PITTSBURG — A Montgomery County native who was regarded as a pioneer in the modern short-line railroad industry has died.
Charles R. “Dick” Webb, the founder and chairman of the Watco Companies, died Monday, March 23, in a Kansas City, Kan., medical center following a battle with lung cancer. He was 70.
“Dick was recognized statewide as a successful community and business leader,” Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement Monday. “This is truly a loss for our entire state.”
Born in Independence in 1938 and raised in Pittsburg, Webb entered the railroad industry in 1983 with the creation of Watco Companies. The company started from his family kitchen table, where a few employees created a rail switching operation in DeRidder, La., and started a railcar repair shop in Coffeyville.
A bigger jump into the railroad industry took place in 1990 when Webb acquired the portion of the Santa Fe Railroad line that served southeast Kansas and northeast Oklahoma. The center point of that railroad line — which Webb would rename the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad — was the Santa Fe Depot located in Cherryvale. When Webb bought the railroad and depot in 1990, the depot was in a state of extensive dilapidation. However, the Webb family, along with Cherryvale volunteers, led a charge to preserve the depot, which was finally restored to its original ambiance in about 1991.
That depot served as the headquarters for the Cherryvale Chamber of Commerce, the Cherryvale Main Street Association and the Neosho Valley Model Railroad Club before the SKO Railroad located its business offices to the facility.
Over the years, the Webb family acquired more short-line railroads as the nation’s biggest rail corporations began to dissolve branch lines or merge with other companies. At the time of his death, Webb’s Watco Companies operated 3,900 miles of track, 20 short-line rail roads, 22 switching locations, 14 mechanical shops, 18 mobile mechanical repair locations, and 11 transload and intermodal locations. Watco continues to operate in 26 states with a payroll of 2,000 employees.
Watco Companies is the third-largest short-line railroad corporation in the United States.
Cherryvale remains at the hub of the Webb rail empire in southeast Kansas, serving as the central shipping area not only for the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad but also the Kansas Eastern Railroad, which formerly was the Burlington Northern and Frisco railroad companies.
Webb was the recipient of a lung transplant in 2000, which allowed him to find new life in the company that he started from his family kitchen some 17 years prior.
“He thought that he’d missed 10 years of work and he wanted to make it up after he got the transplant, and he did,” said son Rick Webb in an interview with the Pittsburg Morning Sun. “For the past five years, he worked as hard as ever.”
Rosary will be recited at 6 p.m., today (Thursday) at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Pittsburg with visitation until 8 p.m., followed by a reception at Watco. Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m., Friday, March 27, at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, with burial in Highland Park Cemetery. Additional information will be announced by Brenner Mortuary.
