DispatchtheThe newsletter for Watco Companies, LLC and Watco Transportation Services, LLC May 2012, Volume 13, Issue 5

Mechanical division adds new shop location

by Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

Everyone loves a good barbecue but it’s even better when it benefits the local community. Doug Steed II, engineer and Team Safety and Improvement Commit-tee Leader at the Dow switching facility in Houston, Texas, is on a barbecue cooking team and competes in

contests throughout the area. The team is ramping up for an upcoming fund-raiser to benefit the McArthur High School football team in Houston.

Steed’s son, Doug the third, is a sophomore at the school and is starting varsity quarterback for the team and the fund-raiser is being held to help purchase uniforms for the athletes.

Steed II has been a part of the Men in Black cooking

team for eight years and just last year formed another cooking team.

“Last year we placed second in the open category and fifth in brisket and seventh in the chicken,” said Steed II. “In every cook-off I’ve been in my team has placed at least in the top ten.”

Although the locomotive pit is known for it’s looks, Steed II is working on a new bigger unit that, when

completed, will measure 36 by 9 feet and will feature a pit, burner, open-face grill and cooler.

The team of Steed, Miguel Rios and Adam Clark will be cooking for the team’s fund-raiser.

This past season Steed III received the school’s Offensive MVP Award and he also received the New Comer Award for their District.

by Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

Watco welcomes 22 new team members thanks to the addition of the Cudahy Car Shop, Inc., (CCS) in early April. Watco can now boast a total of 16 me-chancial shops that are available to serve our Cus-tomers. The Cudahy shop is located in southeastern Wisconsin and is a great addition to the shops located on the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad.

The CCS began operations in 1977 under the own-ership of CNW and was purchased by CCS in 1995. The shop features 12 indoor car spots, 20 working positions and 40 total spots in the plant. More than 140 cars will go through the location each month. The shop is in the Milwaukee switching district on the Union Pacific Railroad and features a storage yard with a 250 car capacity. The shop is also a short 80 miles from the railroad hub of Chicago, Ill.

They are a certified M-1003 facility with a B25 cer-tification, involved in repairs over 85 hours and a B26, performing Rule 88 repairs/modifications.

Andy Schaffer, mechanical services chief operat-ing officer, said, “The team members are very excited to be part of the Watco family. We were fortunate to have a highly skilled work force prepared from day one to step up and continue providing

the excellent service that attracted us to this shop in the beginning. They will be able to fulfill the Cus-tomer First Foundation Principles without missing a beat.”

Grilling skills put to good use for fund-raiser

A locomotive grill owned by a member of Doug Steed’s cooking team.

Top Row (left to right) – Russell Kimball, Mark Richter, Bill Miller, Carl Clausen, Bob Hale, Richard Bowen, Juan Lozano, Tony Paladino, John Janikowski, Bob Vogt. Bottom Row (left to right) – Steve Pulvemacher, Dale Swenson, Frank Muedini, Richard Welsh, Mike ManionNot Pictured: Vern Flynn

Cudahy team member Steve Pulvermacher performing reflective tape application.

Doug Steed, Eloy Reyna and Hector Reyna team up to make some award winning barbecue.

Doug Steed III MVP quar-terback for McArthur High School.

by Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

Friday the 13th wasn’t the day you had to be on watch at Watco’s Pittsburg, Kan., offices, it was Friday, April 27th that was interesting. The Pittsburg Team

Safety and Improvement Committee (TS&IC) hosted a Halfway to Halloween Costume Contest.

Different groups who participated in the contest were information technology (safety crew), human resources (60’s theme), fleet and car accounting (bed-time theme) and the winners, the invoicing team with

their 80’s workout warriors garb.The winners of the contest won a

pizza luncheon.Trinity Condon, HR coordinator and

TS&IC co-captain, said, “The committee

members thought the Halfway to Halloween contest would be a fun way to boost moral and we knew a lot of people here are competitive so we thought a contest would be a great idea. The turnout was better than expected, in HR we originally thought we were the only ones dressed up but then when it got time to get together for the contest we saw there were a lot more teams participating as well.”

