Frank Speno

Speno & Baldini, Italian Agency, 628 W State (1909-10 city directory).

Frank Speno developed a ballast cleaning machine and formed the Speno Railroad Ballast Cleaning Company.

"Frank Speno, Rail Device Inventor, Dies," Ithaca Journal, March 1, 1950, 3.
"Frank Speno, Sr., 78, president of the Frank Speno Railroad Ballast Cleaning Company Inc. died unexpectedly at his home 602 Hudson St...
Born in Italy in 1871, he came to this country in 1888. He had always been associated with the railroad industry, having begun to work as a messenger boy, and then was employed successively as waterway, laborer, and foreman. For about 30 years he supplied laborers to the railroads.
The ballast cleaning machine that Mr. Speno invented is used by many railroads throughout the country.
The device rolls along train tracks, picks up gravel ballast, cleans it off foreign matter, and replaces it to hold down ties and rails.
He was married on Nov. 21, 1898, to Miss Delia Hehir [O'Hare]. They observed their golden wedding anniversary in 1948. They were the second couple to be married in the person Church of the Immaculate Conception."