Over the years, our main focus has been on track removal and supplying product, however, with our expertise and specialized equipment, we now look at other ways to increase our profitability, namely doing subcontract work which we would not have done in the past if we were not receiving material.

Recently, we were awarded a project with The Indiana Rail Road Company (INRD) to dismantle and relocate 22 track miles of railroad material. The rail on this project was CWR, requiring utilization of our rail pick-up unit and rail train to load and then redistribute the rail throughout INRD’s system for installation and upgrading of existing track. This line provided a very challenging removal since it had over 40 bridges, a quarter-mile long tunnel, and basically nothing but 2% grades and 5° curves with very little tangent track.

Based on these difficulties, we elected to sled the project rather than employing the conventional spike machine approach for dismantling the road. The pick-up and distribution of the CWR took approximately five weeks to complete.

We are currently in the final stages of relocating the OTM and selected ties to various sites throughout the INRD system for future use. Thus far, the project has gone extremely well with no accidents whatsoever. We were granted an extension to relocate some curve patch rail while we were on the property and that portion has also been completed.

We look forward to many more of these projects in the future as it is just another way of demonstrating A&K’s flexibility and expertise in a difficult market.

Featured Employee

Karen Williams, Corporate Headquarters

I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. I am the oldest of seven children, four brothers and two sisters. My father made a modest living in the flooring industry as a floor mechanic, laying carpet, linoleum, tile, and also doing counter tops. My mother was a stay at home mom.

Being the oldest of seven children I learned to take responsibility and help with my younger siblings. I loved school and the challenge of learning. For the most part, I excelled in what ever I set my mind to accomplish.

I have always had a love for music. I began in the sixth grade to play the Cello and went on to play the Violin in the seventh grade. My interest in music then went to singing as I got older. I loved to hear the harmony in a song. So, having learned to read music, I was able to teach myself to sing the harmony part. I have sung in church choirs for many years. I have also sung in quartets and trios and duets. I was able to audition and become a member of the Bountiful Chapter of the Sweet Adelines in 1975. It was an incredible experience to sing the barbershop harmony I loved so much. I sang the lead part. The chorus would compete both regionally and internationally and we placed 4th in international competition during my time with them. This experience boosted my confidence greatly.

My other interests have been dancing, sewing, croqueting, knitting, painting and working in my yard. I do like to read a good book from time to time, when I can stay awake. I now dabble at playing the piano.

I am active in my church and have held many teaching positions, mostly teaching the children. I was also the choir director for several years. I am now in a leadership position in the women’s organization.

I love my family. I am proud of my daughter, Janette, who has made recovery from drug and alcohol abuse. It’s been six years now. She is married and both her and her husband are currently involved with helping others with their recovery. I have two grandchildren, Joshua, 20 and Jaiden, 13. Joshua is still struggling with finding his place in society and Jaiden is doing well in school and loves to hang out with her friends. I have five stepchildren, and three step-grandchildren. With life as crazy as it gets sometimes, I do not get to see them as often as I would like. I do enjoy it when we can get together and enjoy each others company.

I was widowed for 13 years before I met my current husband, Wayne. We have been married for 4-1/2 years. He also loves music and is a drummer. He enjoys watching educational television and movies. He also enjoys reading and loves to work with wood. We are in the process of doing home remodeling and landscaping. Can’t wait until we have a place where we can entertain our friends and family at our home.

Before I came to work at A&K I was a truck driver. My late husband and I drove the countryside as team drivers for CR England. This was quite a challenge and an adventure. I can’t believe I actually drove a big semi. I did this for about a year and a half when my husband was diagnosed with Melanoma. I got off the truck in Dec of 1990 and started a back to work program at the Salt Lake Community college in Jan of 1991. At completion, I began job hunting and was hired at A&K in April 1991. My duties then were entering all the bills of lading and receivers as well as processing all the vendor and freight bills for both Salt Lake and Kansas. I did this on the ancient Quantel system. It seemed like I had to go ninety miles an hour to get this all done. I was dubbed “Fast Fingers Funk”. I also learned to audit contracts.

My husband passed away in 1993 and it wasn’t long after that we began the, now obsolete, Varnet system. Of course, there were changes made to my job. Kansas and all the permanent yards entered their own bills of lading and receivers. I still had to enter the bills of lading and receivers for the Take Up yards. This gave me the opportunity to become more involved with the foremen out in the field. I still processed vendor bills from Kansas and Salt Lake. When the railroads decided to have their bills paid via the web, I began making sure all the invoices were approved and ready for payment. I still processed the freight bills from Salt Lake until 2007, when freight was handled by Iron Highway. Now we have the AX Dynamics system and my job at A&K has changed again. I now am working in the Accounts Payable department, which I enjoy very much. I have retained overseeing the payment of the railroad invoices.

My work at A&K has given me the opportunity to be involved and get to know many of the wonderful people working here. I have enjoyed my work, all of these years, at A&K and I am grateful to be here and hope to be here until my time to retire.

Employee News

Congratulations to Katie (Shawnee Kansas Sales Office) and Victor Copeland on the birth of their son. Amari Isaiah Copeland was born June 10, 2010 at 12:36 p.m. He weighed 10 lbs, 1.8 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long.

Pamela Mortensen (Eagle Lake, Texas) shares her vacation to beautiful Mona, Utah. It has been over a year now since Dennis passed away. Pam joined other family members for a reunion staying with Dennis’ sister and had a great time visiting with Dennis’ children, Denise, Scott and Bryan. She also got to meet 8 month old grandson Jackson Dennis Mortensen. He is adorable and loved playing airplane with Pam. It was a wonderful trip full of family memories.

Two summer BBQ’s were held at Corporate Headquarters in July. The first one hosted by Allen, Cheryl, Denise, Jeri, Lisa, Lonnie and Ray was a Mexican Fiesta. Chicken and pork fajitas with grilled peppers and onions were served with all the sides including rice, beans, salsas, chips and more with strawberry shortcake for dessert. The second BBQ hosted by Abraham, Bruce, Chris, Cindy, Janet, Karen B., and Karen W. was “all things skewered”. Marinated chicken and sweet & sour meatball shish-kabobs were grilled and served with salads, fruit, and rolls. Dessert was fresh strawberry and creampuff kabobs drizzled with chocolate. Everything was delicious!

Password Protection Checkup

Imperva, a leading data security company, released the following list of the 20 most-commonly used (and there-fore worst!) passwords, taken from a hacking incident last December at RockYou.com, a photo-sharing site. Reportedly, 32 million user names and passwords were breached.

Notice how many people apparently use their first names as passwords. And with regard to #7, notice that the password is simply the name of the site! Referring to NASA guidelines, Imperva recommends that all passwords be at least 8 characters – uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters such as !#%&*. If there is only one letter or special character, it should not be the first or last character in the password. Imperva also recommends that administrators enforce a strong password policy, especially if sensitive data is at stake. Additional advice: password files should be encrypted before being stored in a database, and consider requiring passphrases instead of passwords (sentences may be longer, but are often easier to remember; and with added characters, they become even more difficult to break).