Team Provides Instruction on Building, Maintaining Track

The Watco Safe Performance Center (SPC) in Birmingham, Alabama, provides safety instruction for locomotive engineers and conductors, team members working in maintenance of way (MOW), and those working in railcar repair, as well as other safety and leadership training for all of Watco. This is the final of three articles introducing the Watco SPC trainers. This time, it’s the four who are in the group called engineering and safety training.

Engineering. For SPC trainers, it refers to railroad track. Not to be confused with locomotive engineers or the engineers working in Design and Development, the SPC engineering and safety trainers instruct track laborers, inspectors, and other team members who safely build - or engineer - track and maintain it for Watco and some of our customers.

Mike Milligan

Mike Milligan, (above, center) senior manager of engineering safety & training, heads up a group of three managers. He and Josh Lathum teach new team members the classes that make up a two-week engineering ground school, anchored by Roadway Worker Protection training. In addition, they cover key sections of the General Code of Operating Rules, bridge worker safety, the fundamentals of basic track maintenance, railroad handbooks, and other applicable material.

Milligan also oversees the computer-based training for the 300 to 500 MOW contractors who work on Watco properties annually. In addition, he travels to Watco railroads — mostly those located east of the Mississippi — to provide two-day, annual refresher courses that are condensed versions of the two-week ground school taught in Birmingham.

He likes the opportunity to follow up with students with instructor-led training in the field. “They come to Birmingham for two weeks, and it’s nice to be able to go back to (their) locations ... A year later, you’re seeing that team member you trained and seeing what they retained through the course.” Milligan said.

Milligan has spent 15 years with Watco. He was a track laborer, operator, and supervisor at the Birmingham Terminal Railway (BHRR) before joining the safety training group in 2015.

Josh Lathum

Josh Lathum is based in Alabama at the Safe Performance Center and teaches two-day refresher courses, traveling to 15 railroads in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. He has been with Watco since 2012 and on the safety team since 2021. Lathum says training new people in past supervisory roles with Watco’s BHRR and Alabama Southern Railroad, and at a Genesee & Wyoming railroad, contribute to his ability to train today.

Josh Roberts

Josh Roberts lives in Washington state and provides the annual refresher for team members at 12 railroads and several of Watco’s dedicated terminals and marine terminals, in 13 mostly-western states. In addition, he travels to Watco properties to teach new and experienced track inspectors.

Roberts has been with Watco since 2013, first as a MOW laborer and later a track inspector. He began his Watco safety role in 2021, but his safety experience goes back to being on the safety steering committee with prior employer, Hilex.

Cody Mobley

Cody Mobley (above, left) is new to the Birmingham-based safety team, since transferring in early April to the SPC from the BHRR, where he worked for 9 ½ years. For the last several of those, he’d overseen track maintenance for the railroad’s largest customer. In addition, Mobley has traveled as a Go Teamer as needed at Watco locations. Watco recently became qualified to train team members seeking their commercial driver license (CDL), and Mobley is working with Lathum to develop a CDL training module. In addition, he’ll help at the SPC and at field locations with contractor training.