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ENTREPRENEURS-
July 2000 Feature Article R.J. Corman’s
Railroad Empire TO be the best service provider to railroad-related industries" is the stated vision of the R. J. Corman Railroad Company. One glance at its phenomenal growth will show the Jessamine County business to be going full steam right on that track, thanks to the vision and drive of its founder. When R. J. "Rick" Corman graduated from Jessamine County High School in 1973, he borrowed $5,000 from a local bank, bought a used dump truck and a backhoe and eventually landed a job with the L&N railroad. In 1999 the R. J. Corman Railroad Company became a $100 million enterprise with about 450 employees in more than a dozen states. The Nicholasville- based company’s holdings stretch from Albany, N.Y., south to Starke, Fla., west to Houston and north to Chicago. Though its most familiar division is probably My Old Kentucky Dinner Train, that Bardstown-based tourist attraction represents only a minuscule part of the business. The bulk is centered in its other divisions: material sales, railroad construction and equipment rental, derailment services, short line railroads, distribution centers and a superb "storm team." Charting a remarkable 20 to 25 percent growth per year, the privately-held firm expanded 27 percent last year and is on track to increase those figures in 2000. How a farm boy created this empire is the epitome of the American dream. Born about a mile from the house where he now lives in Jessamine County, Corman began learning his uncle Clay’s excavation business at 14. Spurning his late father and grandfather’s chosen vocation of farming, he began a lifelong affiliation with the railroad at age 17 in Toledo, Ohio. In 1981, when his dad gave him some Jessamine County land, Corman returned to Kentucky. In order to succeed, Rick Corman says, "you have to be willing to make sacrifices that nobody else (will) make." He should know. Early on, when working for the L&N, he’d leave Nicholasville at 1:30 a.m. to get to St. Louis by starting time, so as not to have to stay in a motel room "that cost $30 that I didn’t really have." He kept clothes in his pickup truck so he could sleep in it whenever necessary, worked hard constructing and taking up track, learning all about the railroad industry. Because no railroad construction job sites were close to Nicholasville, at 21 he bought and learned to fly his first helicopter. "The only person crazier than me," he laughs, "was the guy who loaned me the money to buy it...Bryan Risk, a famous banker from Jessamine County." Corman’s current five-passenger Bell 206 Jet Ranger is a mode of transportation he sometimes uses daily, and a seven-passenger 407 upgrade is on order. He’s already certified to pilot that one, too. From the company’s first foray into derailment services in 1983 in Columbus, Ohio, it now boasts 11 strategic derailment services sites from Pittsburgh to Houston. Though the media often describes the more disastrous derailments, the bulk are "housekeeping," i.e rerailing a car that has slipped off the tracks when being moved in a freight yard. When Congress began deregulating the railroad industry with the Staggers Act of 1984, larger railroads began to sell off small stretches of unprofitable rail line and farm out construction, maintenance, derailment cleanups and other costly jobs to smaller, specialized companies such as Corman’s. In 1987, he joined the ranks of railroad owners – an admitted turning point in his business – by purchasing a short line in the Bardstown area, where the next year he created My Old Kentucky Dinner Train, complete with a car used in President Eisenhower’s funeral train. When rail riders initially disdained catered meals in the beautifully-refurbished ’40s-era rail cars, Corman added a customized kitchen car, where today, corporate chef and General Manager Bob Perry turns out from-scratch gourmet spreads that feature to-die-for prime rib, baked lobster and crown roast of pork for daily runs and special on-board promotional fetes. Corman surrounds himself with focused, driven employees who can flourish in what he readily admits is an intense work environment. "We don’t accept complacency," he says. "That sounds ruthless, but there are a lot of places you can work where mediocrity’s okay. Not here." A charismatic leader with phenomenal energy, he’s a living example of that philosophy. In the ’70s and ’80s he headed up work crews himself, wielding a sledgehammer and a shovel, operating equipment, doing whatever needed to be done. Until 1990, when he hired aluminum industry executive Tom Hammerstone as executive vice president and general manager, Corman ran the company on a daily basis. Still its most visible figure and best salesman, he lets other executives tend to its needs, doing much of his business via voice mail. After Hammerstone passed away, Fred N. Mudge, 68, came aboard as chairman in 1999 to manage the company’s long-term needs. Former president and CEO of Logan Aluminum, Mudge served as the first secretary of the transportation cabinet under Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton. "Fred," chuckles Corman, "is trying to indoctrinate us into quality management." Daily demands are handled by R. J. Corman Company President and CEO Tammie L. Taylor, 40, who began as a secretary with the firm – at that time one train car and a shop – in Toledo 17 years ago, doing "whatever it took" along the way, occasionally even joining a work crew. What makes long-timers of many Corman employees, she explains, is the fact that he encourages self-motivation. One former dishwasher on the dinner train is now a locomotive engineer. "It’s a company you can really grow with," says Taylor, who, following Hammerstone’s lead, has been involved in the negotiation of two ground-breaking contracts to manage and distribute track materials for Conrail and CSX, deals that have spawned national and international interest. "The sky’s really the limit in this area," she says. Today, corporate headquarters, dedicated in 1986 and called Jay Station in honor of his dad, is a mile from Corman’s 700-acre Jessamine County farm. The 3,300-square-foot "depot-style" office building shares the property with a diesel engine and mini-dome railroad car, both of which house offices and are painted in the fleet colors of red and gray. His sister, Sandra Adams, is a company marketing executive. Trim and muscled
from daily running, Corman, 45, is a voracious reader and ballroom dancing
aficionado. "Like nearly all guys I know," he admits, "I
couldn’t dance." Now he takes lessons. Though he says he
hasn’t done much physical work the last year or two, that may not
be totally true. Turns out, he’s as likely to be in a Carhart jumpsuit
covered with mud as in his trademark scarlet blazer. "Much of the competition got into the business from a financial perspective," says Mudge, "With his hands-on background in the industry, Rick has an innate understanding of what it takes to get a job done in the railroad community. He knows what the typical railroader expects and needs." According to Mudge, the company is looking to three areas for future growth: increased construction and material sales, buying more short lines as they come available, and gradual expansion toward the West Coast. All of those goals should segue nicely with Corman’s desire to eventually build a larger office complex on his farm. If past performance holds true, all of the above probably will come to pass ahead of schedule.
Katherine Tandy Brown (kathybrown@lanereport.com) is a staff writer for The Lane Report.
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