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By John Hernandez
L.S. “Jake” Jacobson is the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Copper Basin Railway (CBRY).
Copper Basin is a short line freight railroad headquartered in the Hayden-Kearny area.
It is also one of the safest railroad companies in North America.
CBRY has gone for more than 20 years without an accident.
Think about it: a railroad line that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year moving million of tons of copper ore per year plus sulfuric acid and other freight – and not one accident.
This phenomenal achievement is due in a large part to Jake Jacobson’s leadership and management skills, skills and knowledge he has learned from over 50 years of working on the railroad.
You might say that railroading is in his blood. His mother, father and grandfather worked with the railroads. Jake was exposed to hard work and the railroads while growing up in Kansas.
Jacobson is well known in the railroad industry. He is popular and greatly respected by his peers and employees. In 1994 he was named Railway Age magazine’s “Railroader of the Year” for North America. He was named “Great Railroader of the Century” in 2000. The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association has even named a safety award after him. The Jake Jacobson Safety Award, “The Jake Award” is given annually to railroads that have an injury free year.
A Little History
The Copper Basin Railway began its life as part of the Santa Fe Railway (which was a subsidiary of the Phoenix and Eastern Railroad) and was built between 1902 and 1904.The railway connected Winkelman to Phoenix via Florence.Originally, the builders thought to connect it with Benson. This never came to fruition.
According to Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org), the railroad was leased to Santa Fe Railway upon the completion of construction in 1904.The track at Winkelman was extended 6.35 miles to Christmas in 1911, but that section of track was abandoned in 1961.Southern Pacific Railway, which gained ownership of the railway in September 1955 after a merger, sold the line to mine operator Kennecott Copper and on Aug. 15, 1986, Kennecott sold it and Copper Basin Railway was born. (This is where Jake entered the picture.)
“I was hired over 20 years ago by Asarco’s Dick Banghart and Bill Bennis to look after Asarco’s best interest and to manage the railroad,” Jake said. “So I’ve been working with Asarco for over 20 years.” Jake stayed on as president when the line was sold completely to Asarco in 2006.
In 1993, a section of track near Kearny was washed away by rising flood waters from the Gila River. Jake and all the employees of the railroad worked tirelessly to save the shortline, even going against the Army Corps of Engineers at one point, building a dike to force the river back where it belonged.His actions during the flood and during the long months rebuilding the damaged sections of the railroad (and many other wonderful qualities) earned Jake the title of Railroader of the Year.
Even in the face of such huge odds, Copper Basin Railway had no injuries.
Jake has been compared to America’s railroad folk heroes Casey Jones and John Henry. He has been called many things in his life including a living legend, a leader, innovator, hero, and a safety fanatic.
It is not fanaticism that drives Jake’s quest for safety – it is just that he cares for the people that are railroad workers and the people he works with. Jake and CBRY use a family approach to safety. He has helped create a family-style safety culture that inspires his employees to be safe and has built a work environment that motivates employees to want to come to work. He leads by example and believes that safety “is a spirit and a morality.”As signs at the work place attest, “Respect, common sense, safety and a sincere caring about the well-being of your fellow worker” are mandatory.
“Power” is railroad terminology for a locomotive or group of locomotives that serve as the power for the train. While other managers talk about the “power” that drives their railroad as being the size or model of their locomotive, Jake coined the phrase which is the company’s motto and painted on the sides of their rail cars “Our ‘Real Power’ Is In The Pride Of Our People.”
Casey Jones was a railroad engineer working for the Illinois Central Railroad. He was killed when his passenger train collided with a stalled freight train in Vaughan, Mississippi in 1900. A legend grew about his brave attempt to stop the collision. He remained on board and told his fireman to jump from the train. Casey was the only one killed in the wreck. They say that Jones’s legend grew because of the folk song that an African American friend of his, William Saunders, wrote called “The Ballad of Casey Jones.” Saunders worked for the railroad as an engine wiper (cleaned steam engines). The song became popular around 1909 and spread the story of Casey Jones throughout the country. The closing lyrics of the ballad could also be speaking about “railroader” Jake Jacobson:
“Headaches and heartaches and all kinds of pain are not apart from a railroad train; Tales that are earnest, noble and grand belong to the life of a railroad man.”
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