Conductor-Engineer Stands Out for Safety Suggestions

There’s one team member at Watco’s Wallula Switching in Washington who’s always coming up with safety suggestions: Conductor-Engineer Robert Murphy.

In fact, he’s known for coming up with at least one safety suggestion for each four-day rotation he works. One came to him by simply looking up.

“He looked up and noticed the gutter on the customer’s warehouse was overflowing with debris,” said Location Manager Travis Chamberlain. “His feedback has certainly helped strengthen our relationship with customers.”

In another instance, Murphy spoke up after he noticed truck drivers not stopping at the main railroad crossing near the customer’s entrance. After receiving Murphy’s feedback, the customer put in place a zero-tolerance policy for all drivers failing to stop.

Even on slow days, Murphy still finds a way to keep himself busy. He’s known for taking the site’s all-terrain vehicle out to find and pick up tripping hazards on the switching site.

Murphy’s work ethic is described by Chamberlain as: “No one has as much energy as he does. He works 12 hours straight and never complains, even if it’s minus 20 or 110 degrees outside.”

And just because he’s a steward of safety doesn’t mean he lacks a sense of humor. Prior to joining Watco in 2018, he worked as a security guard for one of the customers that Wallula Switching supports. He got to know the Watco team well and was even known for giving them mischief from time to time.

“Every time we would come into the customer facility, he told us we had to pay a toll - which was a bag of Reese’s Pieces,” Chamberlain recalls.