California dreamin’ – railroad style

An eastbound Union Pacific stack train climbs California's Beaumont Hill from Loma Linda to Beaumont, Calif., on Tuesday. It was followed closely by a merchandise train on the former Southern Pacific Sunset Route. Jim Wrinn photo

PALM DESERT, Calif. – While much of the nation has suffered mightily through dangerously bitter cold that would test anyone’s patience, 1,100 people have been in this southern California desert town for the annual meeting of the National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association. The four-day meeting takes place in south Florida or southern California on alternating years, and this year the timing couldn’t have been better to get out of the deep freeze or worse – for those stuck in it and whose travel plans were thwarted. We’ve been here to share copies of Trains with participants and also to soak up knowledge of what’s going on in the railroad industry that we all care so deeply about. OK, during breaks we also went outside to soak up some SoCal sunshine, but that’s secondary to our common cause. Let’s listen in.

For one thing, everybody is concerned about the future of hauling of crude oil by rail. The topic isn’t on the seminar list, but in the hallways and in the trade show, you can hear talk about how that after three accidents in the last half of 2013, including one on BNSF Railway on Dec. 31 in North Dakota, everyone is worried that one more accident could trigger a slew of additional government regulations on handling this lucrative new traffic source. One idea heard often: Reduced speed of trains when passing crude oil or traveling through population centers. Yes, it slows down traffic and cuts into the ever beloved velocity, but maybe it’s a better alternative?

The industry continues to age. Yes, the people running the railroads of today are getting older and the pace of hiring younger employees can’t keep up. “Everybody I deal with is in his 50s or 60s,” said one vendor. “They won’t be around long before they retire.” Student chapters of the American Railway Engineering & Maintenance Association at colleges and universities across the continent are encouraging more newbies, but railroading really needs a high profile as a profitable, energetic, and cool business to be in.

The contractors meeting is typically the venue where Class I, major shortline holding companies, and the top commuter agencies in the country come to describe what they’ve done in the way of major infrastructure projects in the last year and what they plan to do in the year ahead. Almost everyone is laying double track, adding sidings and yards, and preparing for more traffic to come. Nobody is holding back.

One of the most interesting presentations at the association’s meeting was from a representative of the controversial California high speed rail program. The agency that is building a 220-mph line between Los Angeles and San Francisco even acknowledges this controversy and has begun comparing itself to the Golden Gate Bridge, which apparently upon construction was described as an upside down mouse trap and itself the subject of 2,000 lawsuits (nobody has come up with the number of lawsuits filed against California high speed rail that I know of).

CSX wins the award for the best named scrap metal drive called “No spike left behind.”

Interestingly, while this meeting takes place at the J.W. Marriot hotel and spa, it is just a little over a mile to Union Pacific’s former Southern Pacific Sunset Route between Los Angeles and New Orleans. On Tuesday, while participants were discussing maintenance of way projects, a UP rail, tie, and surfacing gang was in nearby Indio, Calif., doing what others were talking about. The UP is putting serious effort into this route, and it shows. Traffic is there too: On I-10 that parallels the route, you’ll see dozens of stack, merchandise, and auto trains.

After Tuesday’s presentations, yours truly got in a rental car and drove ad rep Mike Yuhas to the Ontario, Calif., airport for a flight home. Then, on the way back to the meeting, I went to inspect UP’s Beaumount Hill, a twisting, turning, steep eastbound grade out of the Los Angeles basin and into the desert. Once upon a time, this was Southern Pacific’s big grade on the Sunset Route. Today, the parade of stack trains seems to be endless, and they really work hard to get over this grade, over track, bridges, and an infrastructure that are second to none.