Not one to rest on their laurels, the TS&IC hosted a trash pickup day on Saturday following the costume contest. Eleven team members met at the local state park and then carpooled and dropped off participants at different spots along the two-mile stretch of High-way 160 that they had volunteered to work on.

Safety being part of the committee’s name, safety vests were worn to ensure good visibility of the work-ers and gloves were handed out as an additional safety measure.

Team members helping with the trash pick-up were: Trinity Condon, Amanda Brisbin, Michele Howard, Mitch and Hayley Becker, Tyler Davis, John

Westbrook, Brad Stroud, Lori and Tony Cox, and Carrie Krebs. Each member who helped out received a Watco “I love trash” tee shirt featuring the iconic Oscar the Grouch. Although rain was in the forecast the team was lucky enough to only get a few sprinkles while completing their task.

The trash pick-up occurs three times a year and is part of a county-wide effort to keep the county’s roadways clean and litter free.

Lori Cox, revenue account specialist said, “We thought it was a good thing to do. It took us a couple of hours and it was nice to get together outside of the office and do something for the community.”

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Left: First place winners of the Halfway to Halloween Costume Contest were the invoicing group: Matt Troth, revenue analyst; James Sudduth, invoicing auditor; Shaina Kennedy, revenue auditor; Jocelyn Gates, revenue accounting assistant; Lori Cox, revenue account specialist and Mor-gan Peak, invoicing auditor. Below: Watco Pittsburg Team Members in their Halfway to Halloween costumes.

MOW Member retires by Robert BalzerAssistant Trainmaster, South Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad

South Kansas and Oklahoma Rail-road’s (SKOL)Maintenance of Way (MOW) Team Member Rick Vaughn recently retired from the SKOL. Rick started his career with Watco 15 years ago in 1997, working up through the ranks in the track department to track inspector.

Vaughn said he plans to travel in his retire-ment and is planning a trip to New Orleans. He also will enjoy rais-ing cattle and working around the house.

One thing Vaughn says he will really enjoy

is not having to get up for work every day!

Team members from the SKOL train operations and MOW gathered to send Rick off with a party where we gave him gifts and memorabilia of Watco and the SKOL and also awarded him with a watch.

Pittsburg TS&IC team hosts Halfway to Halloween

Mike Hains, SKOL roadmaster presents Retiree Rick Vaughn, SKOL with his retirement cake.

Chris Randall, director of short line development; Dick Ebel, assistant vice presi-dent short line development; Ben Sharpe, regional manager, Amy Parady, vice pres-ident of sales and marketing, Gulf Region; Rodney Gordon, regional vice president, East Region; and Kirk Hawley, senior vice president marketing, sales and service as-surance, observe Birmingham Terminal Railway (BHRR) operations during a joint inspection of the Birmingham area. BNSF and BHRR are working together to find ways to improve service and improve operation to our mutual Customer US Steel.

BNSF visits BHRR

by Shaina KennedyRevenue Auditor, Pittsburg, Kansas

More than 10 million

Americans are symptomless carriers of the defective

gene known as Cystic Fibrosis and 1 in every 400 marriages involve

two carriers. That’s what my husband Tom and I

are, carriers of CF (Cys-tic Fibrosis). Research shows

that every child with CF received their genes for this disease from both the mother and father, so an altered CF gene is present on both sides of the family. Tom and I do not know where this gene started on either side and didn’t even know what CF was until our son Brendon Michael was diagnosed when he was two weeks old.

CF is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States (70,000) worldwide. A defective gene and its protein product cause the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections and obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food.

I had a pretty good pregnancy, nothing too out of the ordinary just the usual morning or, should I say, all day sickness for the first trimester and all the same stresses and worries of any first time parent. When we delivered it became a different story. My blood pres-sure began to increase the closer we got to delivery and when I went into labor on my birthday (Septem-ber 29, 2011) they put me on a magnesium drip to stop my BP from rising. I think at one point it was well on its way to over 200, but we go through it and Brendon was born on September 30, 2011 at 3:09 p.m. weighing in at 7 lbs., 12 ozs., and 19 ¾ inches long.

