. A United Transportation Union Insurance Association, which was not included in the merger of the UTU and SMART, shares the Ohio offices with the Transportation Division, where many administrative tasks are intermingled.

Watching Washington Frank n. wilner

Revenue adequacy is all about expectations

N

o matter how long the way to Tipperary, the rail industry endures a further trek toward revenue adequacy—the financial nirvana where the rate of return on invested capital (ROI) equals or exceeds the current cost of obtaining that capital.

Only such equilibrium brings forth investors eager to provide sufficient new capital to renew, improve, and expand railroad infrastructure to meet customer demand.

The Surface Transportation Board (STB), which calculates railroad revenue adequacy, has found only a few individual carriers revenue adequate for one or two years.

adequacy differently than the STB or shippers.

Where the STB uses original (historic) cost as the investment base on which to calculate rate of return, long-term investors focus on replacement cost. The reason is railroad infrastructure is long-lived and cannot be replaced or renewed at anywhere near its original cost.

Indeed, $1 million doesn’t buy what it once did. A 10% return on an asset costing $1 million in 1940 would be equivalent to less than a 1% return today, as the inflation-adjusted cost of replacing that asset would be some $17 million in 2015 dollars.

Rail earnings may have to rise were

The appropriate question for regulators and investors is whether railroads earn their cost of capital over the long term.

Economists say revenue adequacy must be calculated over a business cycle—typically five to seven years.

If a railroad is prohibited from earning anything more than its cost of capital in good years, the lower earnings in bad years will consign it to never achieving long-term revenue adequacy.

Shippers with limited or no effective rail transportation alternatives assert that improved railroad profitability alone is sufficient for the STB to declare the entire industry revenue adequate, which could trigger tighter caps on the freight rates they pay.

Long-term investors—with multiple alternative investment opportunities, and who must be courted to provide railroads with as much as $300 billion over the next 20 years to meet projected increased demand for quality rail service—calculate revenue

revenue adequacy measured on replacement rather than original cost. Yet electric utilities, among the most vocal of customers in criticizing railroad rates and service quality, similarly embrace a replacement cost methodology. One of the most glaring examples is Florida Power & Light, which told its own regulators, “If we can’t make an attractive investment for the shareholder, then we are going to have a very difficult time going in the marketplace and competing for [investment] dollars.”

Revenue adequacy and the cost of capital are viewed by investors as expectations, not historical events.

In fact, Congress, in the statute, instructed the STB to assist railroads in meeting those expectations and not curb them when revenue adequacy is momentarily achieved.

When shippers cite rail profits to

justify tighter caps on rail rates, they step on their own message, which is a priority demand for long-term service quality. The level of profits should not drive revenue adequacy determination.

Had railroads never earned more than $100, but last year earned $110, it would be a record. But would it be enough?

The appropriate question for regulators and investors is whether railroads earn their cost of capital over the long term, because expected revenue adequacy is the key to unlocking future investment.

Investors, suspicious the STB won’t permit higher returns, have been demanding their money back.

Over the past five years, investor pressure has forced every major railroad to repurchase its stock—$28 billion worth. Were the STB to view revenue adequacy as Congress intended—as a continuing goal for the railroads—and computed and achieved revenue adequacy on the basis of replacement costs, investors would encourage railroads to make additional investments, such as new main lines connecting the Midwest and Pacific Coast to satisfy shipper demands for increased capacity and improved service quality.

Congress, rather than writing a definition of revenue adequacy, instructed the STB to “maintain and revise as necessary standards and procedures for establishing revenue levels … [that] permit the raising of needed equity capital, and cover the effects of inflation.”

The STB should establish revenue adequacy standards using replacement costs, and not prohibit railroads from earning anything more than their cost of capital in good years, as otherwise there is nothing to offset the lower earnings in bad years.

April 2015 Railway Age 17

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MPS platforms were developed for the Amtrak/NJ Transit New Jersey High Speed Rail Improvement Program on the Northeast Corridor.

Easy on, easy off Flexible, cost-effective, and safe, Amtrak’s innovative Mobile Passenger Scaffolding benefits passengers and work crews alike.

O

By Anthony Fazio, P.E., and Luigi Moschitti, Amtrak, for Railway Age

n many passenger rail systems, the Bridge and Building (B&B) Department is an important part of an effective track production program, keeping heavy track production units moving forward. Work on high-level and low-level passenger platforms falls under the responsibility of B&B. On high density passenger rail systems with three or more main line tracks, such as Amtrak and Metro-North, great consideration must be given to supporting loading and unloading of passengers in stations during track production.

This task usually involves some sort of station platform modification and is traditionally given to B&B. Safe and efficient boarding of passengers while production equipment is in a station’s track block is important for customer loyalty.

At one time, the Northeast Corridor and many other main lines had mostly low-level platforms for commuter stops and high-level platforms at major cities only. Since the early 1980s, many of the low-level platforms have been converted to high level for efficient passenger loading and

unloading. This greatly improved station dwell time and travel time. However, this situation brought rise to the issue of getting passengers safely from a high level platform to a train on an “inside track” in the event of an extended track outage on an “outside” track. Many new railcars are only partially equipped for low-level platform boarding with traps (SEPTA), and some are not equipped to allow for low-level boarding at all (Amtrak Acela Express, LIRR).

Traditional methods

The traditional method of moving passengers to inner tracks in the event of an outer track being out of service has been timber platforms at the track level that run out into the center tracks. This practice still exists and is used mainly for unplanned outages such as a broken down train or shortduration track maintenance. Another method of passenger transfer is the Boni Car, a flat car outfitted with higher-elevation decking so that passengers on a high-level platform can walk across the flat car sitting on the outer track and board a April 2015 Railway Age 21

MOBILE PASSENGER SCAFFOLDING

MPS platforms virtually duplicate a regular high-level platform.

train on an inner track. This method is efficient but costly to construct and maintain. The aluminum bridge plate is a narrow aluminum scaffolding with one set of legs set into the ballast for stability. The other end is anchored into the highlevel platform. Each unit must by slung by a hi-rail crane, walked to its desired location while slung and set into place, then lagged to the platform. Setup is time consuming and difficult. Also, the constrained width makes it difficult for a train crew to spot a train in the precise location required to line the doors with the bridge plate. In short, there is no standard scaffolding—each installation is designed for a particular station and is only used once.

Mobile Passenger Scaffolding

To facilitate the best features of each aforementioned temporary platform system, a small group of engineers and a veteran B&B Supervisor at Amtrak were assembled and tasked. The requirements were to have a bridge plate called a Mobile Passenger Scaffolding (MPS) that could be slung by a small rail crane or off-road fork lift and be pushed by the force of two people on the rail into place, thus negating the need of a train crew and locomotive. Also, the units would have to be completely installed in a 48-hour period to bridge across track with a platform length of 1,100 feet. The structure had to meet AREMA loading requirements.

Once requirements were established, the team designed a mock-up that was built and tested by Amtrak’s New York Division B&B Department. The purpose of the mock-up was to validate the maximum dimension and weight that the B&B Department equipment and work force could safely and efficiently maneuver under catenary wires near an operating railroad. After a successful mock-up was tested and analyzed, the detailed design and fabrication of two working prototypes was commissioned. The prototype contract was awarded to a steel fabrication shop from Pennsylvania in close proximity to the job site location. This helped to facilitate a team effort.

As a result of the mock-up, the team determined that the structure would need to move both laterally and vertically to accommodate mildly varying track centers and track elevations across the Northeast Corridor main line with respect to the permanent concrete high-level platforms. Also, as a result 22

Railway Age

April 2015

of creating the mock-up, it was determined that the MPS would have to overlap the existing concrete platforms with a small cantilever. The cantilever concept eliminated any widegap conditions due to wide track centers by permitting the MPS to be pre-adjusted toward the train as necessary. The small cantilever also eliminated any gap between the MPS and the concrete platform.

Designing lateral and vertical adjustment capability involved making each MPS a two-section unit. The first section is a steel chassis structure with wheels attached for rolling and a vertical screw jack at each corner for vertical adjustment. The second section is an aluminum top plate that can be pulled or pushed laterally by hand in a fashion perpendicular to the rail or train to allow for the gap to be minimized with deviating track alignments. The top plate sits in a track on the chassis and is locked into the required location by large pins. Each unit is numbered.

The method of fixing and holding an MPS in place is a U-shaped bolt with large wing nuts. The bolt secures the chassis of the MPS to the rails—two per chassis and one on each rail. The system requires at least one weekly B&B Department inspection to check for signs of movement and loose fasteners.

Handrail spacing is at a specified length perpendicular to the train to assist in passenger safety and prevent passengers from running alongside the train. Also, the railing serves to eliminate any tripping hazard between any adjacent MPS unit. Therefore, handrail spacing is intended to correspond with the length of each unit.

