Speno Rail Services

I worked on speno rail for 9 yrs. trains i worked on include ballast cleaner no.9,rail grinder no.7 rg 8,rms1,bc6.If anyone has any pics of any of this equipment or has worked on speno between 1978-1987 please email me.I look foward to any and all replys.

[#welcome]

At RailPictures.Net, entering “Speno” into the “Keyword” box yielded 8 photos (none mine) - about half from over in Europe, but here are the links to the ones from the US:

Rail Grinder - 1989 - S. Pasadena, Calif.: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=255286

Ballast Cleaner - 1953 - Aldene, NJ: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=237657

Ballast Cleaner - SRBCX-3 - 1978 - Watsontown, PA:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=112482

Ballast Cleaner - 1978 - same one ? - Millersburg, PA:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=89863

Rail Grinder - 1982 - Lyons (Reading - Allentown), PA:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=81396

  • Paul North.

Hope to hear more from you abut Speno! I don’t believe I have any pictures but remember seeing the trains grinding along the DL&W in New Jersey back in the 50’s and 60’s. Ads in MODERN RAILROADS magazine of the time indicated Speno’s office location being in Ithaca, NY. So I was excited at going ot Ithaca College in 1961 to find only that the office of Dr. Speno was nowhere near the railroad tracks but that his father did indeed have an office there. I actually had to go to E. Syracuse if I expected to find the equipment!

I worked on Speno Rail Grinder #7 over summer months in 1982 and 1983 during college summer breaks. Primarily in British Columbia & Alberta, but a brief period in Ontario as well. #7 manager in 1982 was Richard Marshall… in 1983 it was Ken Raub Jr.

I believe I have some photos of the train mixed in with my scenery photos and photos of the BCR and CPR equipment.

I don’t visit this trains.com site but you can e mail me directly at dwvandy@aol.com

Dave VanderLeest, Coon Rapids, MN

This is a long shot but going to ask. While working for Speno in 78-87, did you ever meet man employee named Frank Reed?

I worked on no 9 on and off from 75 -79. Used to have a lot of photos but lost them in a fire. I was one of the original crew on 9. Used to break down all the time. One day we managed to go almost all day with no problems. Martin Speno was so happy he took the whole crew out to dinner!

possible worked with a lot of people in 9 yrs but sounds familer

I started in aug 78 worked for jim{sprout}eddington through shutdown they put me in shop and from there went to rg 7 and back to bc 9 until accident in ohio.After recovery went to bc6 bc3

[quote user=“speno employee 1978-87”]

I worked on speno rail for 9 yrs. trains i worked on include ballast cleaner no.9,rail grinder no.7 rg 8,rms1,bc6.If anyone has any pics of any of this equipment or has worked on speno between 1978-1987 please email me.I look foward to any and all replys.

Hey, i worked on RG 7 for Dick Marshall, not sure how to post or what I’m doing yet, having a helluva time tryin’ to figger this out…

New accounts on this forum always get put on moderation for a short initial period, that will be why your posts aren’t appearing immediately.

The thread you are replying to is pretty old, so the participants probably aren’t watching this forum regularly. You could try PMing them, this should send them an email notification, if they still use the same email address.

Is Speno still active in North America? I’ve only ever seen Loram grinders in these parts.

Hello, ‘Dude’
Pretty ionteresting quiestiopn yu suggested there at the end of your comment. As you have mentioned; Asll I have ever seen around here is LORAM lettered equipment, and HERZOG’s as well. BNSF seems to cycle their own ‘critter’s’ thrpugh thos area as well. { In fact, there was a train load of them heading East this morning, could see the tos of their port-a-potties, over the fence !] But I digress[swg]
Looked up SPENO on the ‘web’ their cororate site is @ https://www.speno.ch/en/company-profile

You seem to be correct in your thought that they seem top be more’active’ in Europe than over in North America(?)… Their HQ lists as Geneva, Switzerland.

Their web sit seems to indicate they started moving some operations into Europe about 1963(?). The photos of their equipment, shown in the Post by Paul North, seem to be about 30+ years old, [and seem to be almost a cobbled toget

A 2005 post on TO.com noted that Speno was sold to Pandrol Jackson, which was then sold to Harsco.

ok thanks bud, yeah i worked for spenos in the 80’s after i got out the navy, went from living on aircraft carriers to living on a rail grinder, i got some pics but dont know how to post them, my roomate was ducky henry, he was an old school rail grinder guy that broke me in, he worked for loram and speno’s and new all the tricks of the trade, he was 44 years old at the time, i was 23 and just did 6 years in the navy, they flew me out to RG 7 from syracuse new york to dotsero colorado out in the middle of nowhere, joe jones the cook picked me up and drove me to the train, i was pretty excited and ready to get to work…