Lexington, KY - While most of us probably feel we've been familiar with the basic functions and services of the railroad system since we were kids, we don't often stop to think about the impact that rail service has on a community - other than when we're stuck in traffic behind a passing train, maybe.
Tammie Taylor has made the inner workings of the railroad system her passion and her profession - and she is adamant about informing people just how much their community depends on the rail system.
"Railroads are a very significant part of any town that wants to stay alive," Taylor said. "A town can really dry up without it."
While she added that a town the size of Versailles is probably more reliant on rail service than Lexington, Taylor pointed out that many high economic impact companies in Lexington (including Smucker's, Baker Iron & Steel, and Palumbo Lumber and Manufacturing) are highly dependent on the rail system for receiving their raw materials or shipping their product out to clients.
"If you take away the rail service from Lexington, a lot of companies would probably go out of business," she added.
Taylor first started working for R.J. Corman in 1984 - a time when the company's office was in a passenger car and they had 25 employees. Today, R.J. Corman has almost as many different companies (22), including the areas of derailment (clean-up after a train wreck), aviation services, and railroad construction, which recently embarked on the challenge of restoring 40 miles of railroad that had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Taylor, who has served on the boards of CSX Shortline Caucus, American Council of Railroad Women, and High Bridge Water/Kentucky Underground Advisory Board, still calls R.J. Corman's Material Sales company, which she helped develop from the ground up, "her baby" - though her "parental" responsibilities have grown significantly. After serving for four years as the president of the Material Sales company, Taylor received a hard-earned promotion - to president of the holding/parent company that oversees the entire family of Corman companies.
When asked how her responsibilities have changed since the beginning, Taylor said, "I make decisions that can affect other people and their families ... that is something that you can't lightly."
She credits her success to her own ambition and "almost single-minded focus" (the VP of a Palm Beach Company, where she worked in college, once told her she was "too ambitious" for that company), and also to Rick Corman, owner and founder of R.J. Corman.
"He has always let me take as much responsibility as I wanted to take. If you are ambitious and determined about responsibility, that really works out well," she said. "That's the way I like to work with other people, too - I like for everyone to handle things as if it were their own business, and take initiative themselves."