By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
Earlier this year, Justin Chalich stepped down as president of Northern Lines Railway (NLR).
He had served the St. Cloud, Minnesota-based short line — which is owned by Anacostia Rail Holdings — since it was launched in April 2005. Chalich served stints as manager of maintenance and operations and general manager before becoming president in September 2011.
After losing NLR’s longtime leader and contributor, Anacostia needed to find a worthy successor to Chalich to ensure the 25-mile, central Minnesota short line continued to grow and prosper. That new leader turned out to be someone who had just joined Anacostia/NLR in January 2023 and had never held a GM position before: Quentin Schulte.
He had only served NLR a few months as operations manager when he was named the short line’s GM. Schule, 45, took the reins as NLR’s leader in May.
He previously spent nearly 18 years at BNSF Railway Co., starting as a switchman and later serving stints as a conductor, yard master and engineer.
“I got entrenched in being a yard master to see the bigger picture. As an engineer, it was a great experience to see how important rules are and why the rule book has to be as large as it is,” says Schulte.
He then became a trainmaster. Although Schulte was trying to advance his career at BNSF, he reached a point last year when he realized a clearer path was needed — and likely elsewhere — to move up.
NRL operates 25 miles of track, interchanges with BNSF, has six employees and serves 20 customers. Anacostia Rail Holdings/Northern Lines Railway “At BNSF, the candidate pool is so huge so it’s harder to advance,” says Schulte. “It’s hard to shine in a position when you have to shine so brightly.”
So, he decided to leave BNSF. Schulte at the same time applied for an operations position at Anacostia/NLR and a dispatching position at Metro Transit in Minneapolis. He heard back from Metro Transit first, so he joined the light-rail transit provider and then spent eight months trying to drink in all the aspects of its organization.
“I was going to go through their learning process. But then I heard from Anacostia,” says Schulte.
The short-line holding company needed an operations manager for NLR. Schulte was interested in the position because he had “heard great things” about Anacostia, he says.
Things such as that the company works hard on its environmental impacts. Schulte cites as an example Anacostia’s Pacific Harbor Line Inc., which is converting its entire locomotive fleet to more environmentally friendly Tier 3 units.
In addition, “you're not just a number” at a company such as Anacostia.
“That’s a huge draw,” says Schulte.
NLR handles about 10,000 carloads annually, interchanges with BNSF and provides industrial development, industrial and interchange switching, and transloading services.
Anacostia leaders were interested in Schulte’s Class I experience and ties to BNSF, and were intrigued by some operational improvements that had been made at NRL under his short watch.
Still, it was a surprise that he was under consideration for the GM post — and that Chalich had left — while his learning process at Anacostia was underway only a short time, Schulte says.
What he’s discovered and been encouraged by since joining NRL is how a short line serves as the face of a customer and acts in a more personable way.
“It’s a different world than at a Class I. You're in the customer relationship role,” says Schulte. “And here, I get to work with some old friends from BNSF on different levels.”
He believes his objectives and Anacostia’s goals are aligned: to ensure NLR continues to remain fluid, build customer relationships and improve service performance.
Schulte’s first order of business as GM was emphasizing fluidity and safety. His goals: to ensure NLR’s 20 customers can keep their inventory stocked (per the former) and help the railroad’s six employees maintain what’s been a stellar safety record (per the latter).
“We have only had one injury in 11 years,” says Schulte. “We want to keep improving safety, and don’t relax on rules.”
He also wants the short line to help grow the job market in St. Cloud, which is a rural area.
“But we need the customer base to do that,” says Schulte.
NLR’s traffic is up a tad in 2023 and the same outcome is anticipated in 2024. The short line’s primary traffic drivers are cement, fly ash, shingles, building materials, propane for heating and ballast produced in a nearby rock quarry.
“Traffic is ‘flat-ish,’ so we need to work on that,” says Schulte. “We could do a little more transloading.”
