This locomotive from Poland is one of 10 needed to help transport Ukrainians out of the country. Down to two locomotives, PowerRail, a locomotive parts/manufacturing company headquartered out of Exeter, Pa. sent parts to resurrect several locomotives. All parts were shipped and donated by PowerRail. The fleet is up to five operational locomotives.
Submitted photo
Paul Foster, PowerRail CEO, holds an old locomotive part that he said his team will not only remanufacture the part, but will make it better. Recently, PowerRail sent out parts overseas to Poland to help resurrect their ailing locomotives that help rescue refugees in the Ukraine.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
EXETER — PowerRail, headquartered in Exeter, is a certified manufacturer, remanufacturer, and distributor of aftermarket locomotive parts and components that ships worldwide. Several of those components have made their way to Poland to aid the evacuation of Ukrainian refugees.
Paul Foster, PowerRail CEO, received a late night call that the locomotive industry in Poland is in dire straights, needing parts for aging Soviet built locomotives type M62 models. He placed a call to his team in Nashville, Tenn., and during the middle of the night, the team assembled the parts, prepared them to ship and by morning, everything the Polish railroad needed was on it’s way.
The M62 was designed for heavy freight trains with many of the locomotives being exported to Eastern Europe countries such as Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine as well as Cuba, North Korea and Mongolia.
There were 3,273 of the M62 engines produced from 1965 to 1990.
According to Foster, the Poles had 10 operational locomotives and over time they where down to two working. When a locomotive would break down, parts were pilfered from each engine to keep the two remaining functional.
“We have an agent in Europe that represents PowerRail and he was contacted by a Poland railroad saying they were desperate for parts,” Foster said. “They had 10 locomotives they were using for evacuation and when one would break down, they would steal a part from another and before they knew it, they were down to two fully operational locomotives.”
Foster said there are no replacement parts in all of Poland and that is where PowerRail came in.
“They needed a fan and several other parts and we airfreighted them everything they needed,” Foster added. “They got the third locomotive running, then the fourth and I think they are back up to five running currently.”
Foster said in order to get all 10 locomotives up and running, it would take money — money they don’t have. PowerRail donated all the parts needed up to date including the airfreight.
“That’s what it’s going to take to get all 10 up and running and they don’t have it and I don’t expect to get paid for what we did,” Foster admitted. “I’m not worried about that right now, that’s not the important thing.”
For Foster, the important thing is to get people out of harms way in the Ukraine, and he’s glad his company could play a role in saving lives.
“I never saw this coming and I knew we may be selling parts to countries but I never could imagine them reaching out to us like this to make it happen,” Foster said. “I got very emotional and literally cried when I got the call at 10:30 at night.”
Foster said he was especially grateful when he received a communication from the director of the Kowel Depo of Lviv Railways.
The note said, “I would like to thank you very much for your help. Parts arrived this morning in Ukraine by bus. They will be used to get 2 post-Soviet locos type M62 running. They are badly needed for evacuation of refugees on non-electrified lines.”
As for Foster, he wanted to acknowledge his team in Nashville for working through the night to get the shipment off to Poland.
“People came in in the middle of the night, that shows the commitment of my employees.”