He was perfect! In the beginning he was hungry all the time. He had may bowl movements which at the time we didn’t think anything too abnormal about it, being first time parents we thought he just was trying to adjust to the world. When we went back for his one week appointment he had lost almost 10% of his weight and was very fussy all the time. The doctor thought he may have acid reflux and that we needed to put him on a medication to help with that. We gave it another week and he continued to be

fussy, still having several bowls and no further weight gain by the two week appointment. Tom and I were exhausted from the stress of new parenthood plus the lack of sleep brought on by a hungry baby. At our two week appointment with the pediatrician we both could have just slept through it and let the doctor do her examination. We told her about the issues we were hav-ing and she said we needed to talk about something. We both woke up and heard the terrible news that during the newborn screening test performed at birth our son had been tested positive for Cystic Fibrosis. We both had no idea what it was or anything about the disease. The pe-diatrician told us a brief description of what it was and said that a sweat chloride test would need to be per-formed in order to diagnosis for sure but that we were looking at a good chance of it being positive. We left her office confused and scared and were told to make a drive that night to a CF clinic at KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

We both called our family to tend to our home and packed for our first trip as a family to KU Medical. We arrived late that evening where we were admitted into the ER and taken up to the special pediatric ward for sick children and started treatment for his absorption of food that night. He got to do something that most babies don’t get to at two weeks old, eat applesauce. The way the pancreatic enzymes are designed they need to be absorbed prior to eating to get maximum absorption of the food and its nutrients. The form these pills are in are pellets and mixing them with applesauce helps to swallow them. Vitamins are also lost during the absorption so they have to be supple-mented daily as well. We also learned that patients with CF have to perform breathing treatments to clear the airways of any mucus so that this preventative towards lung infections does not occur. Just like all other sicknesses, keeping germs off patients of CF is very crucial for the fear of contracting lung problems. We learned that later in life Brendon would have to begin a daily regimen of breathing treatments and oral medications to help with keeping him healthy. This includes inhalation of medicines and vibrating of the chest cavity to loosen the mucus and make it

flow through the airways properly. In infants, they have a device that is used to simulate the vibration in the chest and in older children and adults there is

a vest that is worn. These breathing treatments can be as little as once a day or, depending on the severity of their case, four to five times a day for minimum of 20 minutes a session. The breathing treatments alone take up the majority of a person with CF’s day. Also people with CF have to intake more salt because of the defect when they sweat more salt is lost than a normal person.

CF is different in every person and no two CF cases are alike. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is the world’s leader in the search for a cure for cystic fibrosis. They fund more CF research than any other organization and are working every day toward a cure for patients all over the world. The CF foundation is a nonprofit donor-supported organization and the month of May is Cystic Fibrosis awareness month. Currently there is no cure for CF, but recently in

January 2011 there was a drug approved by the FDA that is the first of its kind, working with 4% of the CF population, Kalyedco is the first drug that is said to help the underlying cause of CF – a faulty gene and its protein product. This is great news to the CF commu-nity that the cure is coming! Unfortunately, this did not affect Brendon yet as he has a different mutation than what Kalyedco works for. Tom and I are hopeful though that Brendon won’t have to live the majority of his life behind a breathing machine, multiple hospital visits and stays and taking his enzymes and vitamins like other CF patients have had to do. We are blessed by the grace of God every day that Brendon doesn’t start coughing because it’s definitely scary to not know how things will happen in the future.

Thanks for reading my story and I hope that this brings more awareness to Cystic Fibrosis as we continue to learn ourselves every day on how to fight against this disease. Any donations to CF can be made through the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation at www.cff.org and Tom and I will be wearing a purple ribbon throughout the month of May to show awareness. If you would like to show support, I have extra ribbons to hand out.

May is Cystic Fibrosis awareness month: the Kennedy’s story

Brendon Kennedy, son of Shaina Kennedy, revenue auditor and Tom Kennedy, IT analyst, Pitts-burg, Kan.

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Shannon KnisleyLocomotive mechanic - engineer

South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad

by Tracie VanBecelaereManaging Editor

Shannon Knisley, South Kansas and Okla-homa Railroad locomotive mechanic and engineer works in Cherryvale, Kan., but lives 73 miles away in Joplin, Mo. Following the devastating tornado that hit Joplin on May 22 of last year, he and a friend went out hoping to be able to help those in need.