Accommodating multiple car types

Ultimately, MPS unit length and handrail spacing was determined by the requirement to accommodate door spacing on multiple types of equipment: Amtrak Amfleet Coaches, NJT Arrow III EMUs with center doors, NJT Comet coaches with and without center doors, and NJT Multi-Levels with multiple end doors. As a result, railing spacing would need to alternate between 10 feet and 20 feet so that every door on every train could open. The team selected 10 feet unit lengths to standardize the design. Where 20-foot sections are required, two 10-foot sections would be bolted together.

An additional feature is that this system can be used as individual units for revenue train service as opposed to one continuous-length platform. For example, if only six train doors are required to open at a low-density station, then six MPSs will be set out as individual units at those doors.

The total time for installation for an 1,100-foot platform is approximately 30 hours and requires a work force of ten plus watchmen. Breakdown takes the same amount of time. Also important is mobilization; MPSs can be loaded and moved by highway to job site or loaded onto flat cars and moved by rail.

An important aspect of the MPS is the efficiency and safety of the installation process. Also significant is the convenience for passengers to board trains safely, and train crews to facilitate that task efficiently. RA

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Dispatcher’s delight

For Norfolk Southern, next-generation traffic control has arrived.

24 Railway Age April 2015

Higher productivity

UTCS automates many tasks that dispatchers once did manually. For example, it automatically helps them manage slow orders and provides them with prompts while they remain in effect. To improve safety, UTCS generates on-screen pop-up windows to alert dispatchers to issues that need attention, such as information on track authorities, clearing train movements, and turnout alignments. Weather reports are continuously updated, and advisories of high winds, flooding, and other potentially disruptive conditions appear automatically on dispatcher screens. Track maintenance crews can use UTCS’s Track View function to identify windows of work time where train traffic will be light. As a result, m/w crews can be more efficient and productive, and dispatchers can spend less time trying to coordinate track work windows with train traffic.

One of the keys to UTCS is total redundancy—redundant data on redundant servers. “Any division can be dispatched from any location—even outside a dispatch center from a laptop or tablet computer, provided there is Internet connectivity,” notes Turnipseed.

Courtesy Norfolk Southern

D

ispatching, says Norfolk Southern ManagerDispatch Planning Systems Charlie Turnipseed, “is like a game of chess.” Like chess players, train dispatchers are constantly thinking ahead, planning movements, moving “pieces”—trains—across the “board”—the railroad’s 22-state, 11-operating-division, 20,000-mile system—and dealing with “opponents”—the numerous types of events that can impact a train’s movement between origin and destination.

For NS, the 24-hour chess game of operating a railroad as efficiently and safely as possible has been notably improved. What was once a collection of outdated dispatch systems inherited from the railroad’s numerous predecessors (Norfolk & Western, Southern, Virginian, Wabash, Nickel Plate Road, etc., and Conrail and its many predecessors) are now tied into a single, integrated system: the Unified Train Control System (UTCS), jointly developed by NS and GE Transportation Systems.

NS describes UTCS, a $70 million investment, as “next generation” dispatching. The base system, called Precision Dispatch, was completed in October 2013.

By William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief

Managers can call up a train remotely and find its location.

For disaster recovery (a natural disaster or other emergency situation), NS has a command center, a backup facility north of Atlanta that can handle the entire network. “We have the capability to relocate everything there, if needed, within 24 hours,” he says. “And each of our divisional dispatch centers has a disaster recovery desk.”

Recovery time from a system failure, be it hardware or software, is incredibly fast. Turnipseed recalls an incident in which the Piedmont Division dispatch system, which handles VRE passenger trains serving Washington D.C., experienced a LAN failure. “Within two minutes, we had control transferred to the Atlanta Division. The trains kept moving; the passengers never knew there was a problem,” he says.

Movement planning

This past February, Movement Planner, which Turnipseed calls “the brains behind the system,” was rolled out on the Pittsburgh Division, the final one to receive it.

Movement Planner, currently used only in CTC territory, is tied in to UTCS’s Auto Router function, an execution tool that transmits train movement plans to the field, setting routes by lining turnouts and displaying the corresponding wayside signals. It looks at the railroad from the 50,000-foot level, crunching massive amounts of data on train count, freight volume, m/w hours, horsepower per tonnage ratios, topology constraints, and many other factors when generating train movement plans. Those plans are in lock-step with NS’s business rules involving such factors as priority trains and on-time performance.

For example, intermodal trains, which must be precisely timed to the work windows of a rail-to-truck transfer terminal, have priority over general merchandise trains. There are financial penalties to pay if intermodal performance targets are not met. Movement Planner “knows” what needs to

happen, and it can plan up to 12 hours out, “something humans really can’t do,” says Turnipseed.

Movement Planner has proved especially useful in helping NS keep track of three key performance indicators: schedule adherence, crew expirations (“going dead on the law,” where a train must be re-crewed on line-of-road, at substantial cost and time), and network velocity. While dispatchers have the option of overriding what Movement Planner is telling them to do, it’s generally to their benefit to comply. “We’ve found that, as Movement Planner compliance increases, so do schedule adherence and velocity,” notes Turnipseed. “Crew expirations decrease.”

Movement Planner measures and keeps track of dispatcher overrides. For some of the more-experienced dispatchers, the moves it generates may seem counter-intuitive. Though for the most part it has been widely embraced, “our younger generation of dispatchers is more in tune with it,” says Turnipseed. “That’s because they have grown up having to rely on computers and software-driven technology.”

Once Positive Train Control is fully deployed, Movement Planner will be able to provide full operational integration, “origin to line-of-road to destination.” Future plans call for it to be deployed in non-CTC territory, where trains are operated under TWC (Track Warrant Control). Tied in with PTC and GPS, for precise train location, it will generate what Turnipseed calls “track authority suggestions” for dispatchers. As well, it will be integrated with LEADER (New York Air Brake’s Locomotive Engineer Assist Display and Event Recorder), with which every NS road locomotive will eventually be equipped.

“Before UTCS, each division really was its own little railroad,” says Somerset, Ky.-based Manager Dispatch Training and Data Chad Hill. “Once they operated the trains across their division, they were basically done with them. Now we’re one big network.” RA

Priot to UTCS, Norfolk Southern’s 11 divisions operated much like autonomous smaller railroads, with little communication. Now, they operate like one big, integrated network.

UTCS’s Auto Router function sets turnouts and signals automatically.

April 2015 Railway Age 25

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All tied up

All segments of the crosstie market are expecting strong demand in 2015. Can this demand be satisfied?

By MISCHA WANEK-LIBMAN, Engineering Editor

A

ll indicators are pointing to a vibrant crosstie market across all segments: wood, concrete, steel, and composite. The freight railroads’ estimated $29 billion in 2015 capital expenditures is one driving factor, but healthy expansion plans among transit agencies are also fueling the good news.

Chemonite

Outlook on timber

The timber crosstie market took a hit in late 2013 and into 2014 as it dealt with raw material supply issues. However, Jim Gauntt, executive director of the Railway Tie Association (RTA), says the market is finding its path to equilibrium.

While current demand is robust, there is also the potential for it to skyrocket in 2015.

“RTA utilizes a proprietary econometric forecast to develop demand scenarios,” says Gauntt. “This year, our base-case scenario is for fundamental demand to rise about 6.5% to 24.4 million ties. If enough ties can be produced, given also the fact that we estimate that there were between 700,000 to one million ties of unmet demand in 2014, total purchases could skyrocket to around 25 million. We don’t know that it will play out this way, but it illustrates just how strong demand could be. So far in the first quarter, we have experienced significant demand increases from the commercial markets, so we believe purchases of 24 million-plus is

definitely possible if supply can increase fast enough.”

How does the market get to a nearly million-tie deficit?

Log supply, or lack thereof, in this case, plus demand for the hardwood in multiple markets. First, wet weather in 2013–14 coupled with a constrained logging community translated into raw supply issues negatively affecting the timber crosstie market. At the same time, other demands on the hardwood sawmill further constrained supply.

“We began in June of 2013 to sound warning bells for the railroads that other wood products markets were heating up and that without careful attention to pricing, a lot of wood fiber would rollover into crane mats, board road, and lumber for export,” explains Gauntt. “Unfortunately, price increases came slowly with a little bump in late 2013 and then serious realization in early 2014 that production was evaporating at an enormous pace. By the end of 2014, we had lost a little over 20% of wood tie production. This loss, coupled with strong tie demand, drove the RTA Inventory to Sales Ratio from 0.84 in December of 2012 to as low as 0.62 in July of 2014. The result was evaporation of air dry inventories and more Boultonizing of ties to meet what part of the demand could be met.”

