AMERICAN RAILROAD INDUSTRIES: RIGHT ON TRACK

JACKSON, Mo. -- St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway excursion trains are a regular sight in Jackson during the warm months. Lesser known is a Jackson company that keeps railcars running throughout the United States.

American Railcar Industries at 1305 Lenco Ave., makes parts for hopper cars and tanker cars, the workhorses of the railroad industry. The parts range from 1-ounce valves to parts that weigh thousands of pounds.

Hitches for hauling semis and hand holds are among between 10,000 and 11,000 different parts handled at the Jackson plant, 6,000 of which are manufactured at the plant itself.

One of ARI's prime products is the aluminum outlets that enable plastic pellets carried by hopper cars to be unloaded through a pneumatic tube. ARI is one of the largest users of aluminum in the Midwest.

Furnaces blasting at 2,400 degrees treat 45,000 pounds of steel a day. Machinists working at computerized equipment make valves under stringent quality controls because toxic substances very often flow through the valves.

One powerful press used to manufacture different metal parts exerts 440 tons of force.

Railcars main business

Most railcars are privately owned or are leased by companies that need to transport their products. One of the primary uses of hopper cars these days is for transporting the plastic pellets used to manufacture all kinds of goods. Tanker cars can transport anything liquid from chlorine to Jack Daniels whiskey.

Though railcars are ARI's primary business, they aren't their only business. Griddles for Taco Bell restaurants are among the custom products made at the Jackson plant.

The Jackson company started operation in 1985 with about 20 workers and now employs 150 welders, machinists and fabricators in three shifts. It ships parts for railcars all over the United States and Canada.

Brian Blankenship, the plant manager, is a Southeast graduate who has been with the company since the plant opened. He says ARI built the plant in Jackson because the city is a central location between the East Coast and Texas, both of which have heavy railroad concentrations.

ARI started in 1994

ARI is an affiliate of ACF Industries, which was formed in 1899 when 13 Northeastern and Midwestern railroad equipment manufacturers merged. The company diversified throughout the 20th century, producing military supplies during both world wars, carburetors, buses and even yachts. In 1994, ACF formed ARI as a complementary component company.

ARI has 22 other facilities throughout the United States and Canada. The Jackson plant is a component plant. ARI assembles the railcars it makes at plants in Paragould and Marmaduke, Ark.

Ironically, when the time comes to ship the parts it makes to other ARI plants or to industrial buyers, ARI uses trucks instead of rail. That's because rail lends itself more usefully to large shipments and long lead times. ARI most often is shipping small amounts and needs to do so quickly.

As the economy has slowed and interest rates have risen, railcar production has slowed some. When other industries feel economic pressures, the rail industry is affected, and that is occurring now, Blankenship said.

"When manufacturing is down, shipments are down," he said.

So far, no layoffs have resulted.