Stella-Jones New RBMN Customer

Left to right, with the first railcar of utility poles for Stella-Jones at the company’s new distribution yard in Morea, Pa.: Eric Peters, RBMN Vice President Transportation; Tyler Glass, RBMN Executive Vice President Transportation; Ettore DiCasimirro, Skytop Fuels Owner; Rian Nemeroff, RBMN Senior Vice President; Brian Kwiatkowski, Stella-Jones Corporation Site Manager; Susan Ludwig, RBMN Vice President; Ettore DiCasimirro, Jr., Skytop Fuels Vice President; Jesse Redgate, Skytop Fuels Head of Operations; and Jim Carr, JFC Hauling, Owner/Operator.

Stella-Jones Corporation (SJC) a manufacturer and distributor of pressure-treated wood products including railroad ties, utility poles, residential lumber and industrial products, is a new customer of Class II Reading & Northern Railroad (RBMN).

RBMN is serving a new SJC utility pole distribution yard in Morea, Pa. SJC had been operating from leased property in Hazleton, Pa. When the company learned in 2020 that its lease would not be extended, it began a two-year search for a new location. RBMN, working with Ettore DiCasimirro, owner of Skytop Fuels as well as hundreds of acres of land along RBMN tracks and I-81 in Morea, offered SJC a suitable site. SJC entered into a long-term agreement to set up its new operation in Morea. The site was prepped this year through the winter, and on March 21, SJC received and unloaded its first railcar of pole inventory. The next day, three additional cars arrived for unloading.  More cars are in transit as the Morea site ramps up and the Hazleton site is closed down.

SJC’s distribution yard will serve utility customers throughout Pennsylvania, New Yor, and New Jersey. Poles will come into the yard via rail and be delivered to customers and job sites by truck. “This location in Morea is ideal due to the rail service provided by RBMN and the proximity to major highways,” the railroad noted.

Stella-Jones Corp. is North America’s largest producer of pressure-treated wood products, supplying electrical utilities and telecommunication companies with wood utility poles, and North American railroads with crossties and timbers. Stella-Jones also provides industrial products, including wood for railway bridges and crossings, marine and foundation pilings and coal-tar-based products. Additionally, the company manufactures and distributes premium treated residential lumber and accessories to Canadian and U.S. retailers for outdoor applications, with a significant portion of the business devoted to servicing the Canadian market through its national manufacturing and distribution network.

Reading & Northern serves more than 70 customers in nine eastern Pennsylvania counties (Berks, Bradford, Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Northumberland, Schuylkill and Wyoming). It has expanded its operations over the past 40 years and now annually handles more 34,000 carloads of freight and 250,000 steam- and diesel-powered excursion train riders over 400 miles of track. Railway Age’s four-time Regional of The Year (2002, 2011, 2015 and 2020), RBMN owns more than 1,700 freight cars and employs nearly 300.