Thread: Railroads hiring 15,000 new workers

Railroads hiring 15,000 new workers

By Haley Coomes
Story Created: May 7, 2012 at 8:04 AM EDT
(Story Updated: May 7, 2012 at 8:04 AM EDT )

Railroads are hiring 15,000 or more new workers starting this year.

This comes after adding 15,000 new hires just last year. CN Railroads even put out a ‘help wanted’ sign. Twenty percent of new hires are U.S. military veterans.

“For a guy like me who was out of work for two years, this is a fresh start for me and my family,” said Alphonso Bounds.

One in three railroaders will retire in the next five years. Officials say this is the main reason new opportunities are up for grabs.

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Hiring underway for new railcar repair shop

May 15, 2012 4:12 pm • By GEORGE LEDBETTER Record Editor

Young people looking at career choices would do well to consider the railroad industry, according to an official of Transportation Services Inc., the railcar repair company that is opening a facility at the Chadron rail yard.

The jobs may not be directly for a railroad, however, but rather for businesses like TSI, which provide needed services on contract, John Zoller, TSI vice president for sales and marketing said at a May 8 ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Chadron facility.

“Every place I go, I try to encourage young people to think of jobs in the railroad industry,” Zoller told a group of Chadron business and civic leaders. “When you think of railroads, you think you have to work for a railroad, but you can work for a wheel company or a railcar shop like us. There are tremendous opportunities.”

TSI’s presence in Chadron, where it is working with Nebraska Northwestern Railroad (NNW), is partly a function of the vast amounts of coal being carried by rail from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming to utility companies and other businesses in the eastern U.S., said Zoller. “Every day they load 125 coal trains (in the Powder River Basin). Every train is a mile and a quarter long,” he said. “That means a lot of opportunity to repair cars.”

But business models have changed over time, and most railcars aren’t owned by the railroads themselves anymore, according to Zoller. ‘Now most cars are leased. They are owned by banks, grain companies, utilities and such businesses,” he said.

Railroad companies now recognize that it is often more efficient to have private companies work on railcar repairs, Zoller said, and that creates opportunities for firms like TSI. “There is a demand for private railcar shops to expand out here in this area.”

Another key to the business is access to a main railroad line, because railroads are reluctant to grant new connections that may disrupt traffic, he said. “When you build a satellite off a main line, they don’t want any disruption.”

That makes NNW’s existing access to the BNSF main line at Crawford particularly valuable, Zoller said. “This is awesome when you have facilities off the main line coming in here.”

NNW’s Chadron yard also has a covered area where railcar repairs were done when the facility was part of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, said Terry Doyle, vice president of operations for NNW, and a former CNW official. “This was an active repair shop,” he said of the metal roofed shed-like area where the ribbon cutting was held.

NNW, which purchased the Chadron yard and the line west to Dakota Junction about two years ago, has had its sights set on repair work from the beginning. Company officials have talked about repairing track-laying equipment and working on diesel railroad engines in the yard’s historic roundhouse. NNW president made note of that as he escorted visitors to the ribbon cutting sight, and pointed out the ‘drop pit’ in the roundhouse, where wheel sets can be removed from engines for repair, as well as the ‘turntable’ which can position an engine to enter any of the roundhouse stalls. Both features are rare to find in the region, Nielsen said.

A federal TIGER II grant awarded to NNW is financing repair work on the yard and track. The grant was essential for the railroad developments to go forward, because the facility was in such bad condition, Nielsen said.

While the Chadron yard has an historic component, railcar repair is an increasingly hi-tech business, noted Zoller. Still the skills needed for the work are basic-mechanical ability, welding, and a good work ethic.

Wheels account for the largest share of repair work on cars, according to Zoller. “Over 50 percent of repairs on rail road cars are associated with the wheels,” he said.

The same is true for maintenance work, which is a growing part of the business, he said. “If you take in the wheels and the brakes, that’s 50 to 60 percent of the cost of maintaining them.”

All of the work must be done to strict industry standards for quality and safety, not only to meet regulations, but also to satisfy customers, said Zoller. “They look at your safety record. If they don’t like it, they won’t do business with you,”

A tour of TSI’s facility in Alabama showed the firm’s commitment to quality and use of technology, said Nielsen. “Most interesting to me was that each of the components is labeled with bar codes,” he said, adding that railroads now use electronic tracking devices to determine if wheels or other components need repair. “It’s a sophisticated industry.”

TSI hopes to bring in for repairs a ‘unit train’ of about 125 to 150 cars every week to two weeks, according to Zoller. They plans to handle all types of rail cars except those carrying hazardous materials, he said.

The company has already placed ads for workers, and plans to hire about five people initially, said Zoller. That could expand to 12 or more employees eventually, depending on demand, he said.

The local workforce pool seems to have the skills and work ethic that TSI is seeking, said Zoller. “We want people with roots here,’ he said. “We are a long term business. We want to be here in 20 years.”

Advanced degrees aren’t a prerequisite for success in the field, according to Zoller. “This is an industry that is rare. You can have a high school education or less and go to a very high level,” he said.

The first work on cars will likely begin in mid-June, after workers are hired and trained, said TSI vice president Bill Huffman.

Hiring underway for new railcar repair shop : Chadron