LUZERNE COUNTY, Pa. — There are a lot of moving parts at PowerRail, a locomotive parts manufacturer in Luzerne County. It's currently on the move itself from a location in Duryea to one in Exeter.
"We do remanufacture locomotives," explained CEO Paul Foster. "And the average life is 30 to 50 years before we remanufacture them. So there's a big realm of locomotives throughout the world."
Foster says he's been working in the industry for decades, but he recently received a call to help move something he doesn't have experience with.
A colleague from Poland called him late one night, asking for help transporting Ukrainian refugees.
"There, there are no parts available for the Poland railway. They can't get parts in fast enough. So what they're doing is parking one and taking the parts off to put it on another locomotive. And like I said, it started with nine, then it went down eight, and down to two," said Foster.
Immediately, Foster called his team in Nashville, Tennessee, to get parts ready for shipment.
"Foreman and four people were in that facility at about midnight. They worked about four or five in the morning. They didn't punch in. They refused to punch in, got the parts ready out of Nashville. We got the parts ready here. And we air freighted them," he explained.
Cooling fans, engine parts, fuses, and gaskets were some of the parts needed. With the help, Foster says they were able to get two more locomotives up and running to help transport refugees.
"Very, very emotional, I mean our, I don't expect to get paid. I don't care if we get paid. I just want to make sure that we can help any way that we could, and you know if anyone else needs help in Ukraine, just let us know," said Foster.
He says after the initial shipment, PowerRail has sent over more parts to get eight locomotives running that are needed for the evacuation of refugees on non-electrified lines.
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