Railway Track & Structures 12/07

NRCChairman’s Column NRC looks to keep momentum after conference Jon M. McGrath Chairman Seminar on Friday, January 4. Go to http:// www.nrcma.org/ps.nrcconference.cfm?ID=2138 for more information, or contact Sue Dunshee of Roadway Worker Training at general@ rrtrainers.com or 904-296–8088. 3) AREMA Introduction to Practical Railway Engineering (IPRE) Seminar on Sunday, January 6 through Tuesday, January 8. Go to http://www.nrcma.org/ps.nrccon ference.cfm?ID=2140 for more information, or contact Desiree Knight of AREMA at dknight@arema.org or 301-459-3200, x703. In addition, the NRC will be rolling out two new railroad safety DVDs at the Conference: Safety on Freight and Industrial Track and Safety With Railway Maintenance Equipment. Copies of the DVD are available complimentary with membership in the NRC or to NRC contractor customers. Safety in the workplace is everyone’s responsibility, and NRC contractors take that responsibility extremely seriously. The conference program, the exhibition, the seminars and the safety materials will help all attendees get a jump on the New Year. Following the Conference, NRC members will quickly turn our focus to the next two major NRC events. The 2008 NRC Railroad Contracting Equipment Auction will begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 15, 2008, at the Blackmon Auctions yard in Little Rock, Ark. We expect the auction to finish by 2 p.m. Use the form in this magazine or contact the NRC office to sign up to participate in the auction as either a buyer, a seller or both. Sellers can either consign or donate equipment to the auction. For donated equipment, 100 percent of the proceeds of the sale will go to the NRC Safety, Training and Education Fund and the donating company can take the corresponding tax deduction. For consigned equipment, the seller will receive 100 percent of the proceeds of the sale, minus a two-percent seller’s fee, which will go to the NRC Safety, Training and Education Fund. The auction is an excellent place for contractors to find bargains on needed equipment or sell under-utilized assets. For suppliers, it’s a great venue to introduce equipment to a group of very interested buyers. The 2008 Railroad Day on Capitol Hill has now been scheduled for Thursday, March 13, 2008, in Washington, D.C. The NRC will be actively supporting and participating in this industry event, in conjunction with the AAR, ASLRRA, RSI and REMSA. The headquarters hotel is again the Grand Hyatt at 1000 H Street NW in Washington, D.C. You can call 202582-1234 for reservations. Online registration forms will be available shortly at www.aslrra. org, but you do not need to wait to register to book a hotel room. This event provides railroaders, railroad contractors and suppliers an opportunity to tell our story about why railroads and rail infrastructure are important for your Senators and Representatives to focus on. Issues that we will discuss with Congress may include supporting railroad investment tax credits, opposing railroad reregulation efforts, examining the impact of railroad safety legislation, increasing rail transit investment, developing effective public-private-partnerships focused on rail and advocating for a better intercity passenger rail program. This is my penultimate NRC Chairman’s Column. At the 2008 NRC Conference, I will pass the torch to our new chairman, Manny Ramirez from Mass Electric Construction Co. (MEC Rail). Jim Perkins from Loram Maintenance of Way will then assume his new duties as vice chairman of the association. The National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association is definitely in good hands. It has been an honor to serve you and the association over the past two years. During my two years as chairman, it has been my main objective to focus on safety within the industry and I believe that the whole industry has pulled together to accomplish this objective. There are many people to thank. A special thank you goes out to John Zuspan for spending hundreds of hours authoring and producing the ongoing series of NRC safety and training videos to help the rail contractor industry. Among many, Stanley Beaver of Balfour Beatty Rail has been a particularly active helper to John on this effort. In addition, the entire NRC Safety Committee has really stepped up their efforts over the past few years and are continuing to do great work on behalf of the industry, under the leadership of the safety committee chairman, Ernesto Scarpitti from Delta Railroad Construction. Other active members of the Safety Committee who deserve our thanks include David Armstrong of Commercial Insurance Associates, Bill Glenn of Menard Railroad Materials, Mike Maguire of Herzog Contracting Corp., Joe Spirito of RailWorks Corp. and Tom Streicher from the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association. Until next month, Be Safe. December 2007 17 The National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association, Inc. 500 New Jersey Ave., N. W. Suite 400 Washington D. C. 20009 Tel: 202-715-2920 Fax: 202-318-0867 www.nrcma.org info@nrcma.org As the 2007 calendar year comes to a close, the state of the railroad construction industry is strong. The NRC’s main event, the 2008 Annual Conference, is approaching very quickly. The Conference will be held at The Westin Mission Hills Resort & Spa in Palm Springs, Calif., from the opening exhibits at 4 p.m. on Thursday, January 3, through the closing golf tournament on Sunday afternoon, January 6, 2008. This year will feature our traditional speaker lineup of high-level railroad engineers. The six biggest North American Class 1s (BNSF, CN, CPR, CSXT, NS, UP), and many of the biggest short line and regional railroads (FEC, OmniTRAX, RailAmerica, Watco) will be on the agenda. In addition, signal contracting and transit spending on rail contractors will be addressed. As always, the speakers will give a detailed overview of their spending plans for 2008 and provide insight on their planned relationships with contractors and suppliers. There will also be a special presentation on railroad disaster recovery. There are also three seminars being offered at the NRC Conference this year, to help you spend your limited time there even more efficiently: 1) Track Guy Consultants Track-Work Project Management Seminar for Railroad Contractors on Monday, January 7, 2008. Go to http://www.nrcma.org/ps.nrcconference. cfm? ID=2139 for more information, or contact John Zuspan of Track Guy Consultants at zuspan@trackguy.com or 724-873-7333. 2) Roadway Worker Protection (49 CFR Part 214) CSXT-Based Train-the-Trainer www.rtands.com Railway Track & Structures http://www.nrcma.org http://www.nrcma.org/ps.nrcconference.cfm?ID=2138 http://www.nrcma.org/ps.nrcconference.cfm?ID=2138 http://www.aslrra.org http://www.aslrra.org http://www.nrcma.org/ps.nrcconference.cfm?ID=2140 http://www.nrcma.org/ps.nrcconference.cfm?ID=2140 http://www.nrcma.org http://www.nrcma.org http://www.nrcma.org/ps.nrcconference.cfm?ID=2139 http://www.nrcma.org/ps.nrcconference.cfm?ID=2139 http://www.rtands.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Railway Track & Structures 12/07

Railway Track & Structures - December 2007 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Hand-Held Tools Provide the Power to Get Big Jobs Done AREMA C&S Update Striving to Solve the Riddle of Wheel Climb RTA Stages Warm Gathering in Sunny Florida in October Products and Literature People Calendar Website Directory Advertisers Index Sales Representatives Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

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.