Fascinating Fasteners for keeping track tight by Jennifer Nunez, assistant editor
Small in size, fasteners keep a tight grip on track.
A close look at L.B. Foster’s fastening system.
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eeping track in place is imporant to all railroads, whether it’s a Class 1, regional, shortline or transit line. The following pages highlight this year’s most advanced fastening systems and an overall market outlook.
Amsted RPS For Amsted RPS, business is up, which it attributes to steady volumes in its core rail anchor products, a broader portfolio of fasteners and complementary components, increased share in the direct fixation fastening marketing for transits and adoption of its long-life products like the MACRO Armor for concrete ties. During the past three years, Amsted RPS (formerly Unit Rail) has acquired Advanced Track Products and AirBoss Railway Products. “Through those acquisitions, we significantly expanded our product line and since those acquisitions, we have leveraged our broad design expertise to successfully develop and market another 32 products,” noted John Stout, director of sales at Amsted RPS. “We are the only North American rail supply firm with the experience and expertise in the design and manufacturing of fastening products for wood tie, concrete tie, direct fixation and embedded rail systems. We combine our design expertise with resources like our in-house test lab and rapid prototyping capabilities to quickly react to our customers’ needs and take a product from the drawing board to the field in times not www.rtands.com
traditionally seen in the railroad industry.” The bulk of the company’s business is driven by its Class 1 customers, who need to expand capacity to serve forecasted increases in demand and achieve operational efficiency. The company now has long-term agreements in place to supply rail anchors to all seven Class 1 railroads and has sold more than 800 million rail anchors during its history. Now, with in-house clip manufacturing capabilities, Amsted RPS aims to deliver value to a broader range of customers and grow its sales of fasteners and components. “Our passenger rail group has experienced double-digit growth over the past year, driven by penetration into the maintenance market for direct fixation, system expansions and our new partnership with edilon)(sedra for embedded block and embedded rail systems,” explained Stout. Amsted RPS is supplying 130,000 of its SW-31 System Wide direct fixation fasteners to Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority in Washington, D.C., for replacement of existing fasteners to maintain a state of good repair and for Phase 1 of the system expansion to Dulles Airport. During the past year, the company has also participated in projects for Amtrak, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority in Buffalo, N.Y., Long Island Rail Road, Chicago Transit Authority, Dallas Area Rapid Transit and NJ Transit. “Our most robust direct fixation f astener, the ATP Railway Track & Structures
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