Gauntt notes that in order to build inventories in air stack yards, it will take some level of “over-production,” for an extended time period, to regain the ground that was lost from the previous two-year period. Exactly how much April 2015 Railway Age 27

crossties

Concrete crosstie suppliers are prepping for high demand in 2015.

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April 2015

any time soon and may, in fact, grow incrementally as the U.S. economy prospers. Thus it is critical to ramp up production as quickly as possible.”

Timber tie providers

C

Wood crosstie suppliers agree with Gauntt’s assessment of the market with all expecting to see an uptick in demand in the upcoming year. Tim Carey, industrial products specialist with Arch Wood Protection, Inc., says, “The white wood supply is catching up to railroad needs and, for our Chemonite® ACZA (Ammoniacal Copper Zinc Arsenate) treated crossties, we anticipate continued acceptance and growth. Evaluation of in-track performance and acceptance in standards such as AWPA and AREMA have led to further usage of ACZA treated ties produced from both softwoods and hardwoods in North America. Our product warranties and the ability to easily incorporate borates with Chemonite® ACZA treatment in an efficient one-step treating process also contribute to sustained growth in the use of the product.”

Gross & Janes Co. President and CEO Mike Pourney says, “Demand is strong for the foreseeable future from the railroads and all indications are that demand will remain strong.

The trick will be, can we catch up with production from the shortage of 2014? A lot will depend on weather. It’s been wet in Texas through Arkansas, the lower Midwest area, so we’re hoping we get a dry spring and tie production will pick up.”

Koppers is forecasting a 10-15% increase in crosstie production. “A key driver in the increase in raw material supply is a reduced demand for other sawn products, such as lumber and board road that is fed primarily into the housing and energy markets, respectively,” says Gary Ambrose, vice president, Commercial Railroad Products and Sales. “Due to latent demand, the increased production will come closer to addressing immediate demand, but will not be sufficient nearterm to backfill the reduced inventories that developed over the past two years. A continued strong supply situation will ultimately meet both the immediate and long-term demand,

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CM

MY

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K

L.B. Foster Co.

over-production will be needed is still in question, but hitting that moving target is something Gauntt feels is still attainable.

“To give you some perspective, if the wood tie industry produces 25% more ties in 2015 than 2014, and demand is as we forecast, the year will end with zero increase in inventories. Basically, it will take more production than that to start the re-equilibration process. There are signs we may be able to do this, but it’s anything from certain if production can grow at such a rapid pace. Fortunately, the Chinese domestic housing market has softened and crane mats and board road slowed as the number of rig counts tanked with lower oil prices, but no one expects that to last forever. Now is a key time for sawmill producers to focus on ties,” says Gauntt.

While lower oil prices have sent rig counts down, how those prices will affect timber crosstie demand is uncertain.

“Our forecast model did create an adverse scenario outlook for tie demand based on extended lower oil prices, but even if that were to transpire, we would expect demand to not fall below 23 million ties, plus the unmet demand from 2014,” says Gauntt. “In that scenario, tie production must rise above a 20% increase to improve inventories. We wrote an extensive piece on this in our Jan./Feb. issue of Crossties; the digital edition plus the scenario spreadsheet for Inventory/Sales can be found on our home page, www.rta.org,” What’s more of a potential issue is weather. While Gauntt says the unusual winter cold did not have a debilitating effect on production in January and March, February was softer than expected. “That brings us to the next issue: Will we have a mild spring and then also tropical weather season?” asks Gauntt. “All of us tie guys are praying so, otherwise, it would put a big hurt on the production-meeting-demand scenario the industry is hoping for.

“If we see all of the demand met in 2015, we could see an increase in demand of 200,000-300,000 ties in 2016. If demand is not met in 2015, building tie inventories could take even into 2017. Our sense from the data is that longterm demand will not fundamentally dip from these levels

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but it likely will take the balance of this year and 2016 to achieve that objective. Crosstie inventories will not rise at the same rate as the raw material increases. A large percentage of the crossties will be Boultonized and used this year for both Class I and commercial railroad demand. It’s likely the industry will again use more crossties than what is produced. All in all, we are looking at a much more optimistic supply market than we experienced in 2013 and 2014.”

George Caric, vice president marketing at Stella-Jones Corp., says the company is in recovery mode for 2015. “By that I mean we are trying to fill the orders we have on the books for 2015 while trying to get an inventory stacked for drying to meet the 2016 demand. We are gaining some ground in certain locations of the country. However, there are areas that have not dried up.” He says the two plants Stella-Jones acquired from Boatright Railroad Products have played an integral roll in keeping orders filled, which has been needed as demand continues to be strong in spite of oil pricing.

“Hopefully, by the late fall, we will see tie production back to levels that will give us the recovery we need,” says Caric.

Concrete tie providers

Suppliers of concrete crossties are also prepping for high demand in 2015 driven by the Class I’s, transit projects, and industrial developments.

L.B. Foster Co. is projecting another robust market for concrete ties in 2015. According to Steve Burgess, vice president, Concrete Products, the company is seeing relatively strong demand across all of its end market segments.

“Activity among the North American Class I railroads remains solid from both traditional and now nontraditional users of concrete ties,” he says. “Several railroads are actively reconsidering the potential application of concrete ties as the value proposition has improved for their use. We are also seeing some renewed interest from short lines and regional railroads due to availability issues with wood ties.

“In the industrial segment, work continues in energy market applications as existing projects in the oil and gas industry continue to be built out. And port development continues to drive demand for concrete ties. We have experienced mixed activity in the transit sector. But we expect a pick-up in demand here as projects move from the designbuild stage to actual construction. 2014 was a very good year for concrete tie demand and we expect more of the same in 2015.”

Scott Craig, general manager, KSA, sees the railway industry, as a whole, doing well and expects good things for the upcoming year. “The Class I’s are moving product and spending money for capital projects to what looks to be an industry record,” he says. “The commuter and light rail

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Railway Age

April 2015

for the 29th Annual Tie-Grading Seminar July 21-23, at Stella-Jones, Clanton, AL. Hotel: Marriott Birmingham - Birmingham, AL Presented by The Railway Tie Association Make tracks to the ALWAYS-IMPROVING and EVER-EXPANDING learning event of the year. Now with three full days of education PLUS new video interactive sessions: • Tell at a glance which crossties will last and which won’t • Insight from professors, railroaders, foresters, wood preservers and sawmillers • Tour a tie-producing plant • Lectures and discussions include the popular “Species Identification and Crosstie Grading Derby” and the bonus session, “Railroad Engineering Principles Used to Develop Tie Specifications” • Species identification; defect inspection; specifications and grades storage, seasoning, and handling

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systems are predicting record numbers when it comes to moving people and KSA hopes to benefit from all of it.

“KSA is in the process of putting together a very good year, along with being diverse when it comes to the type of projects we are doing. Our current backlog is made up of about 60% of Class I work, 30% of light rail, and 10% of commuter rail projects. It seems that people are finally realizing that riding trains, even with lower gas prices, is the way to go and moving product with trains is also the way to go. I like this trend and I hope it continues.”

Rocla Concrete Tie Inc. is anticipating that Class I demand will make 2015 one of the company’s strongest years to date.

“The crude by rail movement, along with system-wide carload increases for the Class I network, continues to drive demand for more capacity and safety upgrades, and concrete ties are a major part of those programs,” says Brett Urquhart, vice president business development. “Rocla has invested in increasing not only our production capacity, but also our shipping capacity out of our facilities to keep up with this demand.”

Composite tie providers

Composite crosstie manufacturers expect growth to come in 2015 as they continue to focus on product return-on-investment and finding ideal situations for product placement.

In 2015, AXION International Inc. forecasts growth in

what the company terms “specialty applications” or, as Cory Burdick, manager, ECOTRAX® Rail Division, explains, “installations where our ECOTRAX® line provides a combination of the greatest immediate and highest long-term value for railroads.”

He notes that installations such as in tunnels, bridges, road crossings, turnouts, and high-rot environments are the company’s primary focus.

“Our goal is to mitigate problems associated with maintenance, offering valuable solutions in critical areas, an evolution from being solely a material supplier to the industry, he says. “Our growth is directly related to that evolution and thus far in 2015, AXION has announced more than $10 million in orders and contracts.”

IntegriCo Composites says it is quadrupling its capacity with a new facility in Louisiana that is driven by what the company calls “intense demand” for its composite crossties and grade crossings. “The demand for our crossties is based upon our track record of delivering an environmentally friendly product that meets the high expectations of our customers,” says Matt McCooe, vice president of sales and marketing. “Equally important, our composite ties are priced so the return on investment for our customers, or the payback, is attained, in some cases, within the first 12 months.” RA

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Railway Age

April 2015

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Diesel-hauled Bombardier bilevels are the mainstay of GO Transit service. Long-range plans call for electrification.

