Everything, from the kind of ballast used to the proper ties, relates to safety

Vincent Terrill

There's hardly a railroad job that Vince Terrill—who remembers when surfacing was done using a fork and sheer manpower—hasn’t done. Terrill spent summers during his early years working for the railroads before landing a job as a program engineer in Boston. Working his way up through the ranks, Terrill was promoted to assistant chief engineer, then to VP of engineering and in 1985, became president and CEO of Speno Rail Services. At one point, Terrill was also president of the American Railroad Engineering Association.

Now a self-employed railroad consultant from Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA, Terrill knows that everything, from the kind of ballast used to the proper ties, relates to safety, and for him that's the only way to run a railroad. “If we don't make the track safe and you're running passengers on it there's more of a chance for disaster,” he says. “The U.S. and Canada have the best, safest freight rail in the world.” And Terrill credits Abraham Lincoln with starting it all. “He was the one with the vision,” Terrill says of our 16th president. “In the middle of the war, it was his idea to get a railroad across the country to unite us by transportation.”

These days this World War II veteran and father of three who's been married for 62 years is hired by anyone in railroads who needs a topnotch consultant, and he's a busy man. He's proudest of the people he's helped along the way and grateful for those who've helped him. The biggest challenge he sees facing this capital intense business? “The integration of freight and passenger on high speed rail,” says Terrill, happy to be along for the still thrilling ride.

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