Life returns to former railway shop: Sudbury's Northern Heat Treat expands, relocates to new complex.

AuthorMcKinley, Karen
PositionNEWS

There's something going on in a former rail car refurbishment shop in the Sudbury suburb of Capreol that hasn't been seen or heard in a long time: active manufacturing and the hiring of staff.

In August, Northern Heat Treat Ltd., a steel hardening business, began moving its operation to the 54,000-square-foot complex on nine and a half acres in the northern part of the city from its original location in the Sudbury's east end in Coniston.

The Capreol complex formerly housed National Railway Equipment Co. (NRE), which refurbished and sold new and old locomotives for 17 years before closing down in 2017.

To get Northern Heat Treat up and running, there's still a lot of work to be done in retrofitting and moving equipment, but co-owners George Sidun Sr. and son George Sidun Jr. said the move is not causing disruption to fill orders.

The move will be complete in October.

"We had to move out of our old 28,000-square-foot location and this place was already available and was perfect for our needs," said George Sr.

"It had gotten to the point where we could not fit any more equipment on the floor. This is pretty much turnkey, with some modifications and upgrades needed so we can move our equipment in."

The company is classified as heavy industry, which limits where they can set up their business.

It's been a whirlwind few weeks for the company in moving equipment, painting, renovating offices, installing security cameras, and taking inventory on what is inside both buildings. In the near future, a transformer will be installed to meet power demand.

Northern Heat Treat is running three shifts, five days a week. The expansion also means they are hiring at a variety of positions.

Steel hardening, explained George Jr., is often done by third-party companies like Northern Heat Treat. Companies will manufacture parts out of softer steel so they can be tooled and shaped to specifications, then sent to companies like his for the final treatment and hardening to make them durable.

Northern Heat Treat doesn't do any manufacturing, which George Jr. said would be detrimental to their business model.

"If we made our own product, customers would stop coming to us, because there would be no point in treating theirs if we became competition for them," he said.

Manufacturers send steel products out to specialty companies like theirs for hardening because it is a long process. Doing it in-house would create a bottleneck.

Save for the 2008 recession, business has...

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