Ontario on the move The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area is undergoing massive investment in all forms of rail transit.

O

ntario’s Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GHTA) has entered into a new growth phase, thanks to funding availability, and political leadership that seems to recognize the importance of mobility that’s not tied to highways.

Metrolinx, the umbrella agency that oversees most public transportation capital projects in the region (with the exception of the Toronto Transit Commission, which prefers to remain mostly independent), has launched “The Big Move: Transforming Transportation in the GTHA.” Encompassing new projects that amount to about $50 billion over the next 34 Railway Age April 2015

25 years, Metrolinx plans to build more than 700 miles of rail transit, more than triple what exists now.

“The Big Move’s scope is staggering,” says Jeff Levy, President and CEO of RailWorks, whose Canadian subsidiary, PNR RailWorks, has been Metrolinx’s track and signal prime contractor since 2001. “There’s money to spend, and the political will to spend it. It’s a well-planned, progressive development program—something that’s unusual to see.

GO Transit is evolving into a full-fledged railroad, with major right-of-way acquisitions (from CN), redoing Toronto Union Station’s interlocking plant (a joint Alstom/PNR initiative),

Steve Host

By John D. Thompson, Canadian Contributing Editor, and William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief

building four- and six-track corridors with grade separations, and transferring all train dispatching from CN.” Metrolinx late last year issued a Request for Information spanning a range of propulsion options for future GO Transit equipment, including electric multiple-units, and electric and dual-power locomotives. The RFI sought responses by March 6, 2015. The agency has been criticized for not committing to electrification of the expanding GO Transit system, including a decision to initiate DMU Union Pearson Express service linking Toronto Union Station and Lester B. Pearson International Airport, instead of electrifying the new line, set to open this year with Cummins-powered Sumitomo/ Nippon Sharyo DMUs. Any commitment to electrifying GO Transit lines, a 10-year endeavor, is estimated to cost at least C$1.8 billion. Dual-powered locomotives could be used if GO Transit electrifies portions of its rail network, similar to the approach taken by NJ Transit with its Bombardiersupplied ALP45-DPs. Metrolinx says its goal is to electrify GO lines to provide all-day, two-way service across the network, with 15-minute frequencies in core areas, a component of the C$13 billion Regional Express Rail (RER) project. At the heart of RER is the SmartTrack proposal, which involves using GO Transit’s Kitchener and Stoufville lines to create a 33-mile, 22-station east-west electrified route providing express service across the GTHA. The project could be completed within seven years using $C2.5 billion in funding from the city of Toronto; Mayor John Tory—unlike his train-wreck predecessor, the troubled Rob Ford—is an ardent supporter of the plan, campaigning for it in his election bid last fall.

In February, the Toronto City Council approved an additional C$1.65 million to study SmartTrack, which would be delivered and operated by Metrolinx using the Toronto Transit Commission fare collection system.

Changes under way at TTC

Toronto Transit Commission CEO Andy Byford has seen his career transition from the London Underground to the TTC, with a stopover in Australia.

The TTC is at a crucial point in its 94-year history. Although ridership is at an all-time high (an estimated 540 million in 2014) and the farebox recovery rate exceeds 80%, major challenges face the TTC, which operates 11 streetcar lines, four rapid transit routes, and 141 bus lines served by 247 LRVs, 732 rapid transit cars, and 1,851 buses.

Byford, a native of Britain, joined the TTC in November 2011 as Assistant Chief General Manager (CGM). “It was a golden opportunity to be part of the team that modernizes the TTC,” he says. He believes the TTC needs to become more customer-focused, its procedures and policies updated, less inward looking, to regain its standing as a great transit system. His 2012 Five Year Corporate Plan outlined a comprehensive overhaul of the system “to renew our culture, our equipment, and our processes.”

In 2011, the TTC was struggling to operate in a difficult environment, partly the result of years of government underfunding. As well, Toronto’s then-Mayor Ford had minimal interest in public transit, and held an intense prejudice against

streetcars and LRT. Shortly after Byford’s arrival, the CGM departed abruptly. Byford was appointed to the role, whose title was subsequently changed to CEO. Byford is a hands-on operations executive, reflecting his background, in the manner of former CGM David Gunn.

One of his first accomplishments was to significantly improve subway cleanliness. Another Byford goal has been to significantly reduce subway delays: “We have to lower the incidence of paper fires in the tunnel; these are not especially serious in themselves but they hold up service. We’re considering buying a vacuum service car to help tackle the problem.”

Many delays also stem from the increasingly unreliable signal system, much of which is 50-60 years old. This problem should be fixed by 2020 on the Yonge-University-Spadina line when a communications-based automatic train control system, the TTC’s first, is implemented. It will also increase capacity by about 25%. The YUS has been facing critical capacity issues for a number of years, partly due to a April 2015 Railway Age 35

Ontario on the move

tremendous growth in the city core. Union Station, the main interchange with GO Transit commuter trains and buses, is being rebuilt to increase capacity, with completion nearing.

New vehicles, new lines

Bombardier’s new Toronto Rocket subway cars, an articulated six-car unit, provide 6% additional capacity compared to the old two-car married pairs (1990s-vintage T1 cars, which will be on the property for about another decade).

A seven-mile extension to the YUS subway is due to open by 2017, serving the northwest area of Toronto, including York University, and the adjoining and rapidly growing suburb of Vaughan.

The Toronto City Council recently approved an extension to the Bloor-Danforth Subway, running northeasterly about five miles from Kennedy Terminal to Agincourt. This is expected to open by about 2025. It will replace the mainly above-ground automated Scarborough Rapid Transit, opened in the mid-1980s with 40-foot cars utilizing a linear induction propulsion system. “It will take a lot of work on our part to keep that line running another decade,” Byford observes.

Scarborough is the only heavy rail project currently on the drawing board in Toronto. However, a cross-town LRT is presently under construction along Eglinton Avenue, a major east-west thoroughfare, extending about 12 miles from

36 Railway Age April 2015

Kennedy Subway Terminal to Weston Road. This line is about two-thirds tunnel and one-third surface, and will utilize a double-ended version of Bombardier’s Flexity Freedom LRV. Opening is scheduled for 2020.

Eglinton Crosstown will be the first Toronto transit project not designed and managed by the TTC, except for two transfer connections with the YUS. Instead, the agency responsible is Metrolinx. Eglinton will not have a track connection with the existing streetcar system as the track gauge will be standard gauge, rather than the TTC’s 4 feet, 10-7/8 inches. A separate yard and shop will be built on a former Kodak property. TTC may operate and maintain the line.

Metrolinx is also planning to build two additional LRT lines, primarily surface, on Finch Avenue West and Sheppard Avenue East. They will interchange with the YUS and BloorDanforth subways, with free transfers. The projects have been approved; construction may begin within two years.

Consideration has been given by the City to extending the existing Harbourfront LRT eastward along Queens Quay, along which considerable high-rise development has occurred or is planned. However, funding has not been approved.

In mid-2015, the TTC will open a half-mile streetcar extension on Cherry Street to serve a high-density development area on former industrial lands. It will be operated as a branch of the 504-King route from Broadview Station, and

Ontario on the move

may ultimately link up at the Queens Quay extension.

There are no other plans for LRT lines in Toronto in the near future. However, Byford has recommended that an additional 60 low-floor Flexity streetcars be ordered from Bombardier. The first of 204 are undergoing testing and qualification (cover photo).

Integrated fare collection

The TTC has recently begun implementing automatic fare collection, first in the subway, then on surface routes. The system is the PRESTO card, developed by Metrolinx in association with the TTC and other properties. The goal is to have it adapted by all Ontario transit systems, providing seamless transfers. In Toronto, this will ease the numerous transfers between GO Transit, the TTC, and adjoining operators. PRESTO utilizes a farecard into which patrons load value, which is then debited from bank accounts. In time, PRESTO will represent millions of dollars in savings to the TTC by eliminating the production, sale, and processing of traditional printed fare media and metal tokens.

“We need to establish an affordable budget that will permit a state of good repair,” Byford says. “One way is to either sell or lease land or air rights at TTC properties.” This applies, basically, to land bought by the TTC for subway or other projects prior to the 1960s, such as the Eglinton Garage

and bus terminal, which will likely be redeveloped after the Crosstown LRT is completed, or the Danforth Garage. “This would result in windfalls in the millions of dollars,” he says.

