Short lines and stones: How DeFeo Materials started — and succeeded — in shipping by rail
1/30/2025
By Bridget Dean, Associate Editor
In less than a decade, Christopher DeFeo has taken his company from a one-truck subcontractor to an aggregate supply firm with a fleet of 96 leased rail cars that ship to two transloading locations, plus a quarry.
It wasn’t easy to pull off, as DeFeo probably would tell anyone who asks. The DeFeo Materials LLC story serves as a reminder that shipping by rail can require a hefty dose of risk and an ability to develop strong partnerships.
“One of the biggest challenges in getting started with the railroad industry is learning the language,” he says. “It’s an old-school industry where everyone in the industry knows everyone.”
Rail wasn’t quite on the shipping-option radar option for DeFeo when he formed his company in 2016. The company, which had fewer than 10 employees in its early days, hauled bulk stone and aggregates via truck for two years.
But hauling rock one way and driving an empty truck back wasn’t the most efficient use of diesel — or time. In 2018, DeFeo switched to selling and distributing landscaping and decorative stone products and set up its first yard in Middleton, New York.
As demand for their decorative stone products grew, DeFeo Materials was struggling to ship enough decorative stone to keep up with demand. DeFeo decided he needed to expand his shipping options.
At first, DeFeo struggled to find information online about what railroads’ capacities are to load and unload different products. He also had to learn what the different classes of railroads are, and which would be best suited to his company’s needs. DeFeo’s first instinct was to call CSX; after reaching out, he was told to send the Class I an email with more information about his shipping needs.
The aggregate and decorative stone company formed a successful partnership with the Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern Railroad. DeFeo Materials“They said, ‘You have to submit an email ... with your information.’ I don’t think I ever heard back,” DeFeo says.
Unsure how to proceed, DeFeo and his team traced a nearby railroad track on Google Maps to its origin point, Genesee Valley Transportation Co.’s Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern Railroad (MHWA).
The short line’s salespeople were extremely helpful, DeFeo says. They taught DeFeo about the language and elements of rail shipping. His team visited a Utica, New York, MHWA site in February 2020, where the company has since based its operations. Two months later, DeFeo Materials had shipped its first rail car filled with decorative stone out of Utica to a site in Oakboro, North Carolina, where the Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway provided transloading services.
“The MHWA was the key factor with what help they gave us. They allowed us to load the rail cars with their equipment and assisted us in every way possible,” says DeFeo. MHWA even let DeFeo Materials utilize, at no cost, an acre to help them get started. “We have put three-quarters of $1 million into this property that we don’t own.”
MHWA also got DeFeo in touch with CSX, this time successfully.
DeFeo Materials started with six CSX system cars to ship its products. What DeFeo didn’t anticipate was the unpredictable timing of car drop-offs, railroad insurance requirements or having to clean the cars manually. Using the CSX system cars was an important lesson for DeFeo Materials in how railroads do business.
“The success of a company growing really depends on the Class I reps,” DeFeo says, crediting CSX’s Regional Sales Manager Gideon Jenkins. “We got set up with CSX in a month.”
For some smaller companies, one of the challenges of shipping via rail can be having the capital to pay for services up front while still waiting for whatever profit there is to roll in, Defeo says. For example, DeFeo Materials had to open a line of credit, since leased car charges would come about 18 days after shipping a product, but profits from the shipped products wouldn’t be available for up to 90 days.
And then there was the challenge of finding a transloading company and a site to ship to. By 2022, the company needed a second location to ship and store its rock. Following two unsuccessful partnerships, the company landed at the Bailey Feed Mill in Selma, North Carolina, in March 2023. Also in 2023, DeFeo Materials, in partnership with Apex Concrete and Asphalt, took over transloading at the Oakboro site from the Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway. DeFeo’s team was more efficient at loading than the railroad, he says.
“The key point is that you need to find the right transloading partner,” he says. “[Bailey Feed Mill] will invest their own money. They will invest in being able to handle what your needs are.”
DeFeo Materials ships out of the Utica, New York, site, where it has centered operations since 2020. DeFeo MaterialsWith the Utica, Oakboro and Selma sites operating smoothly, DeFeo Materials began expanding its fleet of leased cars over the next several years, culminating at 96 in to date — a significant jump from the six CSX system cars DeFeo started with in 2020.
Most recently, DeFeo Materials began leasing ballast cars, allowing for quicker unloading of sand and gravel. The cars have the added benefit of being easier to unload at transloading sites with different types of equipment.
For DeFeo, shipping via rail has been efficient and profitable, but a few challenges remain. The connections he made early on with the short lines and CSX officials helped him get the ball rolling quickly. However, it still can be difficult to get in contact with people, even several years in, he says. When he does, it's typically through those original connections.
“[The rail industry is] not modernizing or being progressive enough in the ways that they do business,” says DeFeo, expressing frustration about the lack of standardized procedures between railroads and how difficult it can be to get in contact with companies without knowing anyone. DeFeo says he hears the same frustrations from people well established in the industry.
In the meantime, DeFeo plans to expand his company’s operations this year, and to continue shipping by rail. He and his team have been thrown plenty of curveballs during the past five years working with railroads — from having to switch transloading locations to navigating the unpredictable schedule of system cars. Along the way, DeFeo says he’s learned to “expect the unexpected” — and that the logistics and cost benefits of shipping by rail vs. truck are undeniable.
“It’s way more efficient,” DeFeo says. “Per year, you know [what is] going to be your cost.”
