by MNCRR9000
From a distance the scene mirrors something out of a Hollywood science-fiction movie shoot: a powerful floodlight illuminating heavy machinery and a crew clad in reflective orange garb moving with flawless precision.
But there are no actors here: only employees who spend every weekend in Grand Central working to improve Metro-North's infrastructure as we continue to focus on improving safety and reliability.
It's late February, and down in the area of track known as Ladder K, the thickening fog of your breath means it's not getting any warmer.
"To be honest, I actually prefer winter work," Track Worker James Morgan says on a frigid Saturday morning, to the surprise of a bundled up coworker standing beside him. "I think it beats the blazing heat."
Morgan is one of the 25 individuals that make up a "super team" of Track, Communications & Signals, and Power Department employees who are currently performing vital repairs on Ladder K.
But Ladder K isn't a real "ladder": it is actually the first set of turnouts and switches that make up the interlocking (where trains switch from one track to another) a train reaches when heading south from the Park Avenue tunnel.
Ladder K was last rehabilitated in 1998. Since that time the rails and ties have experienced wear under rail traffic along its 600 foot length running from northwest to southeast. So since early January, this team has dedicated their scheduled winter work to getting this area back to its glory days.
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