Brew crew keeps trainloads of beer from freezing

January 30, 2014

Beer freezes at around 13 degrees Fahrenheit, and it’s Bill Diamond’s job to make sure that doesn’t happen. Not on his watch, at least.

Mr. Diamond, 56, is a train conductor for Union Pacific Railroad Co. at the Proviso Yard in west suburban Northlake. He’s been on the railroad for 37 years, after a summer job to save money for college turned permanent. For the past 12 years he’s been in charge of the yard’s biggest customer, delivering cars of Grupo Modelo S.A.B de C.V. beer—Corona, Modelo Especial, Pacifico and Victoria—that have snaked their way by rail from Piedras Negras, Mexico, to a nearby warehouse, or “the beer house,” as they call it, operated by Grand Worldwide Logistics Corp. of Chicago.

(Bill Diamond is a member of SMART Transportation Division Local 577 at Northlake, Ill.)

Read the complete story at Crain’s Chicago Business.