I am looking for a man that worked for Speno Rail Ballast cleaning co. He would be in his 70’s probably. He worked for this company during the 70’s and met my mother in Heavener, Ok. He was working on Ballast and I think managed a crew. He traveled to Ohio also so I am not sure if he is from there or New York but he has a daughter that is 40 this year and is desperately looking for her father. Medical issues… Please, if you have any information, please reply joeandtracymartin@gmail.com. even if you could point me to info you may know that would help us.
Tough one to track down. Speno’s offices were in Ithaca, NY in the 40’s into the 60’s, I believe, before moving to the equipment base in East Syracuse, NY. You might want to Google or Bing the company name to see where it goes to today…I can’t think of the successor’s name…
Speno still exists (they are now and were then an Italian company) but their US operations were sold to Pandrol Jackson some years ago which was then acquired by Harsco Rail:
I don’t believe Speno was an Italian company. The office address was always in Ithaca, NY. When I first got to Ithaca College in 1961 looked them up and found them to be sharing an office with a Dr. Speno there across the street on the west side of DeWitt Park. I will try to remember to check my Lackawanna Magazine file when I get home because I remember an article about Speno which may have been in that mag. If it wasn’t there, then it was in Modern Railroads in the late 50’s and early 60’s and I don’t have any of them.
However, I found an original patent and Dr. Frank Speno’s address is listed as Summit, New Jersey while the other name on the patent had a Swiss address so it seems perhaps the US and European firms were incorporated Separately?
Notice further the name and address for the Frank Speno Rail Ballast Company of Ithaca, NY…it was there when I arrived in 1961. Also I had seen the Speno Rail Grinding machines in the 50’s on the Lackawanna in New Jersey… The “founding” date on the Speno file above I think refers to the date it was incorporated N.A. as shown and does not refer to the Frank Speno company of earlier. It does seem confusing, but I know Speno was grinding track in the 50’s and was headquartered in Ithaca at that time…I just got in, so haven’t had time to check the files…
Found what I thought I remembered…and I was right. Lackawanna Magazine, Volume One, Number 2, May, 1954, inside front cover…pic of Speno Rail Ballasting and cleaner S.R.B.C.X. 4 and the name SPENO in a box next to the cleaner cab’s window…
I won’t post it because it is difficult to read but I found a digital scan of a newspaper article from the early 60’s that states that Speno Rail services was founded in 1931, so I stand corrected…