Lake State Railway, TGS Cedar Port receive ASLRRA Business Development Awards
MINNEAPOLIS — Lake State Railway and TGS Cedar Port, a Texas industrial park which operates its own short line, were honored with Business Development Awards at the recent American Short Line and Regional Railroad annual conference.
Also honored on the conference’s final day was Gary Vaughn, recipient of the ASLRRA’s Schlosser Distinguished Service Award.
Lake State Railway was recognized for its work with customer Specification Stone Products in Alpena, Mich., the northeasternmost point on the railroad’s 375-mile system. The combination of 120 miles of 10-mph trackage to reach Alpena and an aging, unreliable railcar fleet was detrimental to the aggregates supplier, so the railroad used a series of Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement, or CRISI, grants to replace century-old, 85-pound stick rail with 115-pound continuous welded rail; obtain new railcars; and upgrade its locomotives. Infrastructure work also included installation of wayside defect detectors and a centralized traffic control island.
The railroad and Specification Stone also worked together to obtain grants from the Michigan Department of Transportation for infrastructure in Alpena and Burton, Mich., where the aggregates provider built a new distribution facility. The railroad expects stone shipments to increase significantly as a result.
Lake State’s award was its second of the conference; it had previously received the Green Spark Award for its environmental efforts [see “Individual safety winners honored …,” Trains.com, April 13, 2026].
TGS Cedar Port operates more than 100 miles of track at a 15,000-acre industrial park in Bayport, Texas, 30 miles east of Houston and served by BNSF Railway and Union Pacific. The company was recognized for developing a new facility bringing together a wide variety of rail services — including railcar cleaning, degassing, repairs, recertification, car storage, and transloading — in a single facility. For some customers, this eliminated the need for multiple car moves and separate servicing that could cost several thousand dollars. It also helped avoid service backlogs at other facilities.
TGS Cedar Port worked with local officials to facilitate the necessary development and permitting, then offered introductory pricing to bring in new customers. It has since cleaned more than 2,800 railcars and supported more than 3,000 related truck movements, and the services have helped provide new tenants to the industrial park.
“The project strengthened relationships with existing tenants, attracted new customers, and established Cedar Port as a critical service hub in the Gulf Coast petrochemical corridor,” said Nicholas Mayorga, who leads business development for parent company Trans-Global Solutions.
Schlosser Distinguished Service Award
Vaughn was honored for a career-long focus in safety that included lengthy service on the ASLRRA’s Safety & Training Committee, including time as its chairman.
“It’s the men and women of that committee and all the other association committees that deserve the recognition, not just me,” he told the April 14 general session at the convention.
Those members “built the templates that you member railroads use every day,” he said, rattling off a list of items such as operating practices, safety rules, track inspection procedures, and safety training programs. “All of these were built and finished by the Safety & Training committee.” He noted that many of the industry’s suppliers, as well as member railroads, made major contributions.
“To all the members past and present, especially of the committees that worked so hard, and especially the Safety & Training Committee, thank you for allowing me to be a part of this, and part of short line railroading at its best,” he said.
Beyond the ASLRRA, Vaughn was a voting member of the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Safety Advisory Committee; served on several FRA working groups to develop new regulations; was the first-ever short line chairman of the General Code of Operating Rules Committee; was on the executive board for Operation Lifesaver in Kansas and Oklahoma; and was part of the Short Line Safety Institute’s first board of directors. When the ASLRRA established its Safety Professional of the Year Award in 2010, Vaughn was the first recipient.
His railroading career began with Norfolk & Western while he was a student at the University of Michigan, then continued with N&W and Norfolk Southern before moving into the short line industry with RailTex and Rail America. He joined Watco as its safety director in 2003, and led the company’s improved safety records, restructuring its safety department and introducing safety education and awareness programs. He moved into an advisory role with Watco in 2015 and retired in 2019.
The award is named for former ASLRRA Chairman Thomas L. Schlosser. More on the award, including a list of prior winners, is available here.
