NRC auction raises more than $58k for safety and training programs

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
image description
Attendees at the 14th Annual Railroad Construction and Maintenance Equipment Auction on April 6.
NRC

The National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) sold $1.25 million worth of equipment at its annual auction on April 6. Proceeds will help fund safety programs provided by the association.

The NRC’s 14th Annual Railroad Construction and Maintenance Equipment Auction was held at the Railroad Construction Co. of South Jersey/Railroad Constructors facility in Paulsboro, N.J. The NRC called the auction a success with a total of 250 pieces of equipment sold for a $1.25 million to on-site and online bidders.

The NRC raised $58,403 at the auction for the NRC Safety & Education Training program. The NRC Safety & Education Training program receives three percent of the value of all consignments from contractors, suppliers and railroads and 100 percent of the proceeds from the donated items.

The equipment donations to the NRC Auction this year included a turbo loader backhoe trailer from Balfour Beatty Rail, a hi-rail speed swing from Delta Railroad Construction and wood tie plugging applicators from Encore Rail Systems. The NRC Safety & Education Training program allows NRC to continue to strengthen its efforts to ensure the safety of everyone in the rail industry, hold the Contractor Safety Award contest and continue to produce safety material like the Pocket Safety Manuals, the Tool Box Talks, and the NRC safety video series (22 and counting!).

The 250 pieces of rail construction equipment ranged from Mark IV tampers to grapple trucks, tie inserters to spikers, tie exchangers to ballast regulators, rotary dump trucks to pickup trucks. The top selling items were the two Mark IV tampers (one went for $295,000 and the other for $110,000), a 2015 hi-rail weld truck ($83,000), a hi-rail rotary dump truck ($65,000), a Nordco Spiker ($52,000), a Nordco Tie Exchanger ($47,500) and five hi-rail grapple trucks ($46,000-$28,000). Companies that consigned items for the auction included Balfour Beatty, Brown Railroad, Delta Railroad Construction, Hagan Rail Trucks, Railroad Construction Company of South Jersey/Railroad Constructors, RailWorks Corp., Stacy and Witbeck and VMTI.

“The auction committee, including Danny Brown of V&H Trucks, Deric Berry of Herzog Contracting Corp., Daniel Daugherty of Progress Rail Services, Mark Gaffney of Stacy & Witbeck, Jay Gowan of Harsco Rail, Matt Harbison of Danella, Paul Laurello of Delta Railroad Construction and Greg Spilker of Encore Rail Systems, was instrumental in getting the equipment there and spreading the word throughout the industry. Thomas Blackmon, Jr., of Blackmon Auctions and his team did an outstanding job of running the auction proceedings,” the NRC said in a statement. “The NRC greatly appreciates these companies for recognizing the importance of this opportunity and making a true investment in railroad contractor safety.”

For more information on the NRC Auction, visit: www.nrcma.org/auction

 

Tags: