Yesterday, the Wichita Eagle carried a story about the railcar repair industry here in Kansas. Concerning the growing demand for car repair services. Linked @ http://www.kansas.com/news/business/article4264851.html
Over in Southeast Kansas it has been an interesting set of situations concerning car repairers, and the shuffle of those players. In Parsons,Kansas, adjacet to the UPRR yard is what remains of the Major Repair Shops of the KATY RR; The facility has housed several tennants in the last few years, as the volumn of work that took place there rose and fell. In Oct of 2013 a company Harbor Rail Services sought the facility and was offered a tax incentive package deal($400 K) by the City of Parsons, It was then occupied by a group of rail service companies, of the Kanza Group Rail Services. The State Revenue Dept closed them down in August of 2014 for non-payment of various tax charges, to approx $1.15 million. Now a company TM Track Machines has been offered the same incentive deal by the city of Parsons. They maintain UPR’s fleet of MOW rail cars and Machines. and the rest of the story is in this linked piece: @ http://www.parsonssun.com/news/article_30dc5e40-abd2-11e3-9570-0017a43b2370.html FTA:[snipped]“…TM Track was incorporated in November by Terry Peterson, owner of Omaha Track, and Williams, owner of Railroad Materials Salvage. Williams also owns 10 shortline railroads. TM Track was formed for the purpose of filling the void left when the state forced the closure of Kanza. The company purchased the Kanza facility through Ed Nazzar, a Wichita bankruptcy attorney who was the receiver of the company for the state…” [snip]
Then, in July of 2014 The