Railway Track & Structures’ Editorial Board

Guiding RT&S Into a New Era

By David C. Lester, Editor-in-Chief

As I outlined in this month’s “Editor’s Notebook,” we are very pleased to announce the Railway Track & Structures’ Editorial Board. This distinguished group of engineers and consultants will provide overall guidance and counsel to improve the publication, strengthen the editorial content, and help all RT&S media outlets become more useful to the railroad maintenance-of-way and engineering sectors.

Membership on our Editorial Board is not simply an honorary position. Each member was invited to serve and is charged with providing regular feedback, advice, and suggestions for material in both print and digital form. There will be continuous communication throughout the year and our Managing Editor, Jennifer McLawhorn and I will formally meet with the Board twice each year. In addition, each member has been asked to prepare one original article for the magazine each year.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce our Editorial Board:

Dr. David B. Clarke is a civil engineer specializing in transportation, with a particular emphasis on railways. His career experience includes engineering, education, research, and management. David spent over 30 years in academia, with the final 12 years as Director of the University of Tennessee Center for Transportation Research. As Director Emeritus, he continues to teach railroad engineering and operations at the college level (undergraduate and graduate) and through workshops targeting working professionals. David’s rail research activities focused on line and terminal capacity, rail network performance, intermodal transportation, rail costing, railway safety, and track behavior. He served as the UT lead for the U.S. Department of Transportation funded National University Rail Center (NURail), a consortium of seven universities led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

During his time in academia, David, a licensed professional engineer, started and maintained a part-time consulting practice that continues to the present. Through this work, he has gained extensive practical experience in railway operations and engineering. His work includes track design, track and bridge inspection, construction planning and management, and rehabilitation planning. David is a life member of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He is active in railroad committees in AREMA, ASCE, and the Transportation Research Board (TRB). He chaired TRB Committee AR040, “Rail Freight Transport” and the ASCE Rail Transportation Committee.

Brad Kerchof started his railroad career with Conrail in 1977. Significant assignments included division engineer in Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, as well as an 18-month tour at TTC, in Pueblo, Colo., as an industry exchange engineer. When CSX and Norfolk Southern split Conrail, in 1999, Brad transferred to NS and moved to Birmingham, Ala. as division engineer. His final position with NS was as Director – Research & Tests. Since retiring from NS in 2019, Brad has remained active in the industry, working for Advanced Rail Management, writing for Trains and RT&S and continuing as a regular presenter the Wheel-Rail Interface conference. Brad has a BSCE from the University of Virginia and is a registered Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania.

Bill Riehl is G&W’s Chief Engineer

Structures where he is responsible for overall structure safety management for the more than 10,000 track carrying structures and tunnels owned and operated by the G&W family of railroads in North America. A Structural Engineering graduate of the Pennsylvania State University in 1987, he worked several positions with railroad consultants, contractors, shortline and regional railroads including Florida East Coast Railway and RailAmerica. Along the way, he earned a Master of Science in

Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida in 2003.

Bill is a licensed professional engineer in Florida, Ohio and Wyoming. He currently is the AREMA Structures Functional Group Vice President and is a member of the Conference Operating Committee, Committee 7 – Timber Structures and Committee 24 –Education and Training, and is the incoming AREMA Senior Vice President. He is also a Fellow in the Society of American Military Engineers.

Scott Sandoval is the Director, Engineering Testing and Compliance. at G&W. Scott oversees G&W’s track testing programs with focus on rail flaw, geometry and tie grading for all 110+ short line and regional railroads. Scott began his railroad career with Norfolk Southern in 2012 as a Management Trainee and held various roles of increasing responsibility within the engineering department. In 2014, he joined G&W as a Manager of Track. Since joining G&W, Scott has continued his growth within the engineering department bringing him to his current role. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Florida.

Bob Tuzik is principal of Talus Associates, railway marketing and consulting, and Executive Program Manager for Wheel-Rail Seminars, which produces the annual Wheel/Rail Interaction conference. He began his railway career in the Operating Department of the former Santa Fe Railway in Chicago, working in various positions from switchman to supervisor of operations over a dozen years.

He is the former editor of Railway Track and Structures and former engineering editor of Railway Age . He has also written for International Railway Journal, Trains, Mass Transit, and contributed to the Encyclopedia of North American Railroads . He currently publishes Interface , the Journal of Wheel/Rail Interaction, an online journal that provides in-depth coverage of issues and developments relating to vehi - cle/track interaction.

Beyond his railway and journalism experience, Bob has held senior management positions at track-related railway supply companies, service providers, track-maintenance software development, data collection and analysis providers, and as an independent consultant.

Bob’s perspective, gained as a railroader, supplier, consultant, program manager, railway-engineering writer, and editor, informs the projects in which he participates.

Gary Wolf began his career as an Industrial Engineer with Southern Railway in Atlanta in 1973. He moved into positions of increasing responsibility within the engineering department at Southern, then Norfolk Southern, until 1987, when he left the railroad to start TUV-RAIL Sciences in Atlanta, an independent consulting firm specializing in the application of advance analytical techniques for the solution of railway operational problems. In 2013, Wolf founded Wolf Railway Consulting, LLC, in Atlanta, an independent consulting firm specializing in train and vehicle dynamics, especially train accident and incident investigation. Wolf’s practice also includes teaching training seminars for derailment investigation, track maintenance and inspection (213), event recorder analysis, and mechanical inspections.

Gary holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and an M.S. in Industrial Management from Georgia Tech in Atlanta. He serves as a regular presenter at the Wheel-Rail Interface conference, and is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (also serves on General Committee), American Railway Engineering and Maintenance Association (AREMA), the Air Brake Association, and the International Association of Railway Operating Officers, serving as a Regional Consultant and Vice President, and served a stint as President of the Organization, elected in 2006.

By Je Tuzik