SpikeFast earns praise in UK
Written by jrood
WVCO Railroad Division has recently earned praise in the UK. The company's best selling product, SpikeFast, won first place in the "Change Challenge Cup," a competition put on by Platform magazine.
Platform
magazine is an in-house publication for Tube Lines, the Public Private Partnership contractor
with London Underground. As the PPP contractor, Tube Lines handles all of the
maintenance, upgrade and infrastructure work for three major city lines. Each
quarter the magazine holds the "Change Challenge Cup" competition. The
competition challenges employees to implement ways they can save money and time
for the company.
In the
latest competition, a project manager and strategic asset manager shared how
using SpikeFast
to repair damaged rail ties would save the company £400k in RP1 and £830k in
RP2. This translates to just over US$2 million. Tube Lines’ commitment to using
SpikeFast
has resulted in thousands of rail ties having their life prolonged, which has
resulted in a 400 percent increase in productivity.
SpikeFast,
a proprietary product of WVCO Railroad Division based in Eugene, Ore., is a
polymer that fills spike holes in wood ties. This tie-plugging compound adds
new density to the rail seat. Performance tests commissioned by Class 1
railroads indicated that SpikeFast
outperforms wood plugs and foams in both lateral resistance and pullout.
John
Murray, vice president of WVCO, commented: "There’s nothing more gratifying
than hearing that our products are saving our customers time and money, because
after all, that’s what we’re in business to do."
