Railway Track & Structures - October 2008 - (Page 30)

CROSSTIE REPORT 2008 portunity to continue expanding capacity by building new track and replacing worn out ties at record levels. Over the past four years, our business has grown three-fold and we are currently on a pace to treat well over one million crossties by year’s end.” Left, NARSTCO’s steel ties in track. L.B. Foster’s concrete ties being installed. testing and for track geometry-related derailments, based on track geometry car measurements. This activity will examine whether a tie condition-based risk assessment tool can be developed using new tie inspection techniques to include GRMS measurements and TieInspect measurements. “These last three projects continue to build on research we have done in the past that was designed to help railroads investigate and determine the optimal maintenance methodologies and strategies for tie replacement in the widest range of track applications. We hope these studies will lead to additional research in risk analysis,” said Gauntt. Stella-Jones/BPB Corp. credits good tie demand to the railroads continued prosperity and increased train velocity. “However, the political scene in Washington has tied up the Shortline Tax Program and RIFF, which had been a huge plus over the past three years and the lack of a deﬁned railroad transportation policy is not helping growth and inviting reregulation and other negative inﬂuences,” said Tony Chambers, marketing director for Stella-Jones/BPB Corp. Matt Clarke of Gross & Janes Co. notes that the market has been affected by increased pricing, but the past ﬁve to seven years have been unprecedented in that the market has been working its way toward steady state purchasing. 30 Railway Track & Structures October 2008 Wood “A more continuous level of purchasing allows us to look forward and make better planning decisions and align our production and ﬁnancial commitment to the saw mills, to our operations and to our customers at a much more ﬂuid basis,” said Clarke. “Business over the past year has been impacted severely by commodity pricing speciﬁcally fuel, parts, labor and maintenance. In addition, it has been an unseasonably wet period in our operating region.” Although overall demand is steady, Koppers Inc. sees the impact of ﬁnancial market woes, speciﬁcally the housing downturn, softening the demand for higher-grade lumber, which in turn, softens wood tie production. Thomas Niederberger, vice president marketing and sales at Koppers, notes that sawmills are “playing it very close to the vest” in terms of log purchases, but ﬁnds a bright spot, “Better weather and stronger tie pricing have helped the industry begin to ramp-up needed production.” George Caric, vice president business development of Tangent Rail Corporation, notes strong demand for rail shipments will mean that railroads will continue to spend money and invest in infrastructure, which means more ties going into the ground. “When I go out, I hear various people talk about how bad the economy is, but the railroads are very strong and our business is very good,” said Caric. Jeff Broadfoot, national accounts sales manager at Thompson Industries, Inc., says, “The railroads have seized this op- L.B. Foster Company and its whollyowned subsidiary, CXT®, Inc., have developed the 529S concrete tie engineered speciﬁcally for light-density main line, transit system and industrial track construction. A newly-installed production line at L.B. Foster’s Grand Island, Neb., facility is dedicated to the new tie design, which was developed exclusively for growing market demand for an industrial tie in the Midwest. “Going back to 2001, we have seen a deﬁnite uptick in the demand for concrete ties for these markets,” reports Mark Hammons, national sales manager. “Port and industrial markets have been growing in tandem with the capacity expansions we have seen among the Class 1 railroads due to changing world economics and booming global trade and we are positioning ourselves to take advantage of anticipated growth in the future.” In addition to new tie development, L.B. Foster is focused on bringing other advancements to the market. According to Kevin Haugh, president of CXT, efforts in Research and Development span several areas. “We continue to invest in our R&D program to enhance the durability of our www.rtands.com Concrete RTS1008 p27-37-crossties.indd 30 10/1/08 4:09:10 PM http://www.rtands.com

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Railway Track & Structures - October 2008 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Railroads Building Solid Foundation for More Capacity with Crossties Safety in High Density Areas M/W Challenges: CN Places New Bridge in Only Six Hours Products and Literature People Calendar Website Directory Advertisers Index Sales Representatives Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - October 2008

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