Power Player – December 2025

 Chad Crum

Senior Lean Repairman in Paris, KY

Congratulations to our December Power Player, Chad Crum!

Chad’s superpower is his innovation. As a Senior Lead Repairman, he’s known for creating processes and tools to simplify workloads for his associates — some of which clients have adopted at their own shops to improve efficiency! He takes initiative to ensure the safety of his fellow associates, and keeps both company and customer needs in mind while tackling new challenges.

Joseph Riley had plenty to say when nominating Chad for Power Player. In his own words, “Chad is consistently thinking of innovative ways to make his workplace safer and more efficient, while keeping the needs of our business and associates at the forefront. A good example that comes to mind is a situation where we had begun a project repairing the channeling of the end bulkheads on “bulkhead” flat railcars for TTX. These cars showed up with the channeling severely bent. The customer did not want these channels replaced. The time charged to heat and straighten was deemed unreasonable by the car owner. In facing this problem, Chad utilized his prior experience of industrial welding and metal fabrication to create a jig. This jig could be utilized with a forklift/telehandler to straighten the channeling effortlessly. This method allowed associates to be a safe distance from the area, removing them from possible hazards and reducing the effort needed to repeatedly mount and dismount the cars to make repairs. This process cut the actual repair time in half, allowing our team to address other issues and increase efficiency. In addition to the obvious safety and efficiency resolutions, this has also saved the organization thousands in consumable costs. TTX was so impressed by this, they have begun utilizing a similar design at their own facilities.”

That’s the kind of take-charge, innovative attitude that makes up the core of Road & Rail Services. Congratulations, Chad!