Instead, he ending up finding something

totally unexpected, a baby sitting in the middle of a yard.

“He was just sitting there,” said Knisley. “I picked him up and looked him over since he had blood on his shirt but he appeared fine. I took him to Freeman Hospital so they could check him and locate his parents.

“I worried about the baby all week long and then me, my wife and two kids went to see President Obama when he came to town. Believe it or not, a couple walked up

behind us holding that same baby. “His name was Skyler and his mom and

dad were in the Springfield (Mo.) hospital recovering from their injuries and he was with his grandparents -that’s the way the Lord showed me the baby was okay and eased my worries.”

Engineer tells story of finding infant following tornado

Congratulations to the following Team Members celebrating service anniversaries!

1 Year: Rachael Anderson, Jay Anthony, Mark Baumgardner, Thomas Baze, Joseph Bradley, Kenneth Bullard, David Castagno, Jeffrey Chadwell, Michael Corbell, Debra Davis, Robert Dixon, Donald Duke, Timothy Fleetwood, Mike Gibson, Michael Gillikin, Steven Gonzalez, Donald Gress, Joseph Hampton, Aaron Henderson, Amy Hopkins, Jennifer Jones, Carrie Krebs, Bryan Lewis, Wesley Lindell, Travis Mason, Leslie Mc-Coy, Chans Miller, Christopher Miller, Magdaleno Monjaraz, Gene Mudd, Frank Nickowski, Den-nis Nolen, Chris Ozment, Jeffrey Poole, Kenneth Powell, James Richards, Marty Riedlinger, Gary Roberts, Samuel Rodriguez, Christopher Smith, Lucas Smith, Terence Snell, Joseph Sullivan, Danny Thomas, Noah Torres, Alan Wilmouth 2 Years: Juan Aguilar, Eloy Alvarado, Dakota Booth, Dwight Castle, Kristopher Colley, Joel Gonzales, Joshua Holt, DeMarcus Hudson, Jason Jansen, Jeff Justice, Wendell Koehn, Gabriel Patron, Derek Penner, Scott Phipps, Timothy Quist, Joseph Robinson, William Rowell, Brian Simpson, Micah Telischak, Jerri Titus, Terry Wall 3 Years: Kevin Anselmi, Miguel Garcia, Trevor

Penner, Edrick Simon 4 Years: Jovani Aguilar, Mark Bohr,

Bryan Colvin, Nakia Jenkins, Joe Kauffman, Benjamin Lewman, Melvin Risen-hoover, Shaun Rodriguez

5 Years: Juan

Aguilar, Elva Cook, Ryan Everhart, Willie Glee, Mi-chael Hubbs, Chris Labrie, Richard Leija, Kenneth McGarity, Danyale Norman, Joseph Olivo, Miguel Osorio, Fredy Ramos, Travis Schnelle, Matthew Smith, Chris Spear, Richard Thomas, Jamie Wheel-er, LaJohn Wilson, George Yanas 6 Years: Randy Bole, Charles Davidson, Lester House, Gregory Lewis, Joshua McKern, Keith Schlotman, Leonard Smith, Alfred Wetklow, Nancy White 7 Years: Aaron Coester, Steven Conrad, John Gaither, Teresa Gentry, Mark Kuehn, Charles Rog-ers, James Saeger, Jerrel Whiteside 8 Years: Debbie Bishop, Nicole Chamberlin, Wendy Hicks, Bruce Masters, Larry Mette, Amy Parady, Kameen Thornton, Bradley Walker, Lance Williams 9 Years: Matthew Fetzer 10 Years: Joshua Frame, John Johnson, James Lilly, Kevin Redman 11 Years: Garth Coleman, Christopher Hamill, Al-len Kellar, Robert Snow 12 Years: John Johnson, Ed McKechnie, Tony Montabana 13 Years: Bruce Glover, Robert Nelson, David Per-ault, Casey Thrall 14 Years: Marlin Hughes, Douglas Marshall, John Watson 15 Years: Irineo Basurto, Scott Davis, Tarketrick Holden, Jim Pelton 16 Years: Terry Andis, Randall Morehead, John Snow, Jose Vidal 17 Years: Tony Delecce, Thomas Thompson 20 Years: James Hill, Daniel Rico 22 Years: Bryant Hodge