ION Kitchener and Waterloo

When its first stage opens in 2017, the Region of Waterloo’s Kitchener-Waterloo ION LRT system (map. p. 35) will be among the first to open in Ontario since the 1970s. The C$818 million two-stage project will bring light rail to the Waterloo Region, which includes the cities of Cambridge, Waterloo, and Kitchener. Stage 1 is a 22.4-mile corridor that features 11.8 miles of LRT linking the growing urban cores of Kitchener and Waterloo, plus 10.6 miles of “adapted bus rapid transit” (aBRT) connecting the southern terminus of the LRT system in Kitchener to Cambridge. In Stage 2, aBRT service will be converted to LRT. Following Vancouver’s Canada Line, ION (which is Greek for “going”) is Canada’s second DBFOM (Design-BuildFinance-Operate-Maintain) P3 (public/private partnership) project, and the fourth in North America, with NJ Transit’s RiverLINE diesel LRT and Denver’s FasTracks Eagle P3 regional/commuter rail. Grandlinq, a consortium of P3 developer Plenary, infrastructure investor Meridiam, construction companies Aecon and Kiewit, and operator Keolis, have ION’s 30-year DBFOM contract.

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Ontario on the move

The Region of Waterloo (which, like TTC, is not part of Metrolinx) has exercised a three-year option to extend its existing general engineering contract with Parsons Brinckerhoff and its Montreal-based parent company, WSP. Parsons Brinckerhoff and WSP are responsible for developing the output specifications for procurement, supporting the public-private partnership procurement process, and for managing the overall program, including construction management services. Construction on ION commenced in August 2014.

“This is not a revitalization project,” explains Paul Bakas, Parsons Brinckerhoff’s General Engineering Consultant. “The region is growing in terms of both transportation need and land use. ION’s design and service plan goes 30 years out. We’ll start service with one-car trains on eightminute headways, but we’ve designed the platforms to accommodate twocar trains operating on six-minute

headways. The system will fit within the urban landscape.”

ION’s 14 100%-low-floor LRVs come from the same batch of 28 Bombardier Flexity Freedom vehicles ordered for Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown LRT (ION gets the first 14).

Stage 1 of ION will use a combination of dedicated LRT new construction and, at each end, shared use with CN’s Huron and Waterloo spurs, light-density industrial leads.

The shared-use arrangement with CN incorporates two different operating concepts. On the Huron Spur, which has a CN/Canadian Pacific interchange, 28-foot track centers separate, with a fence, dedicated freight and LRT tracks; freights are limited to 25 mph.

There is no shared track or temporal (time) separation.

The Waterloo Spur utilizes shared track for a limited time overnight, with train separation enforced by trackcircuit-based cab signals and ATP on

LRVs. The double-track line operates LRT-only between 5:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m., at which time it switches to single-track LRT operation until 1:00 a.m. A single CN local, limited to 15 mph, uses the other track northbound between 11:00 and 1:00 to access an industrial switching district, where it services customers and then returns southbound, clearing the line prior to LRT start-up at 5:00. This is similar to the NJT RiverLINE’s arrangement with Conrail in the Camden area.

ION stations in shared-used territory will be equipped with gauntlet tracks for freights. Among other track accommodations to ensure freight/LRV compatibility are No. 10 turnouts with moveable-point, non-flange-bearing frogs with 25mm flange depth; 115-pound rail; zero curve superelevation; and concrete ties with Pandrol fasteners and trap-rock ballast. Since the LRV is 100% low-floor, wheel/ traction motor clearances are very tight. Therefore, an AAR 1B wheel profile is not feasible; the wheel profile is the same as the TTC LRVs. Streetrunning sections will use booted-block embedded track for good ride quality and gauge retention.

B-Line and Brampton

Elsewhere in the GTHA, Mississauga and Brampton recently completed preliminary design and environmental assessment for the 14.2-mile, C$1.6 billion Hurontario-Main LRT Project, extending from Hurontario Street and Lakeshore Road, at Lake Ontario, northward to the City of Brampton, and connecting with GO Transit at each end. Metrolinx gave its official support in late 2012. A Transit Project Assessment Process is under way.

The B-Line is a planned 8.3-mile, 17-station LRT line running along Main Street and King Street in downtown Hamilton, and connecting McMaster University and Eastgate Square.

Part of Hamilton’s proposed BLAST network, it is a priority project in The Big Move. A Metrolinx-funded planning, design, and engineering study is currently under way. RA 38 Railway Age April 2015

How do your couplers measure up?

Digital gages, though accurate, have their limitations. Here’s how TTCI is applying tried and true mechanical methods.

By Devin Sammon, Senior Engineer, TTCI, for Railway Age

T

o identify the root causes of poor fitment of components in car coupling systems, Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), under the direction of the Association of American Railroads through the Strategic Research Initiatives Program, developed a digital gage to identify fitment issues. Though the digital gage allowed for more accurate measurements, its practical and technological limitations have driven the research to develop physical gages. These physical gages can be used to measure a larger population of coupling systems and support the development of clearly defined physical tolerances to ensure interchangeability of coupler components.

A clear understanding of the operational environment and how these tolerances affect performance reveals why gages are important. In draft, the coupler and knuckle are designed to transfer the longitudinal load through the pulling lugs of the knuckle to the pulling lugs of the couplers. From the coupler pulling lugs, the load is transferred through the coupler body and into the draft system, propelling the car down the tracks.

If the pulling lugs of the knuckle and coupler are not the first two surfaces to make contact in draft, then the area around the pin hole and pin bear that load. This can result in cracks around the pin hole and broken or bent pins. The bearing surfaces of the pulling lugs are subject to wear and plastic deformation. This causes the contact to change over the life of the components. When a new knuckle is installed in the used coupler body, because there is wear on the coupler pulling lugs, the gaps at the pulling lugs are likely larger than with a new coupler and new knuckle. This increased gap makes it less likely that the pulling lugs will be the first surfaces to come in contact. A gage indicating

Some of the gages developed by TTCI. Photos show the MUG measuring a coupler and knuckle. The lower right shows a knuckle-shaped gage. The center and right top photos show a simplified gage.

limiting wear conditions and avoiding possible alternative load paths would be useful.

Though the AAR Manual of Standards and Recommended Practices (MSRP) defines limiting dimensions in some areas, the dimension from the pin hole to the pulling lugs is not specified. To better understand this dimension on both the coupler and knuckle, TTCI began developing the Multiple Use Gage (MUG). After developing and prototyping a design, TTCI collaborated with a gage manufacturing company. Improvements were made to the gage to make it manufacturable, more accurate, and more rugged.

Using the MUG, a total of 268 E-type couplers have been measured by TTCI researchers. The couplers measured vary in style, age, and use. From the measurements, a few trends have developed. The bottom pulling lug on most couplers in the industry is closer to the pin hole than the top pulling lug. In the industry, the distance from the pin hole to the pulling lugs is between 5.5 inches and 5.9 inches. These measurements will be provided to the AAR Coupling Systems and Truck Casting Committee as a report on the health of the industry.

A simplified gage design has also been developed using the measurements from the 268 couplers. This go/no-go style gage is being used in a select few locations to estimate the number of couplers that could be affected if a dimensional specification were defined in the MSRP. This exercise is important to ensure that only couplers with severe wear or dimensional issues are removed from service.

The two-step process of gathering the data from industry samples and testing designs of simplified gages provides the industry a good starting point to improve coupler components. RA April 2015 Railway Age 39

RAILWAY AGE CONFERENCE & EXPO

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AGENDA HIGHLIGHTS:

An interactive dialogue among top-level executives, Railway Age’s experienced editors, and attendees

WHERE WE’RE AT; WHERE WE’RE HEADED

THE CHANGING FACE OF RAIL REGULATION

Oscar Munoz, CSX President

Deb Miller, Acting Surface Transportation Board Chair

With Railway Age Editor William C. Vantuono

With Railway Age Contributing Editor Frank Wilner

STAGGERS PROMPTED 35 GROWTH YEARS. HOW CAN GROWTH BE SUSTAINED THROUGH THE NEXT 35?

Wick Moorman, Norfolk Southern Executive Chairman; Joe Boardman, Amtrak President and CEO; E. Hunter Harrison, Canadian Pacific CEO; Ed Hamberger, AAR President and CEO With Railway Age Editor William C. Vantuono

DECONGESTING CHICAGO, AMERICA’S RAILROAD HUB Linda Morgan, Nossaman LLP Partner, Amtrak Chicago Blue Ribbon Panel member, and former STB Chair With Railway Age Editor William C. Vantuono

CAPITAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES FOR INFRASTRUCTURE Ron Batory, Conrail President and COO With Railway Age Editor William C. Vantuono

CAR & LOCOMOTIVE FINANCE AND LEASING LANDSCAPE

REGIONAL AND SHORT LINE ISSUES

Barbara Wilson, First Union Rail Managing Dir. and President

Ed Ellis, Iowa Pacific Holdings President

With Railway Age Contributing Editor David Nahass

Tom Hoback, Indiana Rail Road Founder and CEO (ret.)

