
Trainmaster Improves Efficiencies on the Mississippi Southern Railroad
FEBRUARY 2025 一 There’s a lot of logistics involved in keeping a short line railroad running efficiently.
Thankfully at Watco’s Mississippi Southern Railroad (MSR), Trainmaster Justin Dempsey is a pro at streamlining operations. Since he was promoted from conductor/engineer to trainmaster in 2023, he’s improved processes that keeps rail inventory low and reduces costs.
This methodology ultimately improves railcar velocity, also known as the total time it takes to move a railcar from origin to destination, on the line. MSR General Manager Michael Goss said: “This solution is all Justin. He took the bull by the horns and came up with a plan that improves customer service, reduces extraneous charges, and keeps the supply chain moving.”
So how did he do it? To start, Dempsey looked at past and current railcar inventory to examine car flow and identify unnecessary bottlenecks. He sought assistance on how to optimize traffic on the MSR from Railcar Revenue Specialist Joely Gath, who he works closely with to this day.
After understanding the intricacies of rail traffic on the MSR, Dempsey came up with a new way to organize railcars in the yard: spotting cars by wanted dates. Then he met with conductors/engineers to show them the new way to set railcars on-site.
Finally, he met with customers of the MSR to help them evaluate how many railcars are necessary to order without clogging the line.
The MSR now averages three days to move railcars from the starting point to the interchange. This is a tight time window, given that the short line track stretches over 150 miles.
Gath said, “Justin is one of the most proactive people I work with. He keeps railcars moving for the customer. And as a result, the MSR has as little car hire expenses as possible.”