New Century AirCenter Railroad (JCAX) provides rail switching services within the New Century AirCenter business park in Johnson County,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

. Clients include Altiras Chemical LLC, CFS Sauer Foods Inc., IFF Nutrition and Health, deElliotte Company Inc., Steel and Pipe Supply Company Inc., Cedar Creek LLC, Wausau Supply and JBS Swift.

History

The initial rail lines were installed by the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

when it operated what was then the

Naval Air Station Olathe Naval Air Station Olathe is a former United States Navy base located in Gardner, Kansas. On its grounds at one point was Olathe Air Force Station. After it was closed, it was redeveloped into New Century AirCenter. History Navy use The base o ...

. The Navy ceased flight operations at the location in the late 1960s, and by November, 1973, The Johnson County Airport Commission took over operation. When the Commission opened a business park on some of the land, the plan was to let the connecting railroad, at that time the Santa Fe, use those rail lines to service industrial facilities within the park. However, the railroad declined to use the track, due to sharp turns and the overall poor condition of the rails. The New Century AirCenter Railroad was born when the Commission bought its own

switch engine A switcher, shunter, yard pilot, switch engine, yard goat, or shifter is a small railroad locomotive used for manoeuvring railroad cars inside a rail yard in a process known as ''switching'' (US) or ''shunting'' (UK). Switchers are not inten ...

, an Army surplus General Electric 80-ton, and provided the service between the businesses and the Santa Fe pickup point. The commission has since made improvements, such as replacing the GE switcher with a rebuilt-to-order

EMD SW8 The EMD SW8 is a diesel switcher locomotive manufactured by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel between September 1950 and February 1954. Power is supplied by an EMD 567B 8-cylinder engine, for a total of . A total o ...

, performing more track maintenance, and adding a ladder track for additional storage capacity. Spurs to new businesses have typically been installed by those businesses as part of the initial construction of their facilities. The line interchanges with

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

, and the park is a BNSF Certified Site.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Century AirCenter Railroad Kansas railroads