Watco
Guntersville Terminal in Alabama recently passed 10,000 days since experiencing a lost-time injury, parent company Watco reported via LinkedIn in December.
The terminal, located on the southernmost tip of the Tennessee River, is accessible by rail (CSX and Norfolk Southern via OmniTrax’s Alabama & Tennessee River Railway/ATN), barge (Mile Marker 358.2) and truck (U.S. 431). It features 18 railcar spots, two barge docks, two liquid docks, direct truck dump, railcar and barge steaming, two material handlers, an overhead crane in the 12,000-square-foot warehouse, bulk product screening, and an on-site certified truck scale. Additionally, the terminal specializes in bulk, breakbulk, and liquid commodities including caustic soda, wire rod, tin plate, steel coils, plates, super sacks, rebar, pig iron, and lumber.
“Congratulations to the team on achieving this significant safety milestone,” Watco said.
Patriot Rail
“At Patriot Rail, we hold safety as a value and not a priority because priorities change but values endure,” the short line holding company reported via LinkedIn last month. “We believe all injuries can be prevented and commit to zero. That daily commitment is why our colleagues on the Sacramento Valley Railroad in McClellan, CA, celebrated 12 years of service without any injuries this year. Congratulations!”
The seven-mile Sacramento Valley Railroad is one of Patriot Rail’s 31 short line subsidiaries, and interchanges with BNSF and Union Pacific at McClellan Park (see map, right). Its primary commodities are aggregates, agricultural products, bio-fuels, chemical, crude oil, dimension lumber, food ingredients, industrial products, LPG, machinery and equipment, metal and steel products, scrap paper, container-board, petroleum products and coke, plastic resin, and steel pipe.
G&W
G&W’s Heart of Georgia Railroad celebrated its 25th anniversary in December. Spanning 227 miles in Alabama (four miles) and Georgia (223 miles), this short line interchanges with CSX at Cordele, Ga.; Georgia Central Railway at Vidalia, Ga.; Georgia Southwestern Railroad at Americus, Ga.; Norfolk Southern at Americus, Ga.; and The Georgia Southern Railway at Midville, Ga. (see map below).
“Happy Anniversary to our Heart of Georgia Railroad,” G&W reported via LinkedIn.
Separately, G&W in November marked 125 years of service with a celebration in Jacksonville, Fla., where it has a corporate support center that employs nearly 200 area residents. This followed a May 2024 celebration at the Rochester & Southern, where the global Class II and Class III railroad conglomerate got its start in 1899.
“We’re proud of our past,” G&W CEO Michael Miller said in May. “We’ve grown from a single railroad to more than 100 freight railroads, established a presence at more than 30 ports to help critical goods flow across the globe, and built industrial development and transload services that are tailored to the unique needs of individual customers. We’ve become industry leaders in safety and service, receiving more than 1,000 safety awards from the [American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association] and achieving our highest-ever customer satisfaction score last year. We’ve been good stewards for the communities we operate in through programs such as Operation Lifesaver and first responder trainings, and have locked hands with the rest of the industry via our memberships with ASLRRA and the Association of American Railroads.”
Further Reading: FRA Reviews GC, HOG Petition to Pilot Parallel Systems Technology
