Wheelworx

Please join us in welcoming our newest addition to the team, Tim Allen. Tim took the reigns as Pekin’s General Manager in September and we’re excited to see the continued improvement he brings.

Tim has over 20 years in manufacturing including time as a machinist at American Allied Railway, a former full service wheelshop, and most recently as a manufacturing engineering manager for FL Smidth, a global mining equipment manufacturer. We feel Tim fits the mold for a Wheelworx leader perfectly and is evidence of our mission to create the next generation of wheelshop experts.

Fun fact about Tim: like us he also has personally helped to build the next generation of manufacturing professionals with 1 son who is an engineer at Tesla in Austin and another who is a machinist at FL Smidth.

Congrats to the Wheelworx sponsored 6U Chelsea, AL Padres on a big mid season tournament win. Great work boys!

Great evening celebrating the careers of Jerry Solt and Mike O’Donnell. Both have made an undeniable impact on the railroad industry in their decades of service and there would be no Wheelworx today without them. We wish them both the best in their retirement!

Special thanks to all our drivers and today especially Danny Johnson! Danny has been with Wheelworx 10 years and has logged over 1 million miles in that time to support our customers. Most of our peers have gotten out of trucking but there’s no Wheelworx without our drivers. They are an integral part of who we are and we are so thankful for all the sacrifices they make to keep this industry rolling!

Join us in welcoming Greg Dean to our team as our Director of Operations! Greg’s background as a machinist and controls engineer fits perfect with the Wheelworx model and we are excited to see what changes he leads. A long time friend of Wheelworx, programming and making changes to our equipment for over 3 years, Greg was a natural fit. We are proud to lead the industry in developing the next generation of wheel shop leaders and know that Greg will be an asset to the industry now and in the future.

Come join our growing transportation team! Now hiring at both Pekin, IL and Calera, AL. Our drivers are the life blood of our operation and the key to our customer service model. Very competitive pay structure that has our drivers averaging .70/mile!

See below for further details:

*$20 plus/hour
*Time and a half overtime after 40 hours
*$500/month Per Diem
*Average 50-60 hours/week
*Clean, late model equipment
*100% round trip paid runs hauling freight car wheelsets
*As an hourly driver you'll get paid for retention and sitting in traffic
*BCBS Health insurance options
*401K
*Paid time off
*Quarterly safety bonus

Message for further details or reach out to us at:

200 Hanna Dr
Pekin, IL 61554
309-346-3535

1480 Woodbine Ave.
Calera, AL 35040
205-668-6720

1st wheel off WW tread lathe number 4! Tens of thousands more sets will be flowing out of Pekin per year and we are excited to have the opportunity to expand the Wheelworx brand to new customers.

This summers been full of projects from lasers on wheel presses, to the complete retrofit of this lathe we pulled off an Air Force base to a large organizational restructure. It’s all geared toward scaling the entire business for continued growth while building on the Service First model.

Time to move onto the next project… never stop innovating, growing and changing.

Congrats to Josh Akers on his recent promotion to Director of Quality Assurance! Josh is a long time member of the Wheelworx family at Calera, starting his career inspecting axles and working his way up from there. In his new role he will oversee the quality of our wheelsets at both facilities. Josh embodies the blue collar, whatever it takes mentality of Wheelworx and we know he’s going to continue to innovate our QA program at Pekin, Calera and beyond.

Big changes are taking place at Wheelworx! To continue to improve on the Service First model we have created a new role, Director of Customer Service.

We are excited to announce that Carolinea Sekyra Selman will be filling that role! Carolinea has been with Wheelworx since day one and has been a huge part of building the brand. She has spent the last 13 years developing the practices and procedures that make up our QA program and in her new role she will do the same in the area of overall customer experience. She will be engaging with our valued customers daily and using those interactions to continue to improve all aspects of the business relationship. It's has always been all about driving continuous improvement for us and we are excited to see the positive change Carolinea brings to this area of our business.

Sneak peak into our next project. This is going to be one bad lathe. Think resto-mod ‘69 Camaro with a 6.2 LT1 under the hood. Hard to beat old school castings and solid drive trains as a base to build on for hard working freight car wheelset machines.

More to come soon….

Justin Schoenfeldt