“Trans-Global Solutions,” he said, “is absolutely necessary to the functioning of our ports and our waterways, for the transportation of finished products from the refineries and the chemical plants, to the transportation of aggregates and the loading of materials that make their way to all parts of the world.”

For the past 10 years, Scott and his sons, James and Will, have put together a piece of land larger than Manhattan Island and developed the largest master-planned, rail-and-barge-served industrial park in the United States.

Cedar Port, in West Chambers County between Cedar Bayou and Trinity Bay, has a footprint of 15,000 acres, a third of which is filled with warehouses and the constant hum of 18-wheelers and freight trains coming and going.

“What we loved about Cedar Port when we purchased it is that every one of our different operating divisions comes together and is represented at Cedar Port,” James Scott, TGS’ president of construction and maintenance, said. “We have a little over 200 people that work (for TGS) at Cedar Port every day through all these different divisions.”

Half of them are involved with Cedar Port’s railroad services. That goes back to the humble beginnings of Bill Scott, who is Chairman and CEO of Trans-Global Solutions.

While attending Lamar University in Beaumont, the elder Scott, a native of Port Arthur, worked at a railroad construction and engineering business.

After graduating with a degree in government in 1970, he took what he had learned and, as company legend has it, “with just $3,500 and a pickup truck,” he and his brother Dick started a business doing railroad track maintenance.

It was called Econo-Rail Corporation and it quickly earned a reputation for reliability and quality workmanship. The company opened its first formal headquarters in Port Arthur in 1979.

Econo-Rail grew as the needs of its clients grew. It offered everything from railroad design and construction, railroad right-of-way maintenance, loading and unloading rail cars, rail car storage and even locomotive repairs and leasing. Contract switching for the area’s industrial and petrochemical plants and ports became a big part of the business.

From there, the company began offering bulk material handling services, from deepwater terminals and barge services to contract operation of bulk terminal facilities for clients like ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, Conoco Phillips, Lyondell, Mitsubishi and Valero Refining.

After becoming a provider of railroad and bulk material logistical services, Econo-Rail Corporation became Trans-Global Solutions, while maintaining its full-service rail division.

“They expanded to in-plant switching and terminal operations in the early 80s,” said James Scott, who joined the business full-time about 20 years ago. “Then they developed, built and maintained about 30 terminals through the 90s to 2015.

“During that whole timeline, we continued to grow the railroad business.”

James Scott, left, and Bill Scott accept a plaque from Baytown Chamber of Commerce CEO Tracey Wheeler on behalf of TGS Cedar Port being the Titanium Sponsor for the recent Chamber Gala.
Sun photo by Carol Skewes

Today, TGS has an in-plant switching and terminal services that has more than two dozen locations through the southern United States. And it leases out locomotives from a fleet of more than 140. In all, it owns a fleet of over 400 pieces of construction equipment, trucks, and locomotives.

It has 100 miles of railroad inside Cedar Port, enough track to store more than 5,500 rail cars overnight. Plans are in the works to increase that storage space to handle 8,000 rail cars.

Bill Scott started out as a teenager replacing railroad ties. And with all the railroad ties, or connections, he’s made over the years, he can’t forget his roots.

Recently, Joe Domino, former CEO of the Entergy power company and like Bill Scott a big backer of the Boy Scouts of America, recalled when Bill Scott was asked to visit the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico to offer the Scouts tips on repairing a train.

“Bill showed them how to drive railroad spikes,” Domino said. “That’s what I call hands-on leadership.”

The company sold all its deepwater terminals to Kinder Morgan in 2005.

“That’s what actually allowed us to purchase Cedar Port,” James Scott told a Baytown Chamber of Commerce audience recently. “My dad always thought he was going to get to retire. We graduated from college and drug him back in.”

James’ brother, Will, is President of Sales and Business Development.

In the 1950s, U.S. Steel came to Chambers County and started buying up rice fields and put together about 15,000 acres of land.

“They were going to build six steel mills that were going to be their Texas Works plant,” James Scott said.

They built one mill. They sold it to Jindal Steel and TGS leased the rail assets that weren’t part of the steel operation. U.S. Steel sold 10,000 acres to a group of investors in 1990, who opened an industrial park called Cedar Crossing.

Cedar Port Industrial Park includes more than 25 million square feet of warehousing and easy access to the Port of Houston and interstate highways.

“We made several runs at trying to purchase Cedar Crossing,” James Scott said. “It took several times, but finally in 2014, we were able to close on the transaction.”

Since taking over the property and rebranding it as Cedar Port the project has grown from 12,000 acres to 15,000 acres. It is the largest dual rail served industrial park in North America, with connections to both the Union Pacific and BNSF railroads.

Today, the park includes more than 25 million square feet of warehousing.

“Over a third of all containers going through the Port of Houston are either imported or exported through Cedar Port,” Port Commissioner Stephen DonCarlos said as he introduced James Scott at the May 3 Baytown Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Cedar Port also has excellent roadway connections to the Port of Houston and the interstate highways via State Highways 146 and 99, also known as the Grand Parkway. And, of course, by rail.

The warehouses TGS builds and owns are leased to more than 70 different companies who manufacture, process, warehouse and ship everything from chickens and cotton to water to chemicals for cell phone batteries.

Walmart leases 5.6 million square feet of space in four warehouses, including one to handle its e-commerce. They ship goods to supply their stores throughout the central United States.

Home Depot has the second-most warehouse space, 2 million square feet.

A company called Floor and Décor has 1.5 million square feet of warehouse space with an ever-changing inventory of floor and décor goods.

NFI is a trans-shipping company that receives goods from all over the world in shipping containers from the Port of Houston and transfers the goods to trucks headed for Target stores. Niagara bottles water at its park site.

The two biggest plastic traders in the world, Rivago and Vinmar, operate adjacent warehouses.

“Last year, we packaged inside Cedar Port and exported out through the Port of Houston over 4 billion pounds of plastic,” James Scott said. “It’s just mind-blowing when you think about it.”

Cedar Port is also home to several cold storage facilities.

“Americold is exporting chickens from East Texas out through the Port of Houston to around the world,” Scott said. “Maersk is actually importing beef from Australia. You know those little oranges at H-E-B? They all come in through the Foremost Fresh facility.

“Cargill is taking cotton from south Texas, packaging it and then exporting it out. They’ll send that cotton to China. And then we’re bringing it right back as shirts. It’s really good for the Port.”

At least three warehouses are doing work involved with the construction of plants in the Port Arthur and Sabine Pass area; Construction managers Zachary, Bechtel and the Golden Pass LNG all are leasing space where they receive parts and assemble large projects for the Golden Triangle plants.

Often, their completed projects are put on barges to travel from Cedar Port to Port Arthur down the Intracoastal Waterway.

The Cedar Park Navigation Improvement District barge dock is the where the completed projects for the LNG plants are shipped from and where Texas Materials receives its liquid asphalt and aggregate that it uses in its Baytown asphalt plant.

“We’ve developed about 5,000 acres total, and we still have a little over 10,000 acres remaining to be developed,” Scott said. “So we’ve got a lot of work still to do and we’ve got plenty of job security over the next 30 years.”