Prevent Workplace Falls with Lifeline Cable and Arrest Systems by Saferack

On-site with Scott Hite, SafeRack’s Midwest Business Unit Leader, discussing SafeRack’s lifeline cable installation with Kansas Feeds LLC in Dodge City.


The SafeRack lifeline cable system is a lightweight, shock-absorbing horizontal fall protection system designed for trucks and railcars. Learn more about the SafeRack lifeline cable system 


Liquid cattle feed sells liquid feed for the cattle. They are employing SafeRack’s fall protection engineered solution to keep their workers safe. SafeRack provides the ultimate solution to workplace falls using lifeline cables and arrest systems.

Today we’re in Dodge City Kansas and we’re off to Kansas feed. There is a customer of ours that makes feed for the cattle industry and they’re bringing in rail cars, unloading them, mixing and blending, and then putting the final product out by trucks. 

We’re at Dodge City Kansas right now and this is a liquid feed place for cattle. We sell liquid feed for cattle and what we’re doing right now is, we are unloading rail cars and put them in the tank and then our trucks, they’ll ship them out to feed yards and all that stuff. 

The reason SafeRack got involved here with Kansas Feeds is that they are bringing in these rail cars and they have to go up on top of the rail car to hook up the hose and to vent the top of the car. So when they do that, they’re going over six feet in the air and they need to have some kind of fall protection. 

We just did it the old-fashioned way, climb the rail car, and hope we didn’t fall. You get wet conditions, you get icy conditions and it’s just not safe to have employees up on those cars. Lots of times they’re up there sampling and trying to carry down a sample or something like that and there’s always the danger of somebody slipping and falling. The challenge here was that we had two tracks with up to maybe ten cars on each one and they don’t know exactly where each car is going to stop.


We came up with a system that allowed them to bring the cars in, get them fall protection and at the same time not slow down their process of unloading.


It was the best thing that we can come up with to do our work efficiently and a little bit faster. 

At every post, we have a retractable lifeline and then we have a tag line that comes down. So the operator puts on a full-body harness, he hooks the line while on the ground to this harness, and then he’s able to come up the side of the car, do his work up top. He’s not being held back from doing his work and then when he’s done at the top, he comes back down the ladder. But if there was ever a slip or a fall, it would catch him and he would not go to the ground. 

The fall arrest system quickly locks tight during a fall and that’s what we like about them. 

This is an engineered system so it’s not like, it’s just something in the catalog that they can order and pop in. We had to work with them and the railroad to come up with a system that fits into their specific needs and still allowed them to get on top of all the rail cars that are coming.

SafeRack did a good job. Kansas Feeds worked really nice with us to make sure that the project went smoothly. 

Everything went smooth. We didn’t have any problems whatsoever. Everything was up and installed in good shape right away.

Video Transcript

Scott Hite – Midwest Business Unit Leader – SafeRack
Brad Smith – General Manager – Kansas Feeds
Robert Arguelles – Operating Technician – Kansas Feeds

Scott Hite: Today we’re in Dodge City, Kansas and we’re off to Kansas Feeds, LLC. They are a customer of ours that makes feed for the cattle industry and they’re bringing in rail cars, unloading them, mixing and blending and then putting the final product out by the trucks.

Robert Arguelles: We’re at Dodge City, Kansas right now and this is a liquid feed place for cattle. We sell liquid feed for cattle and what we’re doing right now is, we’re unloading rail cars and put them in the tank and then our trucks, those ship them out to feed yards and all that stuff.


Horizontal lifeline fall protection systems (HLL systems) provide constant protection to the individual working at elevation, such as loading trucks and railcars or working on a roof. A horizontal lifeline consists of a cable attached to two or more anchor points on a roof-top, crane runway, bridge or outdoor construction site, or any other elevated work area. Horizontal lifelines may be attached in any way levels with floor-level, wall mount, or overhead mounting options and can adapt corners and various building shapes.

Engineered Horizontal Lifeline Personal Fall Protection Systems

Trolley Beam Fall Protection Systems are attached to existing overhead structural steel, allow for excellent range of motion, and easily accommodate multiple users. Trolley Beam systems are common with indoor fall protection solutions for applications where total fall clearance is minimal, therefore minimizing fall distance and deflection is critical.

Learn more about Trolley Beam Fall Arrest Systems


Scott Hite: The reason say SafeRack, we got involved here with Kansas Feeds is that they are bringing in these rail cars and they have to go up on top of the rail car to hook up the hose and to vent the top of the car so when they do that, they’re going over 6 feet in the air because they need to have some kind of fall protection.

Robert Arguelles: We just did it the old-fashioned way, climb the rail car, and hope we didn’t fall.

Brad Smith: You get wet conditions, you get icy conditions and it’s just not safe to have boys up on those cars. Lots of times they’re up there sampling and trying to carry down a sample or something like that and there’s always a danger of somebody slipping and falling.

Scott Hite: The challenge here was that we had two tracks with, you know, up to maybe 10 cars on each one and they don’t know exactly where each car is going to stop so we had to come up with a system that allowed them to bring the cars in, get them fall protection and at the same time not slow down their process of unloading.

Robert Arguelles: It was the best thing that we can come up with to do our work efficiently and a little bit faster.

Scott Hite: At every post, we have a retractable lifeline and then we have a tag line that comes down, so the operator puts on a full body harness, he hooks the line while on the ground to his harness, and then he’s able to come up the side of the car to his work up top. He’s not being held back from doing his work and then when he’s done at the top, he comes back down the ladder but if there was over a slip or fall, it would catch him and he would not go to the ground.

Robert Arguelles: If you fall off real quick, it locks as it did right there so that’s what we like about them.

Scott Hite: This is an engineered system so it’s not like it’s just something in the catalog that they can order and flop in, we had to work with them and the railroad to come up with a system that fit into their specific needs and still allowed them to get on top of all the rail cars that are coming in. SafeRack did a good job, Kansas Feeds work really nice with us to make sure that the project went smoothly.
Everything went smooth, we didn’t have any problem whatsoever everything was up and installed and in good shape right away.

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