Railway Track & Structures - October 2008 - (Page 8)

I N D U S T R Y T O D AY schedule, we have been able to eliminate more than half of the slow zones and speed up service.” Work continues to eliminate 4,700 feet of slow zones on the Brown Line between the Belmont and Western stations, and 3,580 feet of slow zones on the Red Line between the Belmont and Sheridan stations. That work will be completed in summer 2009. Work on the O’Hare Blue Line will be complete by the end of 2008. In addition, crews will replace track and rail ties that are 40 years old on the Loop elevated structure. A new signal and train control system will also be installed at the Loop junctions of Van Buren/Wabash (Tower 12) and Lake/Wells (Tower 18) to replace the existing system that is more than 30 years old. Approximately 115,000 customers travel through the junction at Lake/Wells on a typical weekday and 79,000 through the junction at Van Buren/Wabash. The new systems will help to improve the reliability of service by regulating train movement, speed and intervals at those junctions. “By the end of the year we should be at about seven percent on slow zone restrictions across the rail system,” added Huberman. lower. In turn, railroads have been investing more in upgrading tracks and other equipment, and that spells more business for a company such as Unitrac, Raymond J. Lambert, president and ceo of Unitrac, said. Unitrac makes sections of track, track switch stands, transition rails, turnouts, diamond crossings and just about any other kind of track component. It was established in 1988 by Healey Railroad Corp. of Richmond, Va., primarily to supply materials to the Queen City Railroad Co. of Knoxville, the Armond Cassil Railroad Construction Co. of Warren, Mich., and to supply brokers. Besides Knoxville, other main locations are in Williamsport, Pa., and Chicago. According to company literature, Unitrac is the nation’s second-largest supplier of industrial and relay rail and North America's largest manufacturer of railway switches and components. Its Knoxville manufacturing operation is able to recondition used rail and make prefabricated railroad switching stands. Machinery, guided by computer, is used Tennessee maker of railroad components thriving Economic times might be tough for a lot of companies, but Knoxville, Tenneseebased Unitrac Railroad Materials, Inc., has been riding the rails of a national railroad renaissance, according to local newspapers. There is no talk of layoffs. In fact, Unitrac is hiring, and the company is approaching $100 million in revenues for 2008, compared to $50.6 million in 2007. In June, it held an open house to mark the opening of an 18,000-squarefoot addition that brought its total manufacturing and fabricating capacity at the site to about 50,000 square feet. The rising fuel costs and weak U.S dollar that have dampened the economy over the past year have also prompted more companies to ship more goods by rail, where transportation costs are 8 Railway Track & Structures October 2008 www.rtands.com http://www.dixieprecast.com http://www.dixieprecast.com http://www.rtands.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Railway Track & Structures - October 2008

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

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.