Joe Buonopane was an Amtrak C&S maintainer in 2000. "C&S," if you've never heard the term before, is an abbreviation for Communications and Signals, the department that fixes switches and signals, among other things, when they start acting up. They also install new devices, along with the track department folks.
When I worked at South Bay Tower in Boston (one mile west of South station on the Dorchester Branch), it was his job to keep the switches lubricated with a slippery, grease-like substance, check the bulbs in each of the signals monthly and replace them as required - and keep up with the paperwork assuring the powers that be that he had conducted all the required voltage and other tests as required.
Joe was not always groveling in the ballast and ties, though. Sometimes he came up for air to check out the rest of the world, like when Bombardier's subcontractors were installing catenary at Southampton Street Yard. We were both standing on the "chute" track, connecting Dorchester No. 2 with Southampton Street Yard. The "Dorch" is geographically south of the station, as is the yard.
I was a second trick train director when I retired in 2002. In short, I operated the switches and signals to get the trains onto the right tracks, and gave them the signals to go - and sometimes to stop.
April 9, 2000

Photographed by Leo King, April 9, 2000.
Added to the photo archive by Leo King, May 1, 2004.
Railroad: Amtrak/Northeast Corridor.

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