We have found the quality of new and relay track material supplied by A&K to consistently meet or exceed the requirements established for our customers.
- Randolph Reichard, Chief Inspector Analyst
Appalachian Railway Services
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
October Newsletter | A&K Railroad Materials, Inc.
October 2011
2011 Officers Retreat
The 39th annual Officer’s Retreat was held again this year at our chairman Kern Schumacher’s beautiful Lake Tahoe home from September 11th – 14th. All of A&K’s officers were in attendance including for the first time Bruce Skousen who has recently been named as IT Director. Special guest Scott Brace – President, Railworks Track Systems, Inc. joined the group this year and was a key note speaker at one of the meetings.
The retreat is always a great event for educational and challenging activities. Some of the activities everyone participated in this year included horseback riding, mountain biking, a teambuilding relay, and Lake Tahoe cruise. Other choices were golf, hiking, fishing, and beach volleyball. It was a great event and everyone went home with a renewed sense of camaraderie.
Copyright 2011 A&K Railroad Materials, Inc.
2011 Railway Interchange
Railway Interchange 2011 was held September 18 – 21 in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The event was sponsored by AREMA, REMSA, RSI and RSSI in what was the largest ever such event in North America; a combined tradeshow and technical conference.
Railway Interchange was held in place of the separate exhibitions and conferences traditionally sponsored by these four organizations and provided over 10,000 railroaders from around the world a unique opportunity to see and hear all that is new and innovative across the entire rail supply industry.
A&K had a booth at the conference with Dan Britten, Jorge Castro, Kurt Maidl, Dave Minor, Rhonda Nicoloff, Bob Radinsky, Karl Renner, Alfredo Sansores, and Beth Wyatt in attendance.
Scholarship Award
Congratulations to Drew Weimer, this year’s A&K Scholarship Award Recipient. Drew is the son of Russ and Abby Weimer. He graduated this year from Springfield High School in Holland, Ohio with a lengthy and impressive list of accomplishments.
Drew is now attending Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio. He shared the following in his decision to pursue a major in exercise science:
"I was extremely active in sports all through high school with football, basketball, swim team, and track. While playing these sports, as is expected, I had a few injuries. I broke my foot my junior football season and broke my wrist my senior football season. I know first-hand how devastating it is to get a serious injury while doing something one cares so much about. It seems like life is ending. I wish to be able to help kids and other athletes work through their injuries and get back to playing capability like the trainer and doctors did for me. After a serious athletic injury, the athlete must go through hours upon hours of therapy to make sure the injury will not happen again. My therapist was great. He was funny, caring, and knew how to get me through the injuries. He inspired me to want to help athletes in my future. I believe that if the injured athlete does not have a personable therapist it will make the recovery process take longer and make it seem like they will never get back to one hundred percent."
"While attending therapy for my foot my junior year, I met an athlete from Clay High School. He was a great Hockey player until he suffered a spinal injury that paralyzed him. He was always at the gym when I went there working on basic movements like using his fingers and moving his neck. This made me realize that there needs to be innovations made in the protective equipment used by athletes. With a degree in exercise science will give me the knowledge and skills I need to develop better equipment such as advanced helmets and padding. Seeing how effected this athletes life was from this injury made me want to do everything I can do to prevent this from happening to other athletes. Life changing injuries like this are extremely common in sports and I believe this is because the equipment used for protection is not updated often enough."
Drew is a terrific young man that has so much potential in life. We wish him a successful college career and hope this scholarship will help him achieve his goals.
Employee News
The last BBQ of the season was held on September 9th at Corporate Headquarters. It was hosted by the Operations group, Legal and Railroads employees. They prepared smoked tri-tip, turkey kabobs with fresh vegetables, salads, rolls, and ice cream for dessert. Everything was wonderful. Many thanks to Fred, Aaron, Korey, Michael, Sandy, Rocky and Tyson.
Justin Harryman (Salt Lake Real Estate Department) participated in the LOTOJA Classic on September 10th. This is a bicycle race that starts in Logan, Utah and finishes in Jackson, Wyoming. LOTOJA is a European-style road classic that is unparalleled in distance and beauty. At 206 miles, it is the longest one-day USCR-sanctioned bicycle race in the country. Participants come from all over the U.S. to test their physical and mental stamina on a course that climbs and descends three mountain passes in the first 110 miles. For Justin’s first race of this length he said he felt great and was happy with his performance finishing in 11 ½ hours. He is pictured with his team (4th from the left) at the end of the race. Great accomplishment!
Katrina Gougis (New Orleans) ran her first half-marathon September 24th. She used her goal of running the half-marathon as her inspiration to participate in our health challenge. She stayed motivated by taking an active role as captain of team Serious Business; sending positive messages and helpful tips to everyone on the team. She continued with her training and when the day arrived – 13.1 miles – she did it! AND, she’s still smiling … awesome!!
"A&K from Coast to Coast" Health Challenge Results
Our health challenge began in July with the goal of virtually walking as teams from the Mira Loma yard in California to the Hamden, Connecticut yard. Nine teams of eight members participated. With 2845 miles to cover, every team member had to meet a daily goal in order to reach Hamden.
Frozen yogurt was awarded to the first team to reach our half-way point, Kansas City. Team Gggreat Going arrived in Kansas City first and then went on to pull away from the rest of the teams arriving in Hamden first. Congratulations to Bryan Smith, Robert Neibaur, Glen Mortensen, Karen Williams, Sandy Groff, Jenni Davis, Larry Bird and Betty Bird. Each team member was awarded with a $50 gift certificate to Dick’s Sporting Goods.
To end the challenge, many employees and their families participated In the Utah Heart Walk & 5K Run. Top challenge finishers won a trip to Salt Lake City to participate in the Heart Walk including members from the Gggreat Going team – Larry Bird, Betty Bird, Jenni Davis, and Sandy Groff; plus Bill Donnelly and Katrina Gougis who had been in the top 10 consistently throughout the challenge. It was a great event for all involved.
All challenge participants received t-shirts. The shirt says, “A smart start to a healthy heart”. Make this challenge just a start to a healthy heart. Don’t stop the extra activity, but continue to exercise and make good choices for a healthy lifestyle.
The Carpenter
Once upon a time, two brothers who lived on an adjoining farm, fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side-by-side, sharing machinery and trading labor and goods as needed without a hitch.
Then the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference and finally, it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence
One morning there was a knock on John’s door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter’s toolbox. "I’m looking for a few days work," he said. "Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there I could help with? Could I help you?"
"Yes," said the older brother. "I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That’s my neighbor. In fact, it’s my younger brother! Last week there was a meadow between us. He recently took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I’ll do him one better. See that pile of lumber by the barn? I want you to build me a fence an 8-foot fence – so I won’t need to see his place or his face anymore."
The carpenter said, "I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I’ll be able to do a job that pleases you."
The older 
brother had to go to town, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day. The carpenter worked hard all that day – measuring, sawing and nailing. About sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job.
The farmer’s eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped. There was no fence there at all. It was a bridge – a bridge that stretched from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work, handrails and all! And the neighbor, his younger brother, was coming toward them, his hand out-stretched.
"You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I’ve said and done."
The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then they met in the middle, taking each others’ hand. They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox onto his shoulder.
"No, wait! Stay a few days, I have a lot of other projects for you," said the older brother.
"I’d love to stay on,” the carpenter said “but I have many more bridges to build."
"The best way to get the last word is to apologize."
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