With Railway Age Contributing Editor Roy Blanchard

SPONSORSHIPS AVAILABLE: Contact Jon Chalon: 212-620-7224, jchalon@sbpub.com

People

Meetings

High profile Art Leahy joins Metrolink as the agency’s CEO, effective April 20. The 11 member-board of the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA), the agency that governs Metrolink, unanimously approved the appointment.

Leahy is no stranger to southern California transportation issues. “When the position became available at Metrolink, I was immediately intrigued,” Leahy said. “Having had the opportunity to work at both Metro (Los Angeles County MTA) and the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), I Leahy have witnessed first-hand the incredible diligence of the Metrolink Metrolink staff, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to further grow and enhance Southern California’s six-county rail system.” Leahy served as chief executive officer of Metro for six years. He led the completion of numerous projects funded by Los Angeles County’s Measure R. Prior to his tenure as Metro CEO, Leahy led OCTA (2001-2009) and served as the general manager of Metro Transit (1997-2001) in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

April 28-May 1

GENESEE VALLEY TRANSPORTATION CO.—Donald J. Colangelo promoted to Vice President Mechanical. William Strein promoted to Assistant Chief Mechanical Officer, reporting to Colangelo.

LACMTA—Phillip Washington named CEO. ROCKY MOUNTAINEER— Gord Miller named Vice President Rail Operations and Asset Development.

SAN MATEO COUNTY TRANSIT DISTRICT—Jim Harnett named CEO and General Manager.

TRI-CITY RAILROAD—John Miller named Vice President and COO of the Richland, Wash.-based short line.

SUPPLIERS Colo Railroad Builders named Rachel Burns Director of Sales and Marketing.

Gannett Fleming appointed Bryan Mulqueen, P.E., Director of Transit & Rail, based in the company’s Raleigh, N.C., office. David A. Boaté, PE, named a senior associate.

WAGO named Jared Ryan Regional Sales Manager for Upstate New York.

WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff named Jayanti Menches Director of 42

Railway Age

April 2015

Communications for the combined company’s U.S./Central and South America region. Jerry Romana named a senior engineering manager in the Los Angeles office. He will serve as a regional engineer on the California High-Speed Rail project, leading a program management team responsible for the Burbank to Anaheim and Los Angeles to San Diego segments, supporting conceptual and preliminary engineering and environmental clearance activities.

100 YEARS AGO in

(APRIL 1915) EFFECT OF THE WAR ON TIMBER PRESERVATION One of the direct effects of [World War I] on the American railways has been the partial demoralizaton of the timber-treating industry following the cutting off of a large part of the supply of preservatives. The railways are the largest consumers of treated lumber.

They are also large plant operators, owning 27 out of a total of approximately 95 plants, while they are the main customers of the others, contracting for the output of many of the privately owned plants. Any interference with operation of these wood preserving plants is therefore of direct concern to the railways.

Railway Educational Bureau Track Safety Standards Part 213, Classes 1-5 Workshop, Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Tel.: 800-228-9670; Email: studentservices@sb-reb. com; Website: www. railwayeducationalbureau.com/ TrkInspWrkShp.html

May 6-7 Railway Age/Parsons Next-Generation Train Control Conference Key Bridge Marriott, Arlington, Va. Email: conferences@sbpub. com; Website: www.railwayage. com/nextgen

June 17-18 Railway Age Rail Insights Conference Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel Chicago, Ill. Email: conferences@sbpub.com; Website: www.railwayage.com/ railinsights

July 13-14 Midwest Association of Rail Shippers (MARS) Summer Meeting Lake Geneva Resort, Lake Geneva, Wisc. www.mwrailshippers.com

Sept. 17-18 Railway Age Crude by Rail Conference Key Bridge Marriott, Arlington, Va. Email: conferences@sbpub. com; Website: www.railwayage. com/conferences

Oct. 4-7 Railway Interchange 2015 Minneapolis Convention Center.

Combined exhibits hosted by RSI, REMSA, and RSSI. Technical and educational sessions presented

by AREMA and the Coordinated Mechanical Associations (CMA). www.railwayinterchange.org

Perspective G. R. (Dick) Green

Why freight cars won’t go larger than 286

T

oday, the largest, standard heavyduty freight cars carry about 110 tons, and the total weight, including the weight of the car itself, is 143 tons, or 286,000 pounds Gross Rail Load (GRL). The 110-ton car has only been around for a few decades.

Load limits must have been very small when railroads first developed in the 19th century, and for about 150 years, freight cars have steadily gotten bigger. But today, it doesn’t appear that this trend is continuing.

This is a matter of great importance to the railroad industry. Of all the thousands of improvements that have occurred during the industry’s long history, increasingly larger freight cars have been perhaps the biggest contributor to improving efficiency and profitability.

Marketing people have been closely involved in the process of developing larger cars, as increased car size and the favorable economics of heavier loading have been an important competitive tool.

If larger, more efficient freight cars have been so successful, why would this trend of increasing size stop? The answer is simple: Infrastructure has to be upgraded, at great cost. Rail has become heavier, and hardened with additives in the steel-making process.

This upgrading expense can be justified by the increased profit from heavier loading, but this is changing. Extensive research has shown that at some critical weight, rail incurs much higher costs to maintain, much more than the increased profits could justify. Car size was reaching its practical limit.

A limit for freight car size is not a new topic. As far back as 1970, Imre Reiner, an engineer with the Chessie System concerned about heavy cars, stated that at some point rail maintenance costs begin to increase very rapidly with an increase in weight, with total rail failure when the molecular stress limit of the

rail had been reached. In February 1980, Robert E. Ahlf of the Illinois Central Gulf said that the 100-ton car, rapidly being introduced at that time, was too heavy for the rail in general use, and that the industry was courting disaster with outof-control track maintenance costs.

Few in the industry, however, wanted to hear that, as larger cars were a powerful marketing tool when the industry was struggling to stay alive.

Cost analysts paid close attention to Ahlf, because if he was right, costs for heavy cars were being understated. I was

Further improvements in technology will be used to extend rail life, rather than accommodate heavier cars. named chairman of a committee of the Association of American Railroads Cost Analysis Organization to research the matter with an industry-wide solicitation of comments and suggestions.

Since it was an engineering problem, an Engineering Panel was selected including William Hay, a professor emeritus of railroad engineering; Thomas Hutcheson, Chief Engineer, Seaboard Coast Line; AREA Director Louis Cerny, Imre Reiner, and Allen Zarembski, head of the AAR Track Research Division.

The Engineering Panel made a general statement agreeing with Reiner and Ahlf, supported by a fair amount of data. But over the years there were some who did not agree, and the proposal of a 125-ton

car surfaced occasionally. A study conducted by Semih Kalay and Tom Guins of TTCI made a good economic case for the 110-ton car but not the 125-ton (315,000 pounds GRL) car, citing escalating track maintenance costs.

Guins later published an article in Railway Age on car design and route capacity that made a good economic case for the 110-ton car, on routes that could handle it, but again not for the 125-ton car. This was 1999, and it seemed apparent that the industry had researched the matter thoroughly and settled on a car that struck the right balance between car size and appropriate rail size and hardness.

So if freight cars have stopped getting bigger, how has the industry coped with this situation? Many would agree that it may have been a blessing in disguise.

In the past, when car size increased, it jumped from 50 tons to 70 tons to 100 tons. Each time this happened, infrastructure had to make the same leap, which took time as well as money. If a particular line couldn’t meet the standards, a railroad was inviting trouble with the heavier loads, and slow orders prevailed.

Now, with car weight apparently maximized, most lines have been upgraded, and it appears that the industry is putting its financial resources into adding capacity and increasing system velocity. It’s reasonable to assume that further improvements in technology will be used to extend rail life, rather than accommodate heavier cars.

Dick Green, a fourth-generation railroader, was the first chairman of the Association of American Railroads Heavy Wheel Load Committee. As Director of Economics for the Western Pacific, he developed the company’s Cost Analysis System, and in October 1969, as a member of the AAR Cost Analysis Organization, introduced and demonstrated a Unit Train Cost Formula, the first computerized application of its type in the industry.

April 2015 Railway Age 43

Products Ritron versatile, purpose-built, high-power radio Ritron’s TeleSwitchHP (High-Power) is a versatile, purpose-built radio designed for use in the railroad industry. It can be used as the radio transceiver in a wayside defect detection announcement system along with the added feature in the radio that allows the locomotive engineer to initiate “on-demand” the re-broadcast of a recent defect detector announcement message.

The TeleSwitchHP is a 30W (adjustable down to 5W), PCprogrammable transceiver with the added functionality of two built-in DTMF decoder-controlled 1A dry-contact relays.

