TGS Selects Cathcart for Inspection, Repair Services
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
“Cathcart’s team inspects all our inbound interchange railcars for defects and makes sure our railcars are safe for movement on our property and are quickly available for our shipper customers,” TGS Executive Director of Rail Operations Roger Lambeth said. “As a railroad, we follow the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Association of American Railroads (AAR) standards and wanted to ensure we had a mechanical team that could offer this service.” (Photograph Courtesy of TGS)
TGS Cedar Port Railroad (TGS), part of Trans Global Solutions, Inc., has contracted with Cathcart Rail (Cathcart) to handle its Baytown, Tex., industrial park’s railcar inspection and repair needs.
Cathcart on Nov. 27 reported that it began operations in April 2023 as the “sponsored repair agent” for TGS’s 15,000-acre Cedar Port Industrial Park, which is situated across the Houston Ship Channel from Bayport and Barbours Cut Container Terminals, and interchanges more than 45,000 inbound railcars per year.
Twelve carmen and site and regional management, with support from corporate personnel and training staff, provide service for the industrial park, according to Cathcart, a Columbus, Ohio-based freight rail services and transportation company that includes 14 repair facilities and more than 75 field services locations, as well as a rail services division that operates three short lines and a dozen contract switching and transloading sites, among other services such as railcar storage, track maintenance, and railcar parts. In November, Cathcart partnered with the Indiana Rail Road for the handling of the regional’s railcar inspection and repair needs across its 500-mile footprint.
The Cathcart team “has brought a level of assurance for our customers that did not previously exist,” said TGS Executive Director of Rail Operations Roger Lambeth, who noted that it “inspects all our inbound interchange railcars for defects and makes sure our railcars are safe for movement on our property and are quickly available for our shipper customers. As a railroad, we follow the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Association of American Railroads (AAR) standards and wanted to ensure we had a mechanical team that could offer this service.”
