On December 13, 2010, the CBH Group of Western Australia announced that Watco had been awarded its 10 year grain rail contract. (Dick) Webb. "Dick" Webb.
The CBH Group is a Western Australian farmer owned cooperative that was established in 1933. It’s controlled by more than 4,800 grower-shareholders who plant and harvest grain grown across the 198,840 square miles (320,000 square km) that comprise the Western Australian grain belt. Watco will begin its Western Australian operations in May of 2012 and will provide comprehensive rail logistics servi
ces including train planning and scheduling, tracing, maintenance and inventory control. This will involve transporting an average of 368-441 million bushels (10-12 million tonnes) of grain from 192 country receival sites to CBH’s four export terminals. CBH also announced they would be investing $175 million in rolling stock which Watco would operate and maintain, this would include 22 locomotives and 574 wagons (railcars). The Western Australian grain network is similar in carload volume and track length to Watco’s Central Region grain network consisting of the Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad, the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad and the Stillwater Central Railroad. WWAR is a part of Watco Companies L.L.C. (Watco)
Watco is a Pittsburg, Kansas-based transportation company that was formed in 1983 by Charles R. Watco is composed of three divisions: transportation, mechanical and transloading. Watco is the owner of Watco Transportation Services, Inc. (WTS), which operates 25 shortline railroads in 20 tates and is one of the largest shortline railroad companies in the United States. Watco operates on 4,400 miles (5,600 km) of leased and owned track. Also lumped under transportation is the contract switching that the company provides service for 26 customers. This is the service that Watco originally offered before branching out into other areas. Watco’s mechanical division has 15 car repair shops and is the largest mechanical services provider in the United States. They provide program, contract and emergency repairs. These services include maintenance of all types of cars including coal fleets, the preparation and cleaning of boxcars and refrigerated cars. There are 19 mobile repair shops and four locomotive shops in the Watco network. The transloading division operates seven warehouses throughout the country. They also operate several transloading facilities and specialize in loading and unloading railcars and moving commodities to their next destination. Watco owns Greens Port Industrial Park on the Houston Ship Channel in Harris County, Texas. History
Watco Companies was started in 1983 by Charles R. The first operation was an industrial switching operation in DeRidder, Louisiana, which is still in existence. Webb then started his first mechanical operation, a railcar repair shop in Coffeyville, Kansas.