23 Years: Michael Brown 24 Years: Wendy Wooden 25 Years: James Smith 26 Years: Mark McClellan, Roger Munday

27 Years: Daniel Bar-rington, David Stott

33 Years: Michael Rob-erts 34 Years: Jose Acosta, Frank Jones

37 Years: Homer Brown 38 Years: Lott Oesch

41 Years: Nathaniel Rainey 43 Years: Larry Snyder

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May Anniversaries

WAT CO

WO R L D

This section is dedicated to the Watco Team Members to give you a chance to share what’s happening in your corner of the Watco World.

BirthsHadly Lynn Jacobs

Jaden and Jenna Jacobs are proud to announce the birth of a daughter, Hadly. Hadly was born on April 12 and weighed 7 lbs., 1 oz., and was 18 1/2 inches long.

Proud grandpa is Neal Ja-cobs, Central Region Chief Engineer.

Charlie Conrad EllisChristopher and Natalie Ellis are proud to an-

nounce the birth of their second son, Charlie Conrad. Charlie was born on March 18 and weighed 3760 grams (8 lbs., 4 oz., and was 53 cm. (20.87 in.).

Charlie was welcomed home by his big brother Jacob, who turns three this month.

Charlie has the distinction of being the first baby born to the new Watco Western Australia Rail (WWAR) Team. Christopher is a member of the Customer Services logistics team in Western Australia based in West Perth and is part of the Watco Operations Center (WOC) 24-hour team.

Leila RamirezRafael and Jazmín Ramírez are proud to announce

the birth of a daughter, Leila Ramírez.

Leila was born on March 27 and weighed 6 lbs., 2 oz. and was 20 inches long.

Leila was welcomed home by her big brothers Nahim, 20 months old, Obed and Evet, who are

7.Rafael serves as a field inspector and works at the

Hockley, Texas mechanical shop.

Hadly Lynn Jacobs

Charlie Conrad Ellis

Finnegan Bodhi Greyson Noriega

Finnegan Bodhi Greyson Noriega was born on November 22, 2011 weighing in at 5 lbs., 4 oz., and is now is a whopping 15 lbs. Parents are Kendice Talty and Rain Noriega. Kendice Talty has been with Watco’s Wichita dispatch center for nine years and is the senior dispatcher. Because Kendice has been very busy jug-

gling motherhood and keeping trains rolling safely, time slipped away and he is already 5 months old. This is Kend-ice and Rain’s first baby and after many years and a bit of a struggle getting him here, he is a blessing to all.

Finnegan Bodhi Greyson Noriega

Leila Ramirez

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GraduationsZach Baden: Son of Rick Baden, chief operating

officer, Pittsburg, Kan: graduating from Pittsburg High School, Pittsburg.

Blake Borovetz: Son of Michael Borovetz, Central Region financial analyst, Coffeyville, Kan.; gradu-ating from Independence High School, Indepen-dence, Kan.

Minda Cooley, Daughter of Gary Cooley, section foreman, Wisconsin & Southern Railroad, Janes-ville, Wisc.; graduating from Milton High School, Milton, Wisc.

Chase Currier: Son of Shellee Currier, marketing manager for the Kaw River Railroad in Kansas City, Kan.; graduating from Blue Valley Southwest High School, Overland Park, Kan.

Clare Davis: Sister of Tyler Davis, financial ana-lyst, Pittsburg, Kan.; graduating from Joplin High School, Joplin, Mo.

Samantha Gentry: Daughter of Teresa Gentry, systems analyst in Pittsburg, Kan.; graduating from Carthage Senior High School in Carthage, Kan.

Drew Gill: Grandson of Anne Elrod, accounting administrative assistant, Pittsburg, Kan.; graduating from St. Mary’s Colgan High School in Pittsburg.

Dylan Gromer: Son of Dave Gromer, purchasing director, Pittsburg, Kan.; graduating from Pittsburg High School, Pittsburg.

Michael Gustafson: Son of Patti Audet, financial analyst, Pittsburg, Kan.; graduating from Roncalli High School in Indianapolis, Ind.

