KCS says first major M/W job of the year accomplished safely

In their first project of the year, the Kansas City Southern Maintenance of Way Production team relayed 25 miles of rail between Dequincy and DeRidder, La. As part of the job, they installed 175,000 tie plates, 175,000 rail anchors, 876,000 spikes and almost 13,000 feet of rail per day for a total of 264,000 feet of rail.

The project was accomplished with 26,000-plus hours of maintenance-of-way labor. KCS says the project was also completed on time as a result of close coordination between the Network Operations Center and the Maintenance of Way, Signal, Bridge and Southwest Division Transportation departments.

Even more important, the work was completed safely.

Before production began, the team was in class. They received a refresher on general code of operating rules, on-track safety, continuous welded rail procedures and fall protection. They covered equipment maintenance and operator responsibilities (e.g. completing logbooks, performing machine walk-arounds and Federal Railroad Administration compliance). They also reflected on 2015 incidents.

The team then brought the safety rules from the classroom to the job site with daily audits of proper personal protective equipment, right tools for the right job, ensuring on-track protection is provided, inspecting equipment and turning in logbooks to the motor car shop to be recorded on the corporate drive.
 
Finally, KCS Manager Production Kindle Vosika consistently emphasized to the team the importance of working safely and looking out for one another.