Dapco Technologies, a service arm of Ridgefield, Conn.-based Dapco Industries, has been renamed Nordco Rail Services to emphasize the company’s role in both rail diagnostic services and engineering. The company also announced a new president, Chris Smitka, and has relocated to a new facility in Lee’s Summit, Mo.
Seemingly overriding its own pessimistic assessment offered only last week, Austin, Tex.’s Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority has reiterated its intent to open its initial 32-mile route on March 30, linking Leander with downtown Austin.
Charles H. Clay, a Soo Line alumnus and founder of several short line railroads in the upper Midwest, died March 1. He was 83.
Born in Troy, Mont., Clay worked in the forest service and served aboard the USS Wainwright in World War II before acquiring his business and law degrees at the University of Minnesota. His legal background included serving as a law clerk in the Minnesota Supreme Court before working for Soo’s legal department.
Clay also worked for the Minneapolis law firm of Head, Seifer & Vender Weide, but returned to railroading as, with two partners, he founded numerous short line railroads, including the Red River Valley & Western Railroad, the Twin Cities & Western Railroad (Railway Age’s 2008 Short Line of the Year), the Minnesota Prairie Line, and the Rutland Line. Clay also established the Western Railroad Equipment Co. (with an acronym Clay relished).
Active throughout his life in civic affairs, Clay served as a member of the Civic Caucus Core Group, and on the Board of Directors of the Citizens League, where he also served as its president from 1965 to 1966. He served on the Board of Directors of Deaconess Hospital, and on the Edina, Minn., school board.
In lieu of flowers, the family prefers any memorials be made to the Nature Conservancy, Allina Hospice and Palliative Care, or Normandale Lutheran Church in Edina, Minn.
Canadian National and West Chicago, Ill., have come to terms on CN’s operations over the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway, which CN acquired in January. West Chicago will accept CN’s commitment to $1.8 billion in improvements on the line to reduce the impact of the anticipated frequency increase on the EJ&E.
A national traveling exhibit depicting the impact made by U.S. railroading will arrive at the MercantileLibrary at the University of Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday, March 7, where it will run through Sept. 20. It is free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library at UMSL’s Mercantile Library and the Washington State Historical Society, the exhibit tells how America’s railroads and the West helped shape each other, changing the character of the nation’s population and its landscape. The exhibit offers more than 4,000 square feet of paintings, photographs, and three-dimensional objects, along with video, audio, and interactive media, illustrates those major changes in this country.
The exhibit ran for nearly nine months at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, Wash., and will travel to Portland, Ore., after its stint in St. Louis in September.
“Most Americans don’t have a grasp of the significance of how the railroads shaped the West, and how they influenced our economy, society and culture,” said Greg Ames, director of the Barriger Railroad Library. “One of the goals of this exhibit is to bring railroads back into the public consciousness."
For more information, including exhibit hours, directions, and/or parking information, visit the BarrigerLibrary website, www.umsl.edu/barriger,or call 314-516-7240. Memberships to the Barriger Library are available.
Norfolk Southern says the employees in its mechanical department turned in a history-making safety performance in 2008, completing the year with a reportable injury ratio of 0.53, the lowest ever achieved by any operating department at Norfolk Southern.
Following a successful pilot program on the Canadian Pacific Northern Ontario Service Area and last year’s Total Friction Management™ program rollout in Western Canada, Portec Rail Products, Inc. is now offering Total Friction Management™ to the rail industry.
On May 18, 2009, the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers-North American Section (IRSE-NAS) will hold its Annual General Meeting at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn., in conjunction with the Railway Systems Suppliers, Inc. (RSSI) 2009 Exposition.
Thomas P. Lawton has been named President and CEO of Ansaldo STS, succeeding Dr. Alan E. Calegari, who will be leaving Ansaldo. Lawton is a long-time member of the ASTS USA executive management team, having served as General Counsel since 2001.
“This change comes as a result of an April 2011 new organization of Ansaldo STS, which focuses on streamlining efficiencies globally to better serve customers in an increasingly competitive global rail transportation market,” the company said in an announcement on Calegari’s departure. “Ansaldo STS thanks Dr. Calegari for his work on behalf of the company.”