Watco Hustles to Deliver the Holidays

Santa gets most of the credit for delivering Christmas. But he has helpers, and they include elves in Watco workshops.

These workshops are disguised — as rail yards, warehouses, offices, docks, and terminals. And Watco elves are hustling in their many different roles to ensure Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa are happy and bright.

Watco is not limited in our logistical support by region or scope – we go where our customers go and each season and year this changes. We change to accommodate our customers’ needs, to get their products where they’re needed. For a major discount retailer, Watco’s Logistics Division acts as a logistics coordinator to support a significant amount of deliveries to fill department store shelves around the U.S. Yep, the Christmas lights, the pine-scented candles, the garland. Even ugly sweaters.

Besides supporting the retail experience, Watco assists with online shopping. When Amazon boxes show up on the doorstep, a couple of Watco locations are involved. On the Stillwater Central Railroad (SLWC) in Oklahoma, Watco moves paper that’s turned into Amazon boxes. In Idaho, the Burley Transload Terminal stores the boxes and ships them to fulfillment centers.

We need to mention the role of coal. Not because you’re getting some in your stocking. It’s because we haul this fuel from mines to power plants all over the country. Watco’s switching teams are busy in one of the larger coal producing areas, the Powder River Basin (Wyoming), loading coal to be railed out across the country. Many Watco terminals like Port Birmingham (Alabama) and Louisville River Road (Kentucky) handle coal, and so do railroads like the Birmingham Terminal Railway in Alabama and Kanawha River Railroad, operating in Ohio and West Virginia. Those are a few of the Watco locations helping bring electricity to homes hosting holiday gatherings.

Then there’s the food. Flavorful Christmas turkeys might’ve grown up eating grain carried by railroads like the Arkansas Southern. So might the chickens that laid the eggs for eggnog and for all the holiday cookie and pie baking. The flour on the kitchen counter might be from wheat that moved on the Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad; the sugar, on the Decatur & Eastern Illinois Railroad.

There’s butter in Burley, as well as potatoes for mashing or frying into latkes. The coffee drinkers who use artificial sweetener can appreciate the folks at the Phoenix Transload Terminal. And those who get into the holiday spirit with spirits can count on the Kaw River Railroad. It’s that time of year for fruitcake, so it’s a good thing the SLWC carries the makings for brandy and rum.

Many of those toys under the Christmas tree got their start as plastic pellets. The adhesive tape holding the gift wrap together is in the plastics family, too. So are the trash bags that come out at the end of the celebration. The Grand Elk, South Kansas & Oklahoma, and other railroads played a part in getting the pellets to manufacturing plants.

This holiday season, we acknowledge all of Santa’s helpers who had a hand behind the scenes. Your hard work not only keeps the supply chain moving but supplies families with basic needs and presents found underneath the tree. Thank you for all that you do.