Horner takes hold as Canton Railroad's leader, business builder
10/27/2025
By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
When he was a child growing up in rural Maryland in the 1970s, Tyler Horner knew he wanted an outdoor job. And later in his childhood, he came to realize that job was in railroading.
But what Horner didn’t know or expect was that one day, he would lead a railroad. In early September, he was named president and CEO of Canton Railroad Co. in Baltimore. The short line’s owner, Canton Development Corp., promoted Horner from executive vice president and chief operating officer to that top position to lead the railroad as well as subsidiary Freestate Logistics Services Inc.
Horner succeeded Paul Barnes, who decided to pursue other opportunities after reorganizing Canton Development and helping to raise the company’s performance level. In May 2023, Barnes had taken Canton Railroad’s reins from John Magness, who led the short line for more than 26 years after a 15-year stint at CSX.
Now it’s up to Horner, 54, to guide the short line that was established in 1906. Canton Railroad operates 6 miles of mainline and 17 miles of secondary track, serves the Port of Baltimore, and interchanges with CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway.
Horner long had rejected the notion of an office desk job versus working outdoors. So, leading a railroad at some point in his career wasn’t a sought-after goal.Canton Railroad Co.The short line registers about 3,000 carloads per year, but annual traffic previously hit or exceeded 5,000 units as recently as in 2019.
“We want to get back up to that level,” says Horner.
To accomplish that goal, he expects to rely on his experience and his upbringing. Horner grew up in Easton, Maryland, and currently resides in Oxford, Maryland. When he was a child, his father collected toy trains. He also rode a number of trains with engineers from age 7 to 11, and befriended railroad crews working on track.
“I caught the railroading bug early on,” says Horner. “I always wanted to be an engineer.”
His uncle worked in the construction industry, so Horner operated various John Deere equipment when he was 10 to 12 years old.
“If it had wheels or was on tracks, I wanted to run it,” he says.
Working at family restaurant was helpful
During childhood, Horner also worked at the family business — the H&G Restaurant in Easton — which opened in 1947 and closed in 2005.
Some of the skills he honed there are helping him generate more business at the Canton Railroad, which has lost customers since the COVID pandemic.
“I could always talk to customers and learned how to satisfy customers at the restaurant. That's sales. You solve customers’ problems,” says Horner. “It’s important to go out and market the railroad and see what comes back.”
He later attended Chesapeake College in Wye Mills, Maryland, from 1990 to 1992 and earned an associate’s degree in business administration and management. From 1992 to 1994, Horner studied at Campbell University’s School of Business in Buies Creek, North Carolina, and obtained a bachelor's degree in business administration and management.
He remained interested in railroading after graduation since during some of his college years, Horner had worked at the Chesapeake Railroad formed by Bill Bartosh in the 1980s. Through a federal scholarship program, Horner was trained as a conductor for the Burlington Northern Railroad in Kansas.
“I didn’t want a job just sitting at a desk,” he says.
Horner later was hired by CSX for a position in Chicago, but eventually wanted to be closer to home, so he became a yardmaster for the Class I in Philadelphia. To get back to Maryland, he joined the Canton Railroad in 1997 as a conductor/brakeman on the extra board (a pool of workers who are on call to cover vacancies or vacations and tend to work long shifts).
But after more than three years in that post, the long hours and what turned out to be a long work commute took a toll.
“I moved more than two hours away from the railroad, so the extra board didn’t work as well anymore,” says Horner.
In 2001, he decided to take a parts manager position at W.C. Littleton & Son, a local John Deere land and garden equipment dealership. About two years later, Horner joined Atlantic Tractor as parts manager, and then remained with the company — a John Deere equipment dealer with locations in Delaware, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania — for 11-and-a-half years. His other positions there included customer service representative (parts and service) and equipment salesman.
“I had many roles in the company, which helped. I found I could sell a farmer a service or equipment,” Horner says.
Return to Canton Railroad
While selling equipment for Atlantic Tractor in 2016, Horner visited some former colleagues at the Canton Railroad. He informed the short line’s management team that he’d be interested in any openings since returning to railroading was highly appealing. Shortly afterward, a yardmaster decided to depart Canton Railroad and the position was offered to Horner.
He then proceeded to work his way up at Canton Railroad, becoming superintendent of operations in 2021, director of operations in 2024, EVP and COO in May 2025 and then president and CEO shortly after that.
Canton Development’s board wanted to promote someone from within to Canton Railroad’s top post, Horner says. Board members were interested in his extensive sales and marketing background.
Now, one of his main goals is reestablishing connections and customer relationships, Horner says. For example, the short line is working on building strong partnerships with three warehouses and one large liquid bulk transload facility along its line.
Straightening out some outsourcing snags is an objective, too.
Canton Railroad has had difficulties with outsourcing — especially when it comes to real estate, accounting, government relations and human resources — since mid-2024, says Horner.
“Some of it was a disaster. There are inefficiencies with outsourcing you have to deal with,” he says.
Although outsourcing helps reduce costs, placing “all your eggs in one basket” is risky, such as if the one person in charge of accounting gets sick or retires, Horner says.
“Then there are interruptions,” he says.
Now, outsourcing is more diversified and under control. Instead of there being five people in Canton Railroad’s main office in Baltimore, only Horner works there all the time, he says.
In addition, an effort is underway to redesign Canton Railroad’s website.
“It’s out of date and has no social media presence. We want to push customers to our site,” says Horner.
Some recent developments in Baltimore might help the short line attract customers and build business. CSX in October opened the now double-stack-container-supporting Howard Street Tunnel and construction continues to advance on the new Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed at the port in fall 2024. Canton Railroad lost half of a propane customer’s business because of the collapsed bridge.
“We are hearing the new bridge might be done by October of 2027, but I think it’ll be finished in 2028 or 2029,” says Horner.
The potential Union Pacific Railroad-NS merger might pose business-building opportunities, too.
For now, Horner expects to keep touting Canton Railroad’s strengths and advantages. The more than century-old short line has played a key transportation role in the region for a long time.
“I love this little railroad,” says Horner. "It’s a great little railroad.”
