CN completes $100 million Memphis yard reconstruction; Names it after E. Hunter Harrison
(CN issued the following on September 24, 2009.)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. CN today announced the completion of the $100 million multi-year construction project to reconfigure and modernize its Memphis rail classification yard.
This project transformed an aged, inefficient rail yard into a state-of-the-art, effectively designed major terminal capable of handling existing and future traffic quickly and efficiently, said CN executive vice-president Claude Mongeau, who will succeed retiring president and chief executive officer E. Hunter Harrison on Jan. 1, 2010. Todays yard can handle nearly double the traffic the old facility could in a 24 hour period.
Memphis, a major freight distribution hub, is a key operating center on CN's North American network. It is an important destination for freight traffic on the CN system, and the gateway to CN's rail operations in the Gulf region. The city is also the largest U.S. location outside of Chicago where CN interchanges traffic with four of the major U.S. Class 1 railroads.
The new Memphis yard is CNs second largest classification yard in the United States. It has a capacity of more than 3,100 freight cars with 45 tracks in the classification yard. It also has 12 receiving and departure tracks ranging in length from 5,000 to 10,000 feet. The revised operation can handle 35 or more freight trains per day. It took more than two years to construct, effectively building a new rail yard on top of an existing one while never ceasing railroad operations. The configuration of the old Johnston Yard created operational challenges that at times affected CNs ability to efficiently meet customer needs. The new yard removes those challenges, creating a terminal that optimizes our ability to move traffic in and through the yard.
The old yard was removed section by section and rebuilt piece by piece, said Keith Creel, CNs executive vice-president, operations. The yard now features the latest technological enhancements in railroad operations, including the newest switching technology to maintain safety and efficiency at all times.
The yard reconstruction also included rebuilding of the terminals aged locomotive repair and car shops and upgrading of the locomotive fueling station.
At a ceremony Thursday at the yard in Memphis, CN also announced the renaming of the facility as Harrison Yard.E. Hunter Harrison has served as president and chief executive officer of CN since January 1, 2003. He will retire at the end of 2009 after a railroad career spanning five decades. Mr. Harrison's railroad career began in 1963 when he joined the Frisco (St. Louis-San Francisco) Railroad as a carman-oiler in Memphis while still attending school.
The original Memphis yard was constructed in the early 1900s on roughly 345 acres of land and named for former Illinois Central president Wayne A. Johnston (president 1945-1966). CN acquired an additional 88 acres of adjacent property for the yard upgrade project which broke ground in early 2006.
The completion of Harrison Yard comes nearly four years after the opening of Intermodal Gateway Memphis, a $35 million intermodal terminal operated jointly by CN and CSX inside the Frank C. Pidgeon Industrial Park.
Together, Harrison Yard and Intermodal Gateway Memphis represent a $135 million investment in CN operations in and around Memphis over the past five years.
Rolling to the future at Canadian National rail yard
(The following story by Wayne Risher appeared on the Memphis Commercial Appeal website on September 25, 2009.)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. The Canadian National Railway Co. marked a $100 million upgrade of its second-largest U.S. rail yard Thursday by naming it for retiring president and CEO E. Hunter Harrison.
Harrison, 64, began his railroad career as a laborer at the old Frisco Railroad Capleville yard in 1963.
With horn blaring, locomotive No. 2297 smashed through a banner stretched across the tracks to celebrate the switch to Harrison Yard. The 433-acre site, formerly known as Johnston Yard, had gone 60 years since its last major renovation.
Harrison said a 1948 redesign corrected serious safety problems but left the former Illinois Central yard badly configured for a growing CN network.
During the dedication ceremony, Harrison said his great-grandfather, whom he never knew, lost a leg in an accident at the IC yard in an earlier, more dangerous era.
The Memphis native and Kingsbury High School product said that between Harrison Yard, 297 Rivergate in Southwest Memphis, and the nearby Intermodal Gateway Memphis, CN has invested nearly $150 million in Memphis in four years.
"This gateway is critical to us. It has tremendous strategic value," Harrison said.
As CN's second-largest classification yard behind Chicago, it's key to serving the Gulf Coast region.
"We think Memphis going forward is going to play a vital and larger role than it has even in the past," Harrison said.
Added executive vice president Claude Mongeau, who will succeed Harrison on Jan.1: "This project transformed an aged, inefficient rail yard into a state-of-the-art, effectively designed major terminal capable of handling existing and future traffic quickly and efficiently. Today's yard can handle nearly double the traffic the old facility could in a 24-hour period."
Harrison said business and political leaders and members of the public can help grow the city's logistical strengths by continuing to support improvements in the area's transportation infrastructure.
Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton said, "This railroad has played a key role in our economic progress. We are facing the new age of railroads and the CN has positioned us to share the new opportunities. Today, the CN helps position Memphis at the center of the green transportation movement as well."
Harrison said he'd worked for a bakery and a gas station and as a paperboy before he heard about the Frisco Railroad paying good money. A student at then-Memphis State College, he got a job as a carman-oiler at Capleville.
Harrison has led CN since 2003.
He was president of the Illinois Central when it was bought by CN in 1998 in the first of $10 billion in acquisitions of smaller railroads.
He said he's proud of the worst-to-first turnaround at CN since it went public in 1995. It has gone from losing millions to as much as $1.3 billion a year in free cash flow, and he expects it to generate $700 million in free cash flow this year despite the recession.
"I am extremely, extremely bullish on railroads going forward," Harrison said. "The country is begging for a more efficient rail system. We're more environmentally friendly. We're more energy-efficient."
He said problems including highway congestion, budget constraints and labor shortages "all point to big railroads."
Harrison said in an interview that the honor meant a lot.
"I was very touched and I was very appreciative of that, and I think my wish would be that people would say, 'You know, there was a guy that was a driver of efficiency and productivity and because of that influence, this yard is going to be even better. We're not going to walk on his reputation and let this yard be an underachiever.'"
They can name it whatever they want. Rails will refer to it as they feel.
Whistledicks cant figure out why there is a signal box at an interlocking with Satterwhite as a nameplate, ( An ex trainmaster/ still consultant), but all the rails call it Rt. 28 when they call that signal over the radio.
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This is the official end of my post.
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