Workers killed on rails were loyal family men

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff  |  January 11, 2007

Christopher Macaulay and James Zipps loved working on the railroad, and they never considered any other career s , friends and family said yesterday.

Macaulay was drawn to trains at an early age -- his father was an Amtrak conductor -- said Michael Blakemore, who described himself as Macaulay's best friend.

Zipps joined the railroad at 21, following in the footsteps of several childhood friends, said his brother, Richard Zipps.

Macaulay, 30, of Brentwood, N.H., and Zipps, 54, of Lowell, were killed Tuesday afternoon when a commuter train barreled into their maintenance vehicle parked on MBTA tracks in Woburn. While investigators yesterday continued to sort out the events leading to the deaths, friends and coworkers visited the mourning families to offer condolences.

"You couldn't have asked for a better friend," Blakemore said. "We talked every day; he was like family to me."

He parked in front of Macaulay's empty two-story house early yesterday in Brentwood, and for nearly 15 minutes leaned against the car and stared at the house where he and Macaulay gathered on Sundays to watch football.

"Oh, he loved the Patriots," said Blakemore, a computer technician. "We were at the snow bowl. We went to about half of the games every season."

Last year Macaulay won a football fantasy league comprised of a dozen friends .

Macaulay grew up in Southampton, and when he graduated from Amesbury High School he sought a job on the railroads. "He knew he was going to work there since he was a kid," said Blakemore. "He talked about his job a lot. He worked with a crew of six. He worked in Fitchburg, Woburn, and some other places. He was a railroad man."

Macaulay and his wife moved from Amesbury about four years ago to Brentwood. They put their Brentwood house up for sale about a year ago after buying some nearby farmland. He took the lead in the design of the new house and kept the blueprints close to his side.

Macaulay became a father in late 2005, and he and his wife, Sandy, doted on their daughter, Bailey, Blakemore said. "He was so much a family man. After work, he would rush home to be with her."

The couple met about 14 years ago at a local supermarket, where Sandy was a cashier and Christopher bagged groceries. "They've been together since then," Blakemore said. "I don't think either one of them even dated anyone else."

Zipps came from a large family with three brothers and seven sisters, said his brother Richard. James Zipps had four children and four grandchildren and about three years ago moved back into the family house to help his father, now 86.

Zipps played golf and rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which he bought about two years ago. "But he loved his job, too," the brother said. "If they needed someone to work in another district, he'd go."

The family learned of Zipps's death from one of his crewmates, who was his best friend and who was with him when he died. "We don't know too much about how this happened," Richard Zipps said. "Right now, all we can say is that this was a senseless tragedy."

Brian R. Ballou can be reached at bballou@globe.com.