Founded in January 1987
NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. (June 12, 2017) — R. J. Corman Railroad Company, LLC is commemorating its 30th anniversary. In January 1987, R. J. Corman’s founder, Rick Corman, began the company with the acquisition of the Bardstown Line. In August of 1987, he purchased a second 100-mile short line, the Memphis Line, which operates from Clarksville, Tenn. to Bowling Green.
R. J. Corman operates 11 short line companies in nine states totaling nearly 1,000 miles of track. The largest railroad in the R. J. Corman system is the Pennsylvania Lines, consisting of 243 miles of track which run through the ridges and valleys of north central Pennsylvania. R. J. Corman also operates the Tennessee Terminal Railroad, which interchanges with BNSF Railway in Memphis.
R. J. Corman’s Central Kentucky Lines consist of nearly 150 miles track running from Lexington to Louisville. These lines service 31 customers and interchange with CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern. In August 2015, R. J. Corman purchased a 78-mile railroad in North and South Carolina and leased 14 connecting miles from Horry County, S.C., for which they received all necessary Surface Transportation Board authority to begin operations on the lines. Last year, R. J. Corman was awarded a USDOT TIGER VIII grant to carry out an extensive rehabilitation project on this railroad.
R. J. Corman Railroad Company moved more than 60,000 railcars in 2016. The company owns more than 100 locomotives across their railroads, as well as approximately 475 railcars. An in-house engineering department performs all required track inspections and maintenance on R. J. Corman’s short line railroads. An additional team of mechanics is responsible for all of the regular maintenance and upkeep associated with the company’s fleet of locomotives. In the past six years, R. J. Corman completed over $55 million in capital improvements, including the replacement of 310,000 ties across their short line properties.
R. J. Corman Railroad Company, LLC, a holding company for 11 short line railroads, is a subsidiary of R. J. Corman Railroad Group, LLC which altogether employs more than 1,500 people in 23 states. Their other companies provide a myriad of services to the railroad industry including industrial railcar switching, emergency response, track material distribution, track construction and rehabilitation, signal design and construction, railroad worker training, and building eco-friendly locomotives.
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