(The following story by Lindsey Mutchler appeared on the Messenger website on October 26, 2009.)
FORT DODGE, Iowa — Trains are a part of everyday life in the Fort Dodge area.
And while it may be frustrating waiting for a train to cross, the industry has been around for more than a century and is a piece of the economic puzzle.
Don Heddinger has worked with the Union Pacific Railroad for more than 30 years. He is one of more than 2,000 people in the state employed by UP.
“I work 60 hours a week and take care of all the ethanol plants in Fort Dodge, Gowrie and Grand Junction,” Heddinger said. All of the product Heddinger hauls is 100 percent agricultural, from ethanol to distiller’s dried grains with solubles – the by-product from ethanol plants used to feed livestock.
“That’s a big change,” Heddinger said. “We shifted from hauling only grain and soybeans to ethanol in tank cars and DDGS in covered cars.”
The shift in products shipped is only one change Heddinger and the railroad industry experienced over the years.
Replacing ties and spikes by hand – as Heddinger did when he started in 1979 -is now mechanized, and the number of train operators has been significantly reduced over the years from seven to two.
“When I started on the main line (in Gowrie), trains had four to five conductors, an engineer and two brakemen,” Heddinger said.
Through technological advancements, only a conductor and an engineer run the train.
Despite the positions cut because of technology and labor contracts, the industry is still chugging along.
“Up until the recession rail traffic was at an all-time high,” Heddinger said, “because every sector was booming.”
The Canadian National Railway, which employs nearly 230 people in Iowa, responded to the changes in the economy, but isn’t suffering, said Patrick Waldron a spokesman for Canadian National.
“We’ve responded to the service changes of our customers,” Waldron said. “We’re six times more efficient as a shipper than heavy trucks, and we still run four to six trains a day in Iowa.”
While CN and UP transport lots of ag-based products, like ethanol, from the state, coal is the primary product the UP railroad brings to the state.
“When people are waiting for a train at a crossing, I don’t think they realize we’re hauling energy so they can turn their lights on when they get home,” said UP engineer Bill Cobb.
Besides bringing energy to residents, the railroads are working to bring more jobs to the area as well.
“We’re currently working with the development group in Webster County to bring new agribusiness to the Fort Dodge area,” said Waldron referring to the proposed Agriculture Industrial Park for Webster County.
Regular cars get new paint jobs from local graffiti artists, but Heddinger said the railroad doesn’t care so much about the spray paint on the side of the cars. They’re concerned with the spray painters’ safety.
“They’re on railroad property without permission, which is really dangerous,” Heddinger said. “That’s why, generally speaking, we’ll arrest them in a heartbeat because that’s how so many people get hurt or killed.”
Safety is always No. 1 for the railroad, Heddinger said. He acts as a presenter for the Union Pacific’s Operation Lifesaver safety education program.
“New trains have reflector strips on them so people can see us better in the evening,” Heddinger said. “But we just ask everyone to be aware. We’ve reduced the number of collisions and deaths by 70 percent since 1972, even though we have more cars and trains, because of our safety education presentations.”
Besides increasing safety, the railroads are increasing their fuel efficiency too.
“Just this week we (CN) introduced 70 new high-horsepower locomotives to our fleet,” Waldron said. “This is part of a multi-year locomotive renewal program aimed at continually increasing our fuel efficiency and improving service reliability for our customers.”
The new locomotives are 15 to 20 percent more fuel-efficient than the ones replaced.
A UP employee pioneered a new yard locomotive that will reduce emissions up to 80 percent and uses 40 percent less fuel, according to UP spokesman Mark Davis.
The railroad also offers a simulator program that teaches their engineers ways to best conserve fuel.
“For the last several years, our employees have participated in a program called fuel masters,” Davis said. “The simulations are a benefit for us to not only conserve fuel, but it’s also environmentally friendly.”