(CSX issued the following news release on July 20.)
RACELAND, Ky. — With coal demand sizzling like summer heat, the 250 employees of CSX Transportation’s Raceland Car Shop weren’t about to break a sweat over the challenge of finding a way to make more coal cars available to customers.
The Raceland team completed an accelerated 300-car order recently, and at midyear are well on their way to rehabilitating the 2004 target of more than 3,000 coal cars. Raceland’s output is a critical part of meeting surging coal demand.
“We are striving to keep up with demand to maintain coal stockpile levels,” said Chris Jenkins, vice president-coal and automotive. “We are doing everything possible to meet this significant demand, and our Raceland team is a critical part of that effort.”
With work at Raceland already scheduled for an aggressive 2004 production target, Shop Manager Frank Spiers called together employee leaders in early March and asked them if they could do the extra work safely, on time and within budget. He got an enthusiastic “yes” from workers who have long made Raceland Car Shop synonymous with labor-management innovation.
Work included patches applied to the sides of open-top hopper cars, or new sides along with other repairs to hopper chutes. The work on the additional 300 cars began March 8 and was completed on June 1 – safely, on time and on budget. In addition, Raceland Car Shop employees are working on coil steel cars and open-top hopper cars for other commodities. Raceland produces 24 cars a day, and is certified for heavy repair by the Association of American Railroads.
“The employees at Raceland accomplish every challenge they’re given,” Spiers said. “This additional capacity that they have provided to the customers of CSXT on such an accelerated basis shows what they are made of. And we are just as proud that we have maintained our excellent safety record of no reportable injuries.”
The need for additional work at Raceland was recognized during a meeting to address surging coal demand and the growing necessity for additional coal cars. The meeting included Jenkins; Jim Snyder, vice president-car management; and Don Jones, assistant chief mechanical officer-fleet planning. Dennis Shaughnessy, manager-production control, worked with Spiers to schedule the additional cars.
The cars are needed to haul the 170 million tons of coal that CSXT moves annually, or approximately 30,000 carloads weekly. On the domestic side, lowered utility stockpiles are driving increased demand, while overseas, China’s growing economy and other favorable conditions have energized the export market, which has been diminishing over the years.
To meet both domestic and export demand, CSXT is acquiring new locomotives, training new train crews, leasing additional coal cars and rehabilitating others, such as those at Raceland. Coal capacity per car ranges from 100 tons to 118 tons, and the cars are constructed of steel or aluminum.
CSX Corporation, based in Jacksonville, Fla., owns the largest rail network in the eastern United States. CSX Transportation Inc. and its 34,000 employees provide rail transportation services over a 23,000 route-mile network in 23 states, the District of Columbia and two Canadian provinces. CSX Corporation also provides intermodal and global container terminal operations through other subsidiaries.