Development News From Southwest Indiana

Respondek wins railroad contract
By BYRON ROHRIG Courier & Press staff writer, December 15, 2005

Respondek Railroad Corp., with a large rail car repair shop in Warrick County, has won a half-million dollar contract to build a 30-car train used to install welded rail.

The train will be built from former bulkhead flat cars, and construction will include modifying the air-brake systems, installing rail stanchions and permanently coupling the cars, according to Respondek official John Licht.

Welded rails a quarter-mile long will be transported along the stanchions, also called cradles, said Licht, business development director of the Beaver Dam, Ky., based company.

Welded rail, safer and comparatively maintenance-free, eliminates the "clickety-clack" sound of trains running along tracks of short bolted-together rail sections. The welded-rail train was ordered by RibbonWeld Inc. of Manteno, Ill., which will use the train to deliver welded rail for installation on rail lines nationwide. The train will be ready for service by April, according to Ken Scott, superintendent of Respondek's Squaw Creek Freight Car Shop, where the company repairs coal, refrigerator and grain cars.

Respondek is a multifaceted rail company that operates the Squaw Creek Southern, a line serving the Yanketown, Ind., coal dock, Fredonia Valley Railroad out of Princeton, Ky., and other short lines. The company also maintains switching operations at other regional riverports and industries including GE Plastics in Mount Vernon, Ind.