Reading of S&W leaving New England got me to reminisce about the current plant which I toured some years back and thought I should share my recollections as a tribute to the Springfield facility and employees. There was a small museum located on the factory floor and we were given a tour by the magnificent Dwayne Charron who by then was retired but volunteered his time to talk to visitors. Meeting him was probably the highlight of the experience. Mr. Charron was a real gentleman, very approachable and down to earth. He was a self-taught engineer who led the efforts that produced the M76, M41, M53 and probably others that I cannot recall. He was particularly proud of the design of the M53 spherical barrel bushing, an engineering feat that was very interesting to me. He also exhibited a great sense of humor. He pointed to an old black and white employee photo of a young man and asked us to guess who the person was. It reminded me of the old wanted posters you used to see in the US Post Office, I thought perhaps a prohibition era gangster worked at the factory at some point, but it turned out to be Mr. Charron’s own employee photo from his youth.
The Performance Center was a fenced off area with CNC milling machines, but I was more impressed with an enormous hammer forge which seemed about three stories tall. The employees all appeared very safety conscious and professional. I sort of expected to see metal chips littering the floor around the older mills and lathes but there was very little debris. There was also a small walled off area with large windows where you could observe engravers at work. The admin office hallway had big game mounts on display, but I don’t recall what types of animals. Some of the most amusing stories related to the employee restroom which was (logically) located on the way to the cafeteria. The restroom had an interesting circular hand washing station so multiple employees could cleanup simultaneously. It was related that a foreign police dept from Asia flew inspectors to conduct pre-delivery inspections at the factory and mistook the hand washing stations to be urinals…
Anyhow it was a great experience. I understand Mr. Charron has passed and I don’t know what sort of arrangements were made or offered to the current Springfield employees, if some of them will make the move south. From what I’ve read, revolver manufacturing will stay in Springfield so at least a significant remanent will remain.