Each relay can be independently controlled by a unique DTMF command consisting of up to 12 characters. Based on the specific transmitted DTMF command, each relay can be programmed to respond in the following way: Close the relay, open the relay, or perform a momentary closure. The Decoder Acknowledgment Tone feature is an audible tone transmitted by the radio whenever a command is correctly decoded. The dualcolor (red/green) LED indicator will light to indicate that the unit is transmitting or receiving.

The TeleSwitchHP, which is designed and manufactured in the U.S. and meets FCC and IC (Canada) standards, is available in Narrow Band @12.5 kHz and Wide Band @25KHz (Wideband model available by special order only and where allowed) by appropriate regulatory authorities. An NXDN™ Digital, Very

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Visit us at www.wausau-everest.com Made in America Mark Kreutzfeldt • Product Manager mkreutzfeldt@wausau-everest.com • 1-605-270-2602 1905 South Moorland Road • New Berlin, WI 53151

44

Railway Age

April 2015

Narrow Band @6.25 kHz version is under development. A Broadband TX/RX Design is available in 38 MHz@VHF, 28 MHz@220 MHz, and 20MHz@UHF. Frequency ranges are 136-174 MHz, 217-245 MHz, and 450-470 MHz. Custom frequency ranges are available. Frequency Stability Standard is 1.0 ppm. The unit features ultra-fast TX/RX (transmit and receive) attack times, SMD component design, Controlled Envelopesm TX keying, and an internal 0.5W audio amp for optional channel monitoring, with an expernal speaker (not included).

Other uses for the TeleSwitchHP include remote control of lights, track heaters, pin-pullers, pumps, motors, and other non-vital signal or crossing activations. For versatile, highperformance, and cost-effective wireless solutions, call Ritron at 800.USA.1.USA (800-872-1872).

Ad Index Company

Phone #

Fax URL/Email address

Page #

Amsted Rail Group

312-922-4516

312-922-4597

kskibinski@amstedrail.com

C2

Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc.

888-250-5746

904-378-7298

info@bbri.com

15

Danella Rental Systems, Inc.

610-828-6200

610-828-2260

pbarents@danella.com

12

Delta Railroad Construction Inc.

440-994-2997

440-992-1311

info@deltarr.com

11

Dixie Precast

770-944-1930

770-944-9136

fbrown142@aol.com

32

Ellwood Crankshaft & Machine

724-347-0250

724-347-0254

ecgsales@elwd.com

14

Encore Rail Systems, Inc.

866-712-7622

303-922-6178

www.encorers.com

33

Herzog Railroad Services, Inc.

816-233-9002

816-233-7757

tfrancis@hrsi.com

13

Holland Co.

708-672-2300 ext.382

708-672-0119

gpodgorski@hollandco.com

Irwin Transportation Products

724-864-8900

724-864-0803

bspringer@irwincar.com

16

Koppers, Inc

412-227-2739

412-227-2841

ambrosegf@koppers.com

30

L B Foster Company

412-928-3506

412-928-3512

glippard@lbfoster.com

29

LTK Engineering Services

215-641-8826

215-542-7676

tfurmaniak@ltk.com

38

MAC Products

973-344-0700

973-344-5891

edward.gollob@macproducts.net

36

Progress Rail Services

256-505-6402

256-505-6051

info@progressrail.com

5

RJ Corman Railroad Group

800-611-7245

859-885-7804

www.rjcorman

9

Railquip Inc

770-458-4157

770-458-5365

sales@railquip.com

Railway Educational Bureau, The

402-346-4300

402-346-1783

bbrundige@sb-reb.com

Railway Tie Association

770-460-5553

770-460-5573

ties@rta.org

RailWorks

866-905-7245

952-469-1926 jrhansen@railworks.com

Road & Rail Services, Inc.

502-365-5198

C4

Soft Rail

888-872-4612

12

Stella-Jones

800-272-8437

412-894-2846 kdulski@stella-jones.com

Wausau-Everest, LP

800-788-6066

262-784-6720

sales@wausau-everest.com

44

Willamette Valley Company

541-484-9621

541-284-2096

03alishab@wilvaco.com

26

3

37 32, 44, C3 31

sales@signalcc.com

20

7

The Advertisers Index is an editorial feature maintained for the convenience of readers. It is not part of the advertiser contract and Railway Age assumes no responsibility for the correctness.

Advertising Sales MAIN OFFICE Jonathan Chalon, Publisher 55 Broad St., 26th Floor New York, NY 10004 (212) 620-7224 Fax: (212) 633-1863 jchalon@sbpub.com AL, AR, IN, KY, LA, MI, MS, OH, OK, TN, TX Emily Guill 20 South Clark Street, Suite 1910 Chicago, IL 60603 (312) 683-5021 eguill@sbpub.com CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Canada – Quebec and East, Ontario Mark Connolly 55 Broad St., 26th Floor New York, NY 10004 (212) 620-7260 Fax: (212) 633-1863 mconnolly@sbpub.com

AK, AZ, CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, KS, MN, MO, MT, NE, NM, ND, NV, OR, SD, UT, WA, WI, WY, Canada – AB, BC, MB, SK Heather Disabato 20 South Clark Street, Suite 1910 Chicago, IL 60603 (312) 683-5026 Fax: (312) 683-0131 hdisabato@sbpub.com The Netherlands, Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, North Germany, Middle East, South America, Africa (not South), Far East (Excluding Korea /China/India), All Others, Tenders Louise Cooper International Area Sales Manager The Priory, Syresham Gardens Haywards Heath, RH16 3LB United Kingdom +44-1444-416368 Fax: +44-(0)-1444-458185 lc@railjournal.co.uk

Scandinavia, Spain, Southern Germany, Austria, Korea, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Russia, Eastern Europe Baltic States, Recruitment Advertising Julie Richardson International Area Sales Manager The Priory, Syresham Gardens Haywards Heath, RH16 3LB United Kingdom +44-1444-416368 Fax: +44-(0)-1444-458185 jr@railjournal.co.uk Italy, Italian-speaking Switzerland Dr. Fabio Potesta Media Point & Communications SRL Corte Lambruschini Corso Buenos Aires 8 V Piano, Genoa, Italy 16129 +39-10-570-4948 Fax: +39-10-553-0088 info@mediapointsrl.it

Japan Katsuhiro Ishii Ace Media Service, Inc. 12-6 4-Chome, Nishiiko, Adachi-Ku Tokyo 121-0824 Japan +81-3-5691-3335 Fax: +81-3-5691-3336 amkatsu@dream.com CLASSIFIED, PROFESSIONAL & EMPLOYMENT Jeanine Acquart 55 Broad St., 26th Floor New York, NY 10004 (212) 620-7211 Fax: (212) 633-1325 jacquart@sbpub.com

April 2015 Railway Age 45

products & services

equipment Sale/Leasing

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Kansas City Office (913) 661-2424 oPerAtioNs trAiNiNG & coNsULtiNG: www.tcsrailservices.com • engineer training & CertifiCation other services: • exCellent HiStory witH fra, ntSB • Staffing • meCHaniCal & part 238(Qmp) • interim management

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Jeanine Acquart • jacquart@sbpub.com Ph: 212/620-7211 Fax: 212/633-1165 46

Railway Age

April 2015

10:03

equipment Sale/Leasing

Available For Lease ◆ 3,600 cu. ft. Open Top Hoppers. 45 degree slopes for aggregate, coke, coal, etc.

RECRUITMENT

EDNA A. RICE, EXECUTIVE RECRUITER, INC (713) 667-0406 FAX (713) 667-1651 Web address: www.ednarice.com Email: resume@ednarice.com

◆ Box Cars – 286K Gross Rail Load, 60’ 9” inside length, 12’ plug doors.

For additional information and pricing, please contact John Goodwin phone (605) 582-8318 e-mail jgoodwin@mwrail.com www.carmathinc.com

6750 West Loop South Suite 735 Bellaire, Texas 77401-4111

TRAINING

◆ Covered Hopper Cars – 4,650 & 4,750 cu. ft. cars with trough hatches & gravity gates. 268K Gross Rail Load. ◆ Covered Hopper Car – 3,000 cu. ft. cars with circular hatches & gravity gates.

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Part 243 Training & Certification Part 242 Conductor Training Part 240 Engineer Training and re-certification -------------------------------------------------------Modoc Railroad Academy 916-965-5515 info@modocrail.com employment

Available for Lease 3600 cu ft Open Top Hopper Cars 100 ton Automated/Manual Ballast Cars 4480 cu ft Aluminum Rotary Open Top Gons Contact: Tom Monroe: 415-616-3472 Email: tmonroe@atel.com

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April 2015 Railway Age 47

Financial edge DAVID NAHASS

Robust data, from the experts

T

he 29th Rail Equipment Finance Conference (REF) was an awesome event. Great talent from the rail industry assembled to discuss the financial and equipment markets and to address the challenges for 2015, and whether the rail industry and financial sectors are prepared for them.

