How this Union Pacific rail yard worker in Roseville keeps his team, freight lines safe

Jerry Rhea and his team of railway workers have called the Roseville Rail Yard their home base for nearly 30 years.

And this year, Rhea and his team celebrated an industry milestone: 23 years without injury while doing this very dangerous job. They were recognized in a newsletter by the Union Pacific CEO last year.

Fatalities and injuries for railway employees have been on a steady decline since 2000, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Nonetheless, more than 3,000 people working in the industry reported being injured on the job in 2021, and 11 people lost their lives that year, the latest figures were reported.

“Twenty-three years is huge,” Rhea said in an interview with The Sacramento Bee. “It is very huge in the industry ... across all the railroads. It’s highly regarded what your safety record is and how you maintain it, there’s a lot of pride in it.”

Rhea, 50, started working at Union Pacific’s J.R. Davis Yard — the largest and busiest on the West Coast — in 1992 when he was fresh out of high school. He started as a mechanic’s helper, building water lines and bathrooms along the rail lines. But bridges are what captured his attention.

He learned on the job, working his way up in Union Pacific, the nation’s second-largest railroad with more than 32,000 miles of track across the West and Midwest U.S.

“It’s very hard work but that’s the way I was raised,” he said. “It’s enjoyable work get to be outside every day meet great people. I fell in love with railroading.”

Now he manages a 20-person crew and is responsible for the maintenance of dozens of bridges in a service area that stretches from Klamath Falls, Oregon, to Winnemucca, Nevada.

“Whether they be timber or steel, bridges are always heavy,” Rhea said. “There’s a lot of pinch points, a lot of potential for injury.”

He and his team are certified and experienced wildland firefighters, too, who spring into action every year to protect the railway from wildfire.

It’s an important part of the job, Rhea said, because if a line is damaged it can have a domino effect on UP’s network and beyond, delaying the transportation of vital goods into and out of Northern California.

Despite all the risk, he and his team have not sustained a single injury on duty. And Rhea credits the “culture of safety” that he and his team have worked hard to build over the years.

“Keeping these guys safe is the most important part of my job,” he said. “it’s about that whatever happens, at the end of the day, every man gets to go home safe.”

This story was originally published January 19, 2023 at 8:40 AM.