RABO BIO: RAY CRAMER GABLER By Geoff Fuller

Ray Gabler was born December 22, 1941, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, the youngest of three sons. Ray’s parents were both elementary school teachers in small town USA. They taught elementary school for all of their adult years; his mother took some time off to raise her three sons. Ray’s father was promoted to the dual role of Teacher/Principal. 

Scholastic disciplines were instilled into Ray throughout his formative childhood years. He had little choice but to excel in his studies, given Ray’s parental models. Ray was reared in a close knit, religious family. Ray’s lifelong attraction to music was spawned in his home and church. His childhood was normal; piano lessons, Little League Baseball and some high school football but he remembers loving railroads from a very young age. Ray is one of few people who would consider the rigors and stick-to-itiveness required of piano lessons as a “normal” experience during his childhood years. This speaks to the discipline that Ray would exercise during his successful rail career.

Ray graduated from Chambersburg High School in June of 1959. Ray developed a friendly relationship with the PRR train crews that passed by his way as he admired them from his trackside perch. Occasionally, they invited him to ride with them on the head-end. Ray became well-acquainted with the branch line locals that originated on the Pennsylvania Railroad at Chambersburg by riding trains at night during summer vacations. It probably helped that one conductor was a student of Ray’s dad and thought that Mr. Gabler was a great teacher. He also recalls riding at least one empty coal car train for delivery to the B&O at Cumbo, West Virginia. A crew member drove him back to Chambersburg; such was Ray’s good relationship with the crews.

Ray graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in June of 1965. In explaining how it took two years longer than most to graduate, he allows that he was a slow learner. The truth is he worked at Pet Milk to pay for his education. Ray was able to take additional course work. Ray graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education with a Mathematics major. He also completed twenty-four hours in Business and Economics classes. And yes, he was familiar with the PRR branch line between Blairsville and Indiana, Pennsylvania.

After graduation, Ray took a job teaching secondary school math at Marion Center, Pennsylvania. He says he enjoyed teaching; but in his second year, he started to believe that teaching wasn’t what he wanted to do with his life. On Memorial Day, 1967, Ray mailed inquiries to both the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Pittsburgh. The B&O responded in one week, courtesy of Walter W. Weber, Division Superintendent. Ray received information concerning the C&O/B&O Management Training Program. The PRR response arrived in early August. The third year of teaching was even less satisfying, so Ray applied for and was accepted into the 1968 Management Training Program - one of the best decisions in his life.

During the first week of July, 1968, Ray met twelve other trainees, including Geoff Fuller who became a lifelong friend. During the twelve-month training program, Ray gained an in-depth knowledge of the railroad.  This knowledge transfer came from veterans of the field and office. “A great program” Ray exclaims, “and I loved it.” Not planned as part of the training program was meeting extra steno Judy Jacobs. She was completing her summer employment in E. A. Woolen’s Richmond C&O Sales Office. Judy was a student at Madison College. She worked summers for the railroad when Ray and fellow trainees passed through the Richmond office. Ray and Judy were married on December 20, 1969. They reared two beautiful and talented daughters and they are still happily married. Ray’s older daughter, Susan, is married to a Johns Hopkins Hospital executive in Baltimore. Upholding the family’s religious foundation, Ray’s younger daughter, Wendy, married a Pastor. Ray and Judy are the proud grandparents of five wonderful grandchildren (four boys and a girl).  When Ray visits his daughter Susan, Ray and his grandchildren (Justin and Brett) visit CSX’s Baltimore rail operations.  No doubt, Ray emphasizes the importance of asset utilization.

Prior to hiring on with the railroad, Ray had an interest in equipment utilization initiated by John Kneiling’s articles in Trains magazine. As the training program progressed, this interest was further whetted by field exposure. All trainees were required to write a paper on one of several subjects. One subject was Car Utilization and Ray jumped at the opportunity to expand his asset utilization knowledge base. Former trainees Paul Goodwin and Bill Sparrow honed his understanding of finance and railroad investments. The paper was well received by R. G. Rayburn. This early car utilization experience encouraged Ray to look to a career in Car Management.  But first, Fred Yocum arranged for him to get field experience as night Assistant Trainmaster in the Baltimore Terminal. 

