National Hardwood Magazine - Christmas 2022

Deborah Corallo RTA Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Director; Nate Irby, Ph.D. RTA Executive Director; Barbara Stacey RTA Director of Communications
2022 Railway Tie Association Members’ Only Field Trip Summary
Railway Tie Association Membership
Brings Value To Hardwood Suppliers
Vicksburg, MS–The goal of the Railway Tie Association
(RTA), headquartered here, is to promote
the economical and environmentally sound use
of wood crossties. The RTA is involved in research into
crosstie design and ongoing activities dealing with sustainable
forest management, including conservation of
timber resources, timber processing, wood preservation,
environmentally sound used tie disposal, and safety of
industry workers. The Association's mission statement
is: “Our mission since 1919 has been to ensure that the
engineered wood crosstie system continues to evolve
and improve in order to remain cost-effective and to
By Terry Miller
meet the ever-changing requirements of track systems
around the world.”
Many Hardwood sawmills have crosstie customers,
and those customers are members of the RTA. “A membership
with the RTA can bring new business, new information
and networking opportunities,” Executive Director
of the RTA, Nate Irby said. “I treasure the opportunity
to be part of the RTA because this is not only a very
symbolic thing, it’s good for our community as a whole.
When I talk about our community, I mean that broadly
and not just in RTA or the crosstie world but the Hardwood
industry at large. Softwoods are becoming a part
“We have represented and have been an advocate for the wood crosstie for over a hundred
years. Yet, we still have room to grow. We can grow in the sawmill sector and the railroad
sector. We have great producer members that are part of the treating community, tie processing
community, etc. but if we don’t have more of the raw material producers and more
of the end-users all being a part and contributing, as well as participating in our events and
the RTA at large, we are underserving the masses.”
- Nate Irby, Executive Director, RTA
Matthew Netterville, Fred Netterville Lumber Co. and Executive Committee
Member Railway Tie Association; and Nate Irby, Executive Director
Railway Tie Association
of the crosstie industry now too. For instance, when I
worked at Union Pacific, there was a good bit of bridge
timbers that are southern yellow pine and Douglas-fir.”
Irby said the target RTA member is anyone in the forest
products industry. “We have a lot of our wood basket
representatives from sawmills in the east and southeastern
part of the country, but we also have operators in
the west and Canada,” he explained. “Many of the big
treaters have locations across the country, and we also
have some international members. Predominately our
Canadian members are equipment manufacturers or
some type of ancillary or supplemental service or have
some forte in some type of technology that somehow
serves our industry, but we are primarily based in North
America. Canadian Pacific and Canadian National, two
Please turn to page 54
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