The tenor of this conference was one of muted confidence. Earlier in the year, there was anticipation that REF would be a celebration of growth in 2014 with high expectations for 2015.

However, the trimming of the price of crude oil down into the mid $40s has given the bullishness pause.

At REF 2015, enthusiasm for 2014 was tempered by a “trust but verify” approach. Speakers addressed demand for crude oil tank cars and for covered hoppers hauling sand, and expressed hesitation in defining the future for railcar builds, lease rates, and the price of crude. They discussed railroad velocity and service levels, and the impact of service on car supply.

The intermodal market was given a good shake; speakers discussed the financial markets and the impact that changing bank rules may have on equipment financing.

Keynote speaker Jack Hellman, President and CEO of Genesee and Wyoming, Inc., spoke with great verve about GWI and its recent acquisition, U.K.-based European rail carrier Freightliner. He presented data that was fresh and new about the challenges faced by GWI, and its successes, and made a great case for why GWI is a strong global business partner for the railroad industry, from safety to operations, both domestically and abroad.

Joe Devoe from DVB Bank and Mark Gerlach from Fifth-Third Bank covered the market for financing equipment (STRONG!!) and the multitude of banking regulations 48

Railway Age

April 2015

affecting the finance industry. Banks are under tight scrutiny that may impact their ability to continue to finance equipment. Alternative companies (private equity, industrial finance, operating lessors) may step in to fill any void left behind as a result of changing banking regulations.

Wall Street analyst Tony Hatch identified the core themes for REF 2015.

He discussed the overall rail landscape, the continued need for intermodal growth and the many reasons why crude by rail (CBR) is a key to ongoing

Enthusiasm for 2014 was tempered by a “trust but verify” approach toward 2015. growth that the rail industry needs.

Hatch discussed railroad capex strategies and the relationship between higher transportation rates, greater capex, and railroad service.

REF tackled CBR and the downturn in oil pricing head on with Graham Brisben, CEO of PLG Consulting.

Brisben indicated potential CBR softness through 2017 when the market for sand hoppers and tanks will likely stabilize. He noted a current slowdown in tank car orders as the industry waits for the DOT to finalize the specification for the DOT 117A car that will be used to haul crude and ethanol. (Note that publication of the specification has a release date of May 12, 2015).

Speaking of a “manufacturing renaissance,” Brisben presented a positive

long-term message for CBR and sand.

Like all commodity markets, however, railcars hauling sand and oil may ebb and flow based on the pricing of the products they haul.

Philip Baggaley and Betsy Snyder from Standard and Poor’s Rating Services laid out a positive economic forecast, noting that decreasing oil is a “Net Positive” for the economy. For railcar leasing, S&P made note of the impact of the costs of tank railcar modifications and is taking a wait and see approach on the impact of these costs. Our speakers from S&P echoed the common sentiment that investment in rail and rail equipment has been attractive and is expected to remain so in 2015.

Keeping with the analysts at REF, on day two the audience heard from Kristine Kubacki, a Director at Avondale Partners, and Eric Starks, President of FTR Associates.

Starks discussed the impact of trucking on the rail economy and delved into the railcar backlog, expressing confidence in a number pegged in the mid 80,000s. He painted a positive picture for the rail economy with additional pent-up demand ready to pick up CBR softness.

Kubacki was more pessimistic, echoing the potential short-term softness discussed on say one. Noting a move of rail equipment off line in a weak service environment, she sees a softening order book while the DOT specification is finalized and integrated.

Kubacki noted that today’s railroad service limits rail’s ability to gain market share from trucking.

All in all, REF 2015 was packed with robust data and input from an awesome field of experts. Check in next month for the rest of the story.

Got questions? Set them free at dnahass@railfin.com.

We’re current, are you? FRA Regulations FRA News:

Mechanical Department Regulations A combined reprint of the Federal Regulations that apply specifically to the Mechanical Department. Spiral bound.

Part Title 210 Railroad Noise Emission Compliance Regulations 215 Freight Car Safety Standards 216 Emergency Order Procedures: Railroad Track, Locomotive and Equipment 217 Railroad Operating Rules 218 Railroad Operating Practices - Blue Flag Rule 221 Rear End Marking Device-passenger, commuter/freight trains 223 Safety Glazing Standards 225 Railroad Accidents/Incidents Update 1-1-15 229 Locomotive Safety Standards 231 Safety Appliance Standards 232 Brake System Safety Standards Update 1-6-15

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FRA Part #

209 211 BKTSSAF 213 BKTSSG 213 BKWRK 214 215 BKFSS BKROR 217 218 220 BKRRC 221 BKEND BKSEP

Update effective

2-12-13 7-20-09 3-25-14 7-11-13 7-1-14 6-25-12 6-25-12 6-25-12 6-25-12 6-25-12

BKHORN 222 6-25-12 BKRFRS 224 6-25-12 BKHS BKLSS BKSLI BKSAS BKBRIDGE BKLER

228 229 230 231 237 240

6-25-12 12-19-12 6-25-12 6-25-12 6-25-12 6-25-12

BKCONDC 242 6-25-12

BKBSS

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27.50 9.95 8.55 9.50 7.25 9.50

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RR Communications Rear End Marking Device, Passenger, Commuter & Freight Trains Use of Locomotive Horns Reflectorization of Rail Freight Rolling Stock Hours of Service Locomotive Safety Standards Steam Locomotive Inspection RR Safety Appliance Standards Bridge Safety Standards Qualification and Certification of Locomotive Conductor Certification

5.50 5.00

4.95 4.50

The Conductor Certification rule (49 CFR 242) outlines details for implementing a Conductor Certification Program. The FRA implemented this rule in an effort to ensure that only those persons who meet minimum Federal safety standards serve as conductors, to reduce the rate and number of accidents and incidents, and to improve railroad safety. Softcover. Spiral bound. 124 pages.

13.25

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40 219

10-3-12 Drug and Alcohol Regulations in 5-6-13 the Workplace

36.00

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9-2-14 Signal and Train Control Systems 3-9-15 10-21-14 10-21-14 1-28-14 Passenger Safety Standards 7-29-14

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Track and Rail and Infrastructure Integrity Compliance Manual - Volume II, Track Safety Standards - Part 213 Technical Manual for Signal and Train Control Rules. - Includes Part 233, 234, 235, 236

33.00 46.00

Updates from the Federal Register may be supplied in supplement form.

Part 242: Conductor Certification

BKCONDC

30.00 39.10

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Part 240–Qualification and Certification of Locomotive Engineers

9.90

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RR Safety Enforcement Procedures & Rules of Practice Track Safety Standards (Subpart A-F) Track Safety Standards (Subpart G) RR Workplace Safety RR Freight Car Safety Standards RR Operating Rules and Practices

Combined FRA Regulations FRA Part #

50 or more

Railworthiness Directive for Railroad Tank Cars Equipped With Certain McKenzie Valve & Machining LLC Valves—Recent FRA investigations identified several railroad tank cars transporting hazardous materials and leaking small quantities of product from the cars' liquid lines. FRA's investigation revealed that the liquid lines of the leaking tank cars were equipped with a certain type of 3 ball valve marketed and sold by McKenzie Valve and Machining (McKenzie) (formerly McKenzie Valve & Machining Company), an affiliate company of Union Tank Car Company (UTLX). FRA further found certain closure plugs installed on the 3 valves cause mechanical damage to the valves, which leads to the destruction of the valves' seal integrity and that the 3 valves, as well as similarly-designed 1 and 2 valves provided by this manufacturer are not approved for use on tank cars. FRA is issuing this Railworthiness Directive (Directive) to all owners of tank cars used to transport hazardous materials within the United States to ensure they identify and appropriately remove and replace these valves with approved valves consistent with Federal regulations.

This book affects locomotive engineers, trainers and supervisors. The rule is largely based on recommendations made by an advisory committee comprised of rail industry and labor representatives. This final rule will clarify the decertification process; clarify when certified locomotive engineers are required to operate service vehicles; and address the concern that some designated supervisors of locomotive engineers are insufficiently qualified to properly supervise, train, or test locomotive engineers. 162 pages. Spiral bound.

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Add Shipping & Handling if your merchandise subtotal is: U.S.A. CAN U.S.A. CAN Orders over UP TO $10.00 $4.10 $8.55 25.01 - 50.00 9.80 15.70 $75, call for shipping 10.01 - 25.00 7.20 11.80 50.01 - 75.00 10.90 19.80 *Prices subject to change. Revision dates subject to change in accordance with laws published by the FRA.4/15