For the T, big net savings

Tom McHale is a hero at the MBTA, not for saving lives, but for saving a lot of money thanks to steak tips, electrical tape, and a 5-cent, fine-mesh hair cap.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority -- challenged by a high debt load, an aging train fleet, and opposition to a proposed fare increase -- is plagued every winter with train motors failing in snowy conditions. The cost to repair them is staggering, and the cost to replace them is even higher. The failures on the Orange and Red lines during recent winters were crippling service.

So in late 2004, after a day rebuilding or replacing such motors on the Orange Line, McHale, a father of two from Reading who works as a repair foreman in the Wellington carhouse, was in a Boston wholesale butcher shop buying steak tips for a Patriots playoff game when he was required to put on a ''bouffant style" protective cap to cover his hair.

McHale, 42, said he then noticed that a nearby butcher's head was about the same size as the air intake cover on the failing Orange Line motors.

He bought his steak tips and pocketed the hair cap. A few days later, he taped it to an Orange Line motor. Eureka! The air got in, but the snow stayed out. ''It fit perfect," McHale said.

The polypropylene hair caps melted in extreme conditions, but never caught fire. They could be put on the entire 102-car fleet in short order. And best of all, a box of 1,000 cost $50. A bargain.

''That's what we used to pay for them," Louis Downs, maintenance supervisor for the Orange Line, said yesterday. ''Once word about this gets out, we'll probably have to pay more."

Last winter, the T experienced no traction motor failures because of snow, thanks in part to McHale's hair cap idea. Though conditions this past season were mild, T officials estimate his solution will save the agency $126,000 in repairs in an average year.

Snow has historically messed with train engines, especially on the Orange Line, which runs 8.8 of its 11 miles outside and a large portion of that in the walled corridors south of downtown.

Light snow is often sucked up by a moving train, goes under the chassis, and is drawn into a caged air intake designed to cool the motors. Over time, with stops and starts, the snow melts and refreezes into 3-inch-thick squares that block the intake, causing the motors to overheat or catastrophically fail.

''You don't run your blender in the bathtub," McHale said. ''Snow and these motors just don't mix."

Historically, T officials said, a major snowstorm results in failure of an average 14 of the 480 motors running the Orange Line's 102 cars. Rebuilding such a motor costs about $9,000. Replacing it costs between $35,000 and $50,000.

On the Red Line, where service was crippled by failing motors during the winter of 2004-2005, the motors are configured differently and can't benefit from the Orange Line's unique solution, T officials said.

Prior to the hair cap, T maintenance tried an assortment of materials to block the snow, from the stuff used in Tyvek protective clothing to burlap.

Nothing has worked as well as the hair cap, which is now part of the T's standard operating procedure on the Orange Line.

Prior to snowstorms, ''All traction motor intake filter cage assemblies shall be wrapped with a protective hair net (HELCO part number KC 36809), taking care to fully cover any possible opening where the ingestion of snow is possible," Orange Line operating documents read. ''The hair net shall then be secured using standard 1/2-inch electrical tape. . . . Protective hair nets shall be removed in the spring to afford maximum cooling of motors" in summer.

McHale is being promoted and will be honored by the T today for his idea, complete with a demonstration using a disassembled Orange Line traction motor.

Mac Daniel can be reached at mdaniel@globe.com.