“I think it was ingenious”

The Boston Globe highlights an MBTA worker who created a new machine to help with the snow problem.

"They say necessity is the mother of invention. But Michael Haywood was driven by plain embarrassment. 

The nightmarish winter of 2015 was at its worst, a barrage of powerful storms that brought the MBTA to its knees. In desperation, state officials called in prisoners and the National Guard to help the transit system dig out, one shovelful at a time. 

For Haywood, an MBTA machinist who fixes snow-clearing equipment, it was a personal affront. There had to be a better way, he thought. 

So he thought of one: mounting a John Deere vehicle often used to scoop dirt — it’s called a skid-steer loader — onto railcar wheels in order to clear the snow-packed tracks. It sounded farfetched, and some of his colleagues were skeptical."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/02/17/buffeted-snow-mbta-workers-found-new-way-forward/DaSKxHtOnugRhfjicM6m4K/story.html

This piece of new snow removal equipment was inspired by an idea from the MBTA’s Machinist Mike Haywood. (JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF)