NEW ORLEANS — Texas North Western Railway track inspector Raul Guerrero has been honored as Safety Person of the Year, and Austin Milton, director of safety and training at Indiana Rail Road, was named Safety Professional of the Year by the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.
Also at the ASLRRA Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans, three lines — Arkansas’ Kiamichi Railroad, and Pennsylvania’s Reading & Northern and Strasburg Rail Road — received the association’s 2023 Business Development Awards.
ASLRRA President Chuck Baker said Guerrero and Milton live safety, the top priority of shortlines, every day, “driving their fellow railroaders to perform safely, day in and day out. Their behaviors influence and elevate safety culture on their respective railroads and in their communities, resulting in outstanding safety performance on their railroads. We are pleased to honor their decades of service to the industry.”
Guerrero is Texas North Western’s “most vocal employee about safety,” according to Chris Martin, the railroad’s manager of operating practices. An employee with more than 14 years of railroad experience, Guerror has been a member of the Employee Safety Committee, a voluntary group of employees from parent company TNW Corp. that encourages safe practices at the company’s three Texas railways. In his primary role, he is responsible for inspecting 165 miles of track and has helped keep the company free of track-caused derailments for more than two years.
Peter Jesperson, Indiana Rail Road’s general manager, operations, says his company’s safety success “is due to the hard work and dedication of Austin and his personal commitment to being safe and making sure all INRD employees have the knowledge and tools to work safe.” Milton joined the railroad in 2011 as an operator, became manager, safety and operating practices in 2017, and was promoted to his current position in 2022. He has helped the Indiana Rail Road reach an FRA injury frequency index and train accident rate of zero in 2022, instituted its “Keys for Driving Safety Success” program, improved its safety resources and materials, and developed work practides to improve safety compliance of each field department.
Business Development Awards
The three award winners were honored for innovative programs to grow traffic.
“The Business Development Award honors the hallmarks of short line railroading – having a keen understanding of customer needs, relentlessly seeking opportunities to grow customer business, and executing creative customer service solutions to benefit their customers and the communities they serve,” said ASLRRA’s Baker.
The Kiamichi Railroad convinced Tyson Foods to build a $65 million poultry feed mill on its line in McNab, Ark., offering a 145-acre site with room for further development, access to three Class I railroads and a highway. While Tyson built the mill, the Kiamichi spent $9 million upgrading adding main line switches and a side track at the, and upgrading the entire 180-mile Tyson route. It also worked with Tyson and state agencies to improve the highway to the site. The resulting business saw the Kiamichi haul over 3,100 carloads, leading to the hiring of four new employees.
The Reading & Northern (formally, the Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern) was honored for the largest industrial development project in its history, a transload facility in Tunkhannock Township, Pa. Despite an exceptionally wet autumn, the railroad completed the needed only six months to complete a project that involved bringing in nearly 10,000 cubic yards of rock and dirt and building two tracks with capacity for 34 cars, along with areas for trucking, transloading, and offices. The railroad handled 2,200 carloads of frac sand since receiving its first unit train in May 2022, and expects to triple that figure in 2023.
The Strasburg was recognized for the opening earlier this year of its new yard in Paradise, Pa. [see “Strasburg Rail Road opens six-track freight yard,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 13, 2023]. While far better known for its tourist operation, Strasburg’s freight operations have grown from 10 to 500 cars a year, and the new yard positions it for further growth.
