Auction raises $58,000 for rail safety program

The 14th Annual Railroad Construction and Maintenance Equipment Auction raised $58,403 to benefit the NRC Safety & Education Training program, according to the National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association.

The auction, held April 6 at the Railroad Construction Co. of South Jersey/Railroad Constructors facility in Paulsboro, N.J., sold 250 pieces of equipment for $1.25 million to on-site and online bidders.

The training program receives 3% of the value of all consignments from contractors, suppliers, and railroads, and 100% of the proceeds from the donated items. Donations included a turbo loader backhoe trailer from Balfour Beatty Rail; a hi-rail speed swing from Delta Railroad Construction, and wood tie plugging applicators from Encore Rail Systems.

The NRC Safety & Education Training program helps strengthen efforts to improve safety in the rail industry, hold the Contractor Safety Award contest, and continue to produce safety material such as the Pocket Safety Manuals, the Tool Box Talks, and the NRC safety video series.

The auction’s top-selling items were two Mark IV tampers ($295,000 and $110,000); a 2015 hi-rail weld truck ($83,000); a hi-rail rotary dump truck ($65,000); a Nordco spiker ($52,000); a Nordco Tie Exchanger ($47,500), and five hi-rail grapple trucks ($46,000-28,000). Consignments came from Balfour Beatty, Brown Railroad, Delta Railroad Construction, Hagan Rail Trucks, Railroad Construction Co. of South Jersey/Railroad Constructors, RailWorks, Stacy Witbeck, and VMTI.

For information on the 2018 NRC Auction, call the NRC office at 202-715-1264 or visit www.nrcma.org/auction.

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