When a 71,000-pound Metro railcar got stuck on the maintenance lift at South Park Rail Yard and Shops, railcar mechanics Henry Musgrove and Ryan Esford stepped up to help.  

While preparing to do standard maintenance on a set of railcar trucks, the railcar lift suddenly made a grinding noise and a loud bang and then shifted out of place. The lift was removed from service, but the 35-ton railcar remained suspended on the lift almost four feet in the air.

After investigating the lift, Henry and Ryan discovered the screw on one of the four lifting jacks had stopped spinning and came undone causing it to shift.  They considered a few options for getting the lift back to its base. One alternative was to call a third-party contractor specializing in train derailment response, which typically costs $25,000+, depending on the severity of the situation.

Ultimately, Henry and Ryan developed a plan to lower the defective screw down by hand, inch-by-inch, using the body stand support jacks and the remaining three lifting jacks. As a result of their perseverance and precision, they lowered the lift safely back to the ground and saved the NFTA tens of thousands of dollars in third-party mediation costs.

When we asked the “dynamic duo” about their efforts, they indicated they were proud to help resolve the issue so that no one got hurt and save the company time and money in external assistance.

We hope you will join in congratulating Henry and Ryan on a job well done!