Anything Goes!
In the center of the Guilford Rail System, in Lowell, Massachusetts, is a band of railroaders who can’t be certain where their job will take them or what they will be doing. These are the men of Lowell Car Shop who, it seems, are called to do anything and go anywhere. This is not a big group, for there are only twelve in all, including Manager Jim Olson and Assistant Manager Dave Melvin. But they have a big territory to cover, from Boston to Gardner, and Worcester to Concord and Scarboro, Maine (just short of Portland). And they take on whatever work is thrown at them, including some not so ordinary duties, as you will see.
For work, these folks inspect and repair freight cars of all shapes and sizes. They rerail or dismantle cars and have an arsenal of equipment, including a 130 ton wrecking mobile crane; road truck equipped with hoist, welding machine, cutting torch and air compressor; and all sorts of chain hoists, bars, wrenches and jacks. They assist customers with unusual loads, such as Process Engineering which manufactures and ships overdimensional cryogenic vessels on multiple flat cars. They help customers with balky box car doors, or lading which is jammed into a car and not willing to be unloaded in the conventional way; they inspect the nuclear loads and special cars which serve the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. They inspect, repair as needed and test brakes on auto carriers, cement cars, plastics cars, tank cars - whatever it takes to comply with the federal and company rules, and please the customer, and keep the cars moving. And, on occasion, they get the call from Portsmouth and off they go to remove or install a jet engine, or remove or install a horizontal (tail) stabilizer on a 727 aircraft, all under the watchful eyes of Pan Am’s experts.
This story is not unique to Lowell Car Shop except, perhaps, in the details of the work. For all over the railroad, diverse jobs are being performed by diverse people, and it is the sum total of all of this work that results in our trains moving cars from one point to another, day in and day out. Lots of interesting facts can be found wherever you go!