PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCSR), owned by Kansas City Southern, is the third-oldest Class I railroad in North America still in operation. KCS was founded in 1887.

At the time Black & McDonald (B&M) took on the project KCS covered a region consisting of ten central U.S. states. KCS also owned and indirectly operated Kansas City Southern de Mexico in the central and northeastern states of Mexico and is the only Class I Railroad to own any track both inside and outside of Mexico’s boundaries. Including all trackage owned by wholly-owned subsidiaries, KCS owns a total of approximately 6,000 route miles of track.

B&M SCOPE OF WORK

B&M was contracted by Kansas City Southern to retrofit a set amount of metal halide light fixtures. This project would fall under the Kansas City Power & Light rebate program that would result in a substantial windfall given to Kansas City Southern because they performed upgrades converting older, less efficient lights to more state-of-the-art LED lights. This project included but was not limited to bollard, driveway, walkway, courtyard, flag pole, building exterior and interior lobby lighting.

BENEFITS TO THE CLIENT AND PROBLEMS SOLVED

The most unique lighting retrofit was the exterior fixtures on the KC Southern meeting room, which is a refurbished train car used for business meetings. This project required a day-by-day work schedule making sure that no lights were left unlit at night. Some elevated work platforms were used to get to high locations such as the 28 ft. driveway pole lights. Surge suppressors were also installed to protect the LED lighting from unforeseen power surges.