Samantha Guy: Granddaughter of Dave, WTPS driver in Pittsburg, Kan., and Kathy Carr, meeting coordinator in Pittsburg; graduating from Girard Middle School, Girard, Kan.

Michael Hayes: Son of Tom Hayes, associate general counsel, Pittsburg, Kan.; graduating Magna Cum Laude from the University of Dallas, Dallas, Texas, with a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Phi-losophy. Michael has been accepted into Phi Beta Kappa, an honors fraternity.

Lydia Beth Herman: Daughter of Linn Herman, Gulf Region Car Repair Manager, Baton Rouge, La.; graduating from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, La., with a bachelor’s degree in Textiles, Ap-parel and Merchandise and a minor in business.

Shauna Ashlyn Herron: Daughter of John Herron, Birmingham Terminal Railway, locomotive super-visor, Birmingham, Ala.; graduating from Walker High School, Jasper, Ala.

Garrison Kadau: Son of Ted Kadau, marketing manager for The Great Northwest Rail road and The Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad, in Washington and Idaho; graduates from Lewiston High School in Lewiston, Idaho.

Shaina Kennedy, invoice auditor, Pittsburg, Kan.; graduated in December with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Minor in Family and Consumer Sciences.

Michaela Kinyon: Daughter of Teri Kinyon, asset accounting assistant in Pittsburg, Kan.; graduating from St. Mary’s Colgan High School, Pittsburg.

Meredith Lamkin: Daughter of Herb Lamkin, roadmaster, Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad, Wich-ita, Kan.; graduating from Hillsboro High School, Hillsboro, Kan.

Cinnamon Alexandria Leslie: Daughter of Paul Friedrichs, Greens Port Terminal trainmaster, Houston, Texas; graduating from Hargrave High School in Huffman, Texas.

Brecken Larson, legal assistant: graduating Magna Cum Laude from Pittsburg State University with a Bachelor of Science in Education.

Kameryn McCoy: Daughter of James McCoy, lead locomotive mechanic, Oklahoma City, Okla.; graduating from Harrah High School.

Kylie McDaniel: Daughter of Rob McDaniel, SVP human resources, Kingwood, Texas; graduating from Kingwood High School, Kingwood.

Kory Phillips: Son of Keith LaCaze, Gulf Region vice president of switching operations and loco-motive leasing; graduating from DeRidder High School, DeRidder, La.

Bryson Spahn: Son of John Spahn,engineer on the South Kansas and Oklamhoma Railroad; graduat-ing from Southeast Junior High School in Chero-kee, Kan.

Jack Swanson: Husband of Amanda Swanson, data integrity representative, Revenue and Con-tracts, Pittsburg, Kan., graduating from Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kan., with a Master’s in Business Administration.

Adrienne Dolores Towner: Daughter of Terry Towner, president, Pittsburg, Kan.; graduating from St. Mary’s Colgan High School in Pittsburg.

Brandy Marie Twichell: Daughter of Jerry Twichell, supervisor, Wood River, Ill., mechanical shop; graduating from Alton High School, Alton, Ill.

Shane Underwood: Son of Janet Gordon, HR Co-ordinator, Pittsburg, Kan.; graduating from South-east Junior High School, Cherokee, Kan.

Madison VanBecelaere: Daughter of Cindy Van-Becelaere, payroll clerk, Pittsburg, Kan.; graduating from St. Mary’s Colgan Middle School, Pittsburg, Kan.

Meghan Winden: Daughter of Maurice Davis, car accounting, Pittsburg, Kan.; graduating from Fron-tenac High School, Frontenac, Kan.

Congratulations to the following team members and their families!

HonorsKatie Hayes

Kaite Hayes has been named to the 2012 Academic All-Big 12 Team by the Big 12 Confer-ence. Katie is the daughter of Tom Hayes, associate general counsel, Pittsburg, Kan.

Katie is on the rowing team at Kansas University, Lawrence, Kan.

She is one of 13 Jayhawks on the first team. First team mem-bers consist of those who have maintained a 3.20 or better GPA while the second team selections hold a 3.00 to 3.19 GPA.

