"Tiptoeing through the tarantulas" with Jake Jacobson - president and general manager of Copper Basin Railway in Arizona - Interview

Railway Age, Feb, 1996

L.S. "Jake" Jacobson, vice president and general manager of Arizona's 27-mile Copper Basin Railway, stands tall in the short line industry. In recent years he has, quite literally, brought his railroad through flood and fire. He was Railway Age's Railroader of the Year in 1994, probably the most popular choice in the long history of that award. The Copper Basin has now created the Jake Jacobson Safety Award, and it's coveted by short lines as the Class I's covet Harrimans.

As noted in the accompanying story, Jacobson thinks that the FRA under Administrator Jolene Molitoris has come a long way in promoting safety on the smaller railroads. But, he adds:

Although the flames of a few years ago have been brought under control, there are still a few hot spots. We need to continue the "quality" continuous improvement approach to enhance the streamlining, downsizing. and elimination of duplication in all government agencies including the FRA.

I am sure some day the smoke and mirrors will clear and it will be noticed that a couple of state corporation commission agents frequently accompanied by a few feds drive up in their new white medium-sized cars with their briefcases and metal clipboards in hand and say, "We are here to help, we are going to audit your time sheets and safety records." So you put on your auditing bat and grab your CFR [Code of Federal Regulations] 49 and do your best to defend your railroad.

Next day it's a similar entourage ranging from one to umpteen, "here to help" and look at railcars. So you put on your carmen's hat, grab your CFR, and defend your flanges, bolsters, side bearing clearance, grabirons, etc. Later you put on your track hat, grab your CFR and track level, and argue frog wear, gauge, reverse elevation, weeds, and turnout speeds.

Meanwhile, you are managing your railroad in your spare time and from your bedside phone at 2 a.m., only to go to work and find that the signal and road crossing inspectors are coming. You put on your signal hat, grab your CFR, and deal with that.

A while later it's locomotive inspectors; you put on your locomotive hat, grab your CFR, and do traction motors, sanders, coupler height, first aid kit, and prime mover things.

Now it's the end of the month and--Lord have mercy!--it's an expert in tank cars checking on obsolete lead seals and another who's a hazmat inspector.

About the time you've come up for air it's another round of new white cars and metal clipboards of the state and fed operating practice group checking everything from blue flags to hours of service and their conflicting opinions on deadhead time.

By this time you've run out of thumbs, fingers, toes, or anything else to hold your place in your now tom, greasy, and tattered CFR, so you pitch it and grab the terminal portion of your anatomy, praying that someone combining the intellect of Confucius, Einstein, and King Solomon will say: Hey! Wait a minute, we've got the tail wagging the dog. Let's pay twice the bucks, hire the person with all the hats in the worn out high-rail pickup truck, sell the new cars, reduce our expense accounts, and reduce our forces by 90%. Or, we could give the person with all the hats one metal clipboard and send him to Washington, letting them know that "he is here to help" reduce costs and force downsizing comparable to the railroads.

Recently in a heated argument involving myself, a state corporation commission inspector, an FRA inspector, and my superintendent, none of us could agree on how to handle a hog-lawed crew in a remote area where no roads exist. The only way in is by high-rail truck, and we could not agree on how to log the deadhead time. One inspector insisted that prior to the elapse of 12 hours the train must be stopped, properly secured, cab locked, and crew must leave railroad property at the expiration of 12 hours. When I asked why, I was told it's for safety and it's the law. I said: No way in hell am I going to force my good people to crawl through a barbed wire fence into a desert infested by rattlesnakes, scorpions, killer bees, cactus, and 120 degree temperatures and wait for their relief to high-rail in. They are all part of our profit sharing and therefore part of the locomotive cab belongs to them and they are welcome to use the locomotive for sanctuary and protection from lightning and hail storms and the elements. Now, we haul the crew all the way back to the depot because they can't drive, where they fill out their time slips and record their deadhead time, go out and get in their personal automobiles, and drive a two-hour commute home. And we call this safety?

One inspector insisted that if we sent the crew off the properly "out on the rocks with the rattlesnakes" they had to be legally rested prior to coming back through the barbed wire fence on railroad property so they could be high-railed home. Regardless of who was right, I feel I made a crucial point when I pointed out that everyone in the room had tremendous experience and schooling on the regulations. I pointed out the experience of one inspector who had many years at various railroad jobs including superintendent at Conrail. I mentioned my 37 years and the many awards and citations around the room, including the one from Elizabeth Dole for service to the DOT. Yet with all our experience, vast knowledge, and schooling, we do not agree. The 9th district court doesn't agree with the 7th district court, and now we are going to be critical of the hardworking cowboys and native Americans, some of whom have poor educations from the reservation schools, by telling them that we are going to revise the time slips for the sixth time in five years and they will once again be required to fill them out differently.