Page 8 - November 2020 Track N Times

OPERATIONS UPDATES

Operational Excellence Coins

Congratulations to the following for being
recognized with an Operational Excellence
Director’s Coin for the Second Quarter.

Justin Putman, Machine Operator-2, RG417 was nominated by Scott Diercks for the Directors Coin
Rail Grinding for Quarter 2, 2020

Justin Putman (center) receiving his
Directors coin from Supervisor Brett
Trower and Assistant Manager Sam-
my Pickett.

If you have ever had the pleasure of meeting Justin Putman, otherwise known as half mile, you would know right away how much he
enjoys operating. As the primary operator of RG417 you can find him sitting in the operator’s chair most days, calling out mile post after
mile post, while adding pass miles to the odometer. Sixty, seventy, and eighty-mile days don’t get Justin excited as much these days as the
one hundred-mile days, but he treats every single day the same when he is in the chair. Attention to detail, machine control, and safe op-
erating are always consistent whether it is the first hour of his first day back at work after time off, or the last shift of the year before
shutdown.
In 2020 alone, Justin stopped RG417 short of misaligned switches on four separate occasions! Each occasion he stopped short he pro-
tected the equipment, the customers property, and most importantly kept his crew safe. Justin utilizes the Know Before You Go stand-
ards of Loram’s life changing decisions every time he is operating, and it was crystal clear these standards were used on each one of these
incidents. While these close calls were just another day at the office for Justin, it is apparent that when he is in the operators seat the
Norfolk Southern Railroad and crew of RG417 are in good hands.
An operator like Justin does not come along very often, and because of this he deserves recognition as being the recipient of the Direc-
tors coin of Excellence. Justin lives the ICARE values day in and day out, and every time he steps foot on a grinder, he brings his A
game. We are all incredibly proud of Justin for his efforts, and Loram is lucky to have him part of the team, and especially in the opera-
tor’s seat. Let’s all show Justin the appreciation and gratitude that he deserves and wish him the best of luck for the rest of 2020 and be-
yond! Great job Half Mile!

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