On Track

Good job outlook straight ahead for rail grads

As a boy, Jim Brix loved trains and dreamed of working for a railroad when he grew up. By the time he came to UIUC in 1998, however, he had abandoned that idea. He entered the animal science program, intending to follow in the footsteps of his father, a veterinarian. He earned his bachelor’s degree but was uninspired by the idea of veterinary school. What had really excited him during his undergraduate years was a class in railroad engineering that took him back to his childhood interest.

Brix decided to go to business school, and during that time he took another of CEE’s railroad engineering classes. Eventually the idea of working on the railroad became more than a childhood dream.

Brix earned his master’s degree in business administration this year and was hired by CSX Transportation in Huntington, W. Va. As an assistant manager of materials in the railroad’s purchasing and materials department, he manages the production of major components used to repair and maintain diesel locomotives. It’s a noisy, greasy, hands-on environment, he says, but he’s convinced he’s chosen the right career.

“I’m happy, I’m making good money, I have great benefits, and I get to hang around trains all day,” he says.
What’s more, Brix says, the job outlook is wide open for graduates because of steady growth in the industry and an aging work force. Most of his co-workers are nearing retirement, he says, and there is a critical shortage of skilled workers to replace them.

“You can’t swing your arms around without hitting opportunities,” the 23-year-old says.
Brix is among recent graduates who are finding that CEE’s Railroad Engineering classes have prepared them well to take advantage of expanding opportunities in the rail industry. In addition, they’re learning that their formal railroad engineering education is a rare commodity in the job market; at a time when most universities have long since discontinued their railroad programs, UlUC’s is stronger than ever and highly respected in the industry.
Universities began phasing out their railroad programs in the 1960s, when people assumed air transportation and the highway system would replace rail transportation, says Associate Professor Chris Barkan, director of UlUC’s Railroad Engineering Program, who came to the department in 1998 from a position with the Association of American Railroads (AAR) with the goal of expanding and revitalizing Illinois’ program.

		“What was lost on people were the efficiencies of rail,” Barkan says. “I have a lifelong belief in the value of rail transportation as an efficient and economical form of transportation, and it’s in a growth phase right now—dramatically in terms of passenger and transit and steady in terms of freight transportation, as well. And this at a time in our nation’s history when energy efficiency, land use efficiency, environmental efficiency and economic efficiency are all increasingly important. This is a transportation that provides all of these things better than its competitors, so from a long-term sustainability standpoint, rail transportation is vitally important. The ironic part is that this is at a time when the educational commitment to it has been declining for 20 to 30 years.”
As national interest in a high-speed rail corridor grows, the amount of freight being transported by rail increases, and the industry’s work force approaches retirement, the job outlook for trained engineers in both railroads and the engineering firms that supply them is better than ever, and the importance of educating the next generation of railroad engineers has become increasingly critical. As the top school for railroad engineering in North America for 100 years, Illinois is well-positioned to meet the challenge. To many, Illinois has long been synonymous with railroad engineering, and while its program was pruned back over the years, it never disappeared entirely. Noted faculty members like Arthur Newell Talbot, Edward C. Schmidt, Harry Wetenkamp, Herbert F. Moore and William W. Hay—who literally wrote the book on the subject (Railroad Engineering was published in 1953 and updated in 1982)—helped build a lasting legacy for the program. Hay, who spent 30 years at Illinois, has been credited with keeping railway engineering alive during a time when many programs were increasingly focusing on the highways. He died in 1998 at age 89. After Hay’s retirement in 1977, Professor Ernest J. Barenberg, now emeritus, took over as director, serving until his retirement in 1996. Widely respected by industry colleagues, Barenberg developed a multi-disciplinary focus for the program and helped it achieve its designation as an Association of American Railroads Affiliated Laboratory. Today, it is farther ahead of the pack than ever before. The program is growing steadily, with class offerings having expanded in recent years from one class to four, taught by Barkan and adjunct lecturer Don Uzarski. The department is currently searching for a second full-time faculty member. On the research front, there is more railroad engineering research going on in the department than at any other university in North America, with annual funding levels between $500,000 and $1 million. In addition, Grainger Engineering Library Information Center is home to North America’s largest collection of railroad engineering technical literature, the William W. Hay Railroad Engineering Collection. Finally, industry support is high, thanks to the university’s strong railroad engineering legacy and its commitment to maintaining strong ties with industry. “We are still, as far as I can tell, the only university that has a strong commitment to growing our railroad engineering program,” Barkan says. “We’re ahead of our time.” There’s good evidence that such foresight is benefiting students who study railroad engineering at UIUC. Recent graduate Kevin Day (MS 02) earned his master’s degree with a concentration in railroad transportation engineering and was quickly hired by Canadian National Railway Company (CN). When he completes CN’s two-year management training program, Day’s job will be to manage bridges and structures. He says that of the 12 recent university graduates in the training program, only he has any formal railroad training. The training program was designed to include both university graduates and CN employees moving into management, Day says, partly to allow the university graduates—all of whom hold degrees in engineering or business but typically have no specific railroad training—to benefit from the experience of the veteran workers. “I had a leg up on that,” he says. Structural engineer Judie Schwartz (BS 97, MS 01) agrees that classroom training and hands-on work experience give graduates an edge in the railroad industry. After earning her bachelor’s degree, Schwartz was hired by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) to work in its structural engineering department in Kansas City. Schwartz got a good introduction to the industry and the variety of jobs that were available, she says. While she found the job fascinating with good compensation and ample opportunity, she decided she wouldn’t like the frequent travel and long hours that working for the railroad was likely to require. In addition, she wanted to do more of the kind of design work that was being outsourced by BNSF. She accepted a position with Bowman, Barrett & Associates in Chicago, an engineering consulting firm that serves the railroads, where she designs railroad bridges. She believes her seven months’ experience at BNSF helped her land the consulting job because hands-on experience is so highly valued in railroad-related jobs. Applicants who have taken the railroad engineering classes will also have an advantage, Schwartz says. “When people come out of college and into this kind of job, they usually have to be trained,” Schwartz says. “The more information you have before you get out of school, the better off you are at finding a job in this industry. If you want to get into it, take the classes.” PhD student Anne Werner (MS 98) took the classes. Through her association with the program, and thanks to its strong ties with industry, she was offered a summer internship with BNSF. The job gave her a broad-based introduction to the industry and a chance to apply what she had learned in her railroad engineering classes. Now the construction materials research assistant hopes to find a job either with a railroad or for a railroad consulting firm after she graduates this spring. She’s confident she’ll be able to apply what she’s learned in her study of construction materials. “Every area in civil engineering is [represented] in the railroad—geotechnical, structures, construction materials, even environmental,” Werner says. “Anybody with a civil engineering degree should be able to work for the railroads.” For Werner, the appeal of the industry is its dynamic, challenging environment. She was impressed with the high level of job satisfaction among the railroad employees she met during her internship. “The people I’ve met at BNSF and other railroads all just love their jobs,” she says. “Every single person I talked to said, ‘Well, I came to work for them 20 years ago, and I just never left because I love it.’” For more information about the railroad program at UIUC, visit http://cee.uiuc.edu/railroad/mainpage.htm.