Railway Track & Structures - October 2007 - (Page 36)

RTS1007 p25-36-Crossties 9/26/07 2:28 PM Page 36 for concrete tie seat abrasion applications. The company notes that this piece of equipment is durable, small and is light enough to fit into a production setting. Willamette Valley Company continues to improve their tie-plugging and rail seat abrasion polyurethane technology with a combination of new formula development and application equipment. WVCO has introduced new polymers for shoulder repairs in concrete ties and will be introducing coating technologies in 2008. “The greatest advantage that WVCO offers the railroad industry is that we formulate, manufacture and design our technologies to fit a railroad’s specific need,” said John Murray, vice president of WVCO. WVCO now provides the industry with its full line of polyurethane technology in hand-held canisters, which, according to Murray, requires a minimal capital investment. “WVCO’s non-foam polymers continue to outperform the previous technologies sold in the past,” said Murray. Murray notes that the continued trend in the crosstie industry is to find solutions that extend the life cycle of the assets in the m/w infrastructure. “The increases derived in gauge holding and reduction in ‘spike kill’ when using the WVCO tie-plugging compounds in conjunction with new practices of rail lubrication and grinding all have had a positive impact on the cost side of running the railroads. The remediation of concrete ties with rail seat abrasion with CTR-100 from WVCO versus installing new ties has a huge positive economic impact for those railroads with concrete ties,” said Murray. WVCO derives most of its business from Class 1s and has experienced increased growth from the shortlines, regionals, transits and contractors over the past few years. “The ‘non-Class 1s’ face the same challenges that the Class 1s face and the funding for new versus remediating the old infrastructure continues to escalate. WVCO’s technologies do not bring any tie back from the dead. However, there are enough empirical data to show that the use of tie-plugging compounds and/or rail seat abrasion compounds at the beginning or midlife of the tie does provide greater longevity,” said Murray. The biggest trend noticed by WVCO is the concept of strategic partnership. “Our railroad customers wanted a product that would reduce spike kill, repair rail seat abrasion and hold gauge longer than the traditional technologies or applications, increase production rates and be environmentally friendly. Intercompany teams set goals and are working closely together to introduce this new concept of use of current products or the development of new products. The success derived has now led to new application systems, the discovery of new uses for WVCO polyurethane products, new product development and the joint commitment in each company’s future growth,” said Murray. 2008 outlook Gauntt points out that 2008 looks like a carbon copy of 2007. “We could see tie purchases move back to 2006 levels, but we'll have to see how the U.S. economy reacts over the next couple of months before we can predict that. Right now, we are calling for a virtual steady-state situation for tie demand for the next couple of years,” said Gauntt. 36 Railway Track & Structures October 2007 www.rtands.com http://www.rtands.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Railway Track & Structures - October 2007

Railway Track & Structures - October 2007 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Crossties by the Billions Provide Essentials for Full Support Modern Tools Manage Risk M/W Challenges: Better Management of Thermal Forces in CWR TTCI Celebrates 25 Years as Facility, 10 as Part of AAR Products and Literature People Calendar Sales Representatives Website Directory Advertisers Index Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - October 2007

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