Founded during the Great Depression, and now smack in the middle of the Great Recession, Holland LP is still on track and showing no signs of slowing, the Southtown Star reports. But that should come as no surprise because that is exactly what Holland LP does best - keep things, or more specifically, trains, on track.

The Crete, Ill.-based company, celebrating 75 years in business, specializes in manufacturing railroad parts and testing equipment to ensure trains are stable and railroad tracks are smooth and aligned. It contracts with large metropolitan commuter rail, such as Metra and the Chicago Transit Authority.

It also contracts with large railroads such as Union Pacific and BNSF for those services, as well as railcar cleaning and repair, locomotive cleaning and repair and rail welding. On top of all that, Holland sells dozens of seemingly mundane railcar parts (Need a crossbar liner or an air hose support?), and makes a pretty penny along the way. The company has about 500 employees - about 100 of those are based in Crete - and boasts $100 million in annual sales.

Holland's president of 23 years, Phil Moeller, still talks about the business with as much excitement as a boy with a new train set. "I'm just really optimistic about the future of Holland Corp.; the railroad industry is just a great place to be right now," he said.

His optimism is partly reflected in the fact that Holland is looking for more employees, with 42 openings listed recently on the company's Web site.

"Oh, yeah, we're hiring," Moeller said. "We're continually looking for people. We're very lucky to continue to grow."

Moeller said Holland has always searched for new and better ways to do things. A short company film tells of FBI agents attending Holland dinners during the Cold War when Holland was working with a Soviet company to develop its signature Mobile Flash-Butt welding equipment. It got so difficult to work with their Russian counterpart that Holland employees had to reverse engineer the machinery based on diagrams.

The film also shows company executives reminiscing about one employee who used to search trash bins at rail yards to find out what parts railroad companies used the most.

"We're interested in finding how to do things in a better way, in a unique way," Moeller said. "We're not interested in doing what everybody else is doing."

In addition to maintaining its own success, Holland has been winning friends in its relatively new home of Crete. The company moved there in 1998 from Chicago Heights.

Melissa Burda, of Crete-Monee School District 201-U, said Holland was one of the founding members of the district's Business-Education Partnership program, and has even "adopted" Crete Elementary School by sending Holland vice president Jim Morgan to teach students life skills, such as honesty and responsibility. The company even invites students to take field trips to the wetlands on company property. There, the kids can observe plant life and animal life and collect soil samples to take back to school and observe under microscopes.

Burda says Holland has also been generous about donating books and school supplies when the school was in need.

"They've just been an asset to the school district, and we're extremely happy to have the relationship that we do with them," she said.

Crete Village Administrator Tom Durkin calls Holland a "great corporate citizen."

"They work closely with the village, above and beyond what you'd see from most companies," he said.