To qualify, student-athletes must maintain a 3.00 GPA or higher either cumulative or the two previous semesters and must have participated in 60 percent of their team’s sched-uled contests. Freshmen and transfers are not eligible in their first year of academic residence. Senior student-athletes who have participated for a minimum of two years and meet all the criteria except percent of partici-pation are also eligible.

Calendar ContestIntroducing Watco’s 2013

Calendar Contest Photographers get ready, Watco is announcing its first ever Cal-endar Contest. Winners will be selected by the Executive Team and awards are as follows:

First place (cover): $500Second place: $250Ten additional prizes to include photo for each month - $100 eachSubmissions must be received no later than September 30, 2012.For digital photography, 4-color high quality printing requires 300dpi images at 100%. This works out to 12.75 megapixel (10.5” x 13.5” @300dpi), far beyond the native capabilities of standard point-and-shoot cameras. Digital SLR cameras can save photos in the RAW format. This is the format we prefer for the calendar. Send submissions and questions to tvan@watcocompa-nies.com

by Ted KadauMarketing Manager, Great Northwest Railroad and Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad

Watco Companies’ Team Members on The Mission Mountain Railroad (MMT) work hard every day to follow the Customer First Foundation Principles – and every day they endeavor to follow those principles safely.

As a result of their hard work, the Mission Moun-tain team celebrated working one year injury free on April 26. In celebration of this landmark event, team members held a celebratory barbecue at Lion Lake near Hungry Horse Dam outside of Columbia Falls, Mont., on April 28.

“We always start off everything we do with safety,” Kyle Jeschke, general manager on the MMT, said. “We have a small, close team and they work to always be aware of everything around them. We come to work thinking about safety and we leave work thinking about safety.”

The barbecue celebration included Team Members from the MMT’s operations, track, car repair, locomo-tive repair and clerking departments. In addition to

the barbecue celebration, MMT managers purchased safety gear - including boots and jackets - for team members.

“This is just a fantastic accomplishment,” Rob Thrall, vice president of operations for Watco’s West Region, said. “It takes effort and focus every moment of every day to achieve the goal that the MMT Team has accomplished. I would just like to thank the MMT Team Members for making safety such an important part of their culture and making the goal of working injury-free their top priority.”

Watco began operations on the MMT in December, 2004. Located just a few miles from the Canadian bor-der in northwestern Montana, the MMT’s 40 miles of track are located on two separate lines. The north line begins at Eureka, Mont., and extends south to Stryker, Mont. The south line begins at Columbia Falls, Mont., and extends southwest to Kalispell, Mont. The MMT interchanges with the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe at Stryker and Columbia Falls. The MMT primarily moves forest products and grain. Its primary Custom-er is Plum Creek Timber Company.

When asked the secret to operating a busy railroad injury-free, Jeschke noted that each MMT Team

Member cares about their fellow Team Members and keeping each other safe.

“Everyone going home at night to their families safe is our primary goal,” he said. “Once something goes wrong with safety, it affects everything. The team, the company and Customer service.”

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PRST STDUS POSTAGE

PAIDPRADMAR CORPThe newsletter for Watco Companies, LLC and Watco Transportation Services, LLC

May 2012, Volume 13, Issue 5

MMT Team celebrates injury free year

Levi Hubler conductor, Dan Walker trainmaster, Doug Krattiger CMO, Nickol Corr clerk is top right, Kyle Jeschke GM and Dyllan Vincent Engineer Track Forman.

Record breaking team members are: front row left to right, Isaac Martinez, Greg Sanchez, Bob Currie, Ms. Bobbie Moore, Miguel Auces, Mike Gonza-les, Daniel Martin, CMO. Back row, Transito Pedraza, Maurice Jones, Ismael Mondragon, Trainmaster Ron Singleton, Steve Tucker, General Mgr Audie Cavazos, Car foreman Sterling Teague, Dennis Stautz, Chad Farmer, Ernie Gonzalez, Joe Risenhoover, Will Balzen, Israel Garza.Not pictured, Trainmaster Dino Tevino, Mike Hankins, Doug Peterson, Der-rick Williams, and George Yanas.

Austin Western Railroad sets carload recordCongratulations to the Austin Western Railroad Team for setting a new monthly carload record! The team moved a record number of 4,900 cars smashing last month’s record by a whopping 410 carloads.