Yesterday, the Wichita Eagle carried a story about the railcar repair industry here in Kansas. Concerning the growing demand for car repair services. Linked @ http://www.kansas.com/news/business/article4264851.html
Over in Southeast Kansas it has been an interesting set of situations concerning car repairers, and the shuffle of those players. In Parsons,Kansas, adjacet to the UPRR yard is what remains of the Major Repair Shops of the KATY RR; The facility has housed several tennants in the last few years, as the volumn of work that took place there rose and fell. In Oct of 2013 a company Harbor Rail Services sought the facility and was offered a tax incentive package deal($400 K) by the City of Parsons, It was then occupied by a group of rail service companies, of the Kanza Group Rail Services. The State Revenue Dept closed them down in August of 2014 for non-payment of various tax charges, to approx $1.15 million. Now a company TM Track Machines has been offered the same incentive deal by the city of Parsons. They maintain UPR's fleet of MOW rail cars and Machines. and the rest of the story is in this linked piece: @ http://www.parsonssun.com/news/article_30dc5e40-abd2-11e3-9570-0017a43b2370.html FTA:[snipped]"...TM Track was incorporated in November by Terry Peterson, owner of Omaha Track, and Williams, owner of Railroad Materials Salvage. Williams also owns 10 shortline railroads. TM Track was formed for the purpose of filling the void left when the state forced the closure of Kanza. The company purchased the Kanza facility through Ed Nazzar, a Wichita bankruptcy attorney who was the receiver of the company for the state..." [snip]
Then, in July of 2014 The Trains Newswire carried a piece about the forming of a partnership between WATCO Companies of Pittsburg,Ks, and Greenbriar Cos,Inc. of Wisconsin to form GBW Railcar Services,LLC. Together they own a network of 38 facilities. In Kansas, there are GBW Railcar facilities in Atchison, Coffeyville, Junction City, Neodesha, Osawatomie, Pittsburg and Topeka.
And now another announcement of a new tanc car manunfacturing plant. Mervis Industries of Danville, Ill., announced plans in October to build a $35 million railcar refurbishing facility that will be capable of receiving and servicing a 100-unit train.
The facility will comprise four buildings – two that will be about 100,000 square feet and two that will be about 25,000 square feet – and six miles of new track, said Larry Culligan, director of railcar operations for Mervis Railcar. Culligan will oversee Mervis Railcar in Hutchinson Linked and expanded story @ http://www.kansas.com/news/business/article4264851.html
The impetus for all this activity would be the central location of Kansas and the upcoming new rulse of the Federal Government concerning rail tank cars. See the following from the last linked article: FTA:[snipped] "...The Federal Department of Transportation has proposed a set of new rules for tank cars that includes retrofitting tank cars that carry flammable materials such as fuel and crude oil.
Companies such as Mervis are expecting the new tank car rules to mean an increase in tank car repairs and modifications.
Those pending changes are partly behind Watco’s joint venture with Greenbrier Cos. of Lake Oswego, Ore., in July.." [snip]
Quite a story when you start putting things together. At least this segment of the industry is still agile enough to be able to handle the manovers of our economy, and still be abe to function in the current economy.
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