How did he do it? To start, he looked at past and current railcar inventory to examine car flow and identify unnecessary bottlenecks, according to MSR parent company Watco, which profiled Dempsey’s work in the February 2025 edition of The Dispatch employee newsletter. With assistance from Watco Railcar Revenue Specialist Joely Gath, he learned how to optimize traffic on the 156-mile short line, which runs in Mississippi and interchanges with Canadian Pacific Kansas City in Newton (see map, right). “After understanding the intricacies of rail traffic on the MSR, Dempsey came up with a new way to organize railcars in the yard: spotting cars by wanted days,” reported Watco, a Pittsburg, Kans.-based supply chain services company. “Then he met with conductors/engineers to show them the new way to set railcars on-site. Finally, he met with customers of the MSR to help them evaluate how many railcars are necessary to order without clogging the line.”
MSR now averages three days to move railcars from the starting point to interchange—a tight time window, according to Watco, given the short line’s size.
“This solution is all Justin,” MSR General Manager Michael Goss told the The Dispatch. “He took the bull by the horns and came up with a plan that improves customer service, reduces extraneous charges, and keeps the supply chain moving.”
Added Joely Gath: “Justin is one of the most proactive people I work with. He keeps railcars moving for the customer. And as a result, the MSR has as little car hire expenses as possible.”
Separately, 10 Watco teams wrapped up 2024 on a high note, achieving safety milestones; and Watco recently collaborated with Blue Yonder, a digital supply chain transformation company, to expand its services to shippers.