Real Frechette, Director of the Cost Research Department and a former dispatcher (B&M), “taught me about railroad economics in the real world”. Ray worked for Real Frechette and Bill Sparrow in Cost and Economic Analysis – C&EA. Bill recalls that Ray was “smart as hell” and was the first pure mathematician in the C&EA office. Real Frechette was delighted to have a person with Ray’s formal analytical education and operations experience in his group. Ray added the dimension of “operating practicality and field reality” into C&EA.  Ray was grateful for and benefited from the education and practical quantitative/analytical exposures that he received in the C&EA group.

On May 1, 1972, the Car Distribution (CD) Department was reorganized. Arch McElvany offered Ray the position of Manager, Car Control, and later Manager, Car Distribution. “McElvany taught me about the real world of operations and car utilization better than anyone and was a terrific leader/supervisor.” I still try to live by his favorite expression—“The failure didn’t plan to fail, he just failed to plan.”

In January, 1974, Ray assumed the position of Assistant Director Car Distribution and shortly thereafter was given the responsibility of developing, in conjunction with Management Information Systems (MIS), the ideas and plan laid out in the “Mad” document drawn up by Dick Rayburn’s dream team. Dick was GM Transportation and knew that computers were the business enabler on a go forward basis. Dick gathered his dream team - best thinkers and doers of the day. Arch McElvany, Ron Drucker, Fred Yocum, Bill Sheridan, Buck Shelton and Ray Lichty.  Geoff Fuller was the group’s scribe and thinker-in-training.  The group was tasked by Dick to engineer how computers would transform his railroad business into a decision-based organization. Dick encouraged the group to think outside the box before this phrase was used by high-priced, $1,000 per-day business consultants. Dick’s mandate was to transition the railroad from a historically (what the car did yesterday) reporting culture, into a process-control “outdoor factory” performance-based company.  He wanted to make things happen, rather than report on what happened yesterday.

What a great mandate; Ray and Geoff Fuller met for two or three hours daily for months to promulgate that “Mad Document”.  The focus was to improve the distribution and follow-on utilization of empty rail cars.  The Car Distribution System (CD System) was incrementally installed in 1978 across all Chessie Divisions.

On January 2, 1979, Ray assumed the position of Director of Car Management in Baltimore under General Manager Car Management Ron Drucker. Ron shared with Ray the analytical methods of the American Association of Railroads and its part in car management. 
Ron accelerated the installation of the computerized Car Management – CD System.  Ron, Ray and the MIS team fine-tuned the CD processes over months as actual experience – lessons learned – were assimilated by the team. Development was incremental as Ray frequently shared; “We were always ‘plowing new ground’. The computer development team had a good macro view (Mad Document) of the future of empty car management.  The hard work was formulating and pounding-out micro solutions which mapped to Dick Rayburn’s lofty macro goals and visions. We encountered some trip wires; we learned our lesson and dusted ourselves off, but then moved forward with even more commitment to a successful conclusion to our project.”

Ray recalls, “According to the comments that I received from my counterparts throughout the industry, the Chessie computerized Car Management had become the gold standard for the railroad industry.” This was a high point in his career; Ray acknowledges that this was no solo effort. It was accomplished by the MIS contingent and countless others in Transportation and Car Management. Some of those more intimately involved included Frank Dewey, Gerry Groh, Bob Neal, Don Imwold, Al Dungan and Emory Keller. The system was accepted by the field forces. Ray recalls one antidotal story: “A Fulton Yard Clerk suggested to President John Collinson that if the computer told him to switch cars into the James River, he would go down the yard and line the switches.”

After Ray’s move to Jacksonville, Ray was promoted to General Manager, Car Management and to Assistant Vice President, Car Management when Chessie System and Family Lines were merged to create CSXT. Later, Ray had the additional position of General Manager, Transportation Planning; and he was Director, Unit Grain Train Operations for his last ten years, except for a brief stint as Director, Fuel Management. Ray still has a file of letters from customers expressing their appreciation of his work in the Unit Grain Train area. He also earned an “Award of Excellence” while working with the grain trains.

To summarize Ray’s rail career … a kid in a small Pennsylvania town loves railroads; he discovers that rail equipment cannot be financially justified; and spends a career working to improve that state of affairs. Ray achieved success “one car at a time”, a well-earned identity. Ray still loves railroads; he retired in 1999 and has never looked back. He spends his time playing a pipe organ almost daily in his church and spends time model railroading with a group that includes some other CSXT retirees.  Ray is so committed to his wonderful rail career; he converted his two-car garage into a magnificent model railroad layout.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to interact with Ray at CSX wish him all of the best during his retirement years.  It did my reputation good just being seen with Ray Gabler.