The Man Who Shaped California Rail Safety Retires After Five Decades
Roger on Muir Trestle in 2017, and talking to the press after a CPUC Voting Meeting in 2020.
The CPUC is losing its very own Renaissance man this summer. Roger Clugston, Director of the Rail Safety Division, is retiring after 52 years working on and around California’s railroads, 24 of those years in Bakersfield for the CPUC.
Roger is not only an expert when it comes to railway safety but he also is an accomplished musician, playwriter, actor, and painter as well as a father of six and a grandfather of five. He is just as comfortable in a three-piece suit being interviewed by a reporter as he is on a railroad trestle in his standard-issue safety vest and hard hat.
“Roger is famous around the CPUC,” said Pat Tsen, Deputy Executive Director of Consumer Policy, Transportation, and Enforcement. “No one is more knowledgeable about California’s railways and all it takes to keep them safe, and when you talk to him, you find that he also knows so much about history, music, theater and art.”
Roger first started riding the rails with his father who worked in a “paint gang” for Santa Fe Railroad, traveling across California, sleeping in “living cars,” and scraping and repainting stations, bridges, and trestles.
“I thought it was a great job when I was a kid,” Roger said. “It’s all I ever wanted to do.”
But when he went to work for Santa Fe in 1973, he was assigned to track construction and maintenance, the hard work of building track and replacing rails and ties. “It really beat me up at the beginning,” Roger said. “But I soon learned there’s a craft, an art form, to track work.”
This is illustrated in the fact that the actual gravitational wheel contact on the track is only about the width of a dime. Yet, the train stays on the track at 80 or 90 miles per hour underneath a loaded railcar carrying over 100 tons of cargo. Track is ingeniously designed to counteract centrifugal force through curves and elevation change so the railcars don’t rock or tip over.
Roger did this back-breaking work for more than a decade with a promotion to the track foreman program. He lost his right index finger at one point in an accident (it was reattached) and he talks fondly of the close brotherhood he gained with his co-workers.
In the 1990s, Roger transitioned to working as a consultant, investigator, and expert witness to help railroad workers after accidents. Then, in 2001, he started with the CPUC as a track inspector and was soon promoted to a senior track inspector.
“I loved it,” he said. “I learned more about railroad operations, signals, and hazardous materials. The CPUC gave me autonomy to do the job and treated me well. No more missing important family events. And people listened to my ideas for improvement and training.”
CPUC inspectors spend their days walking track and railway crossings, and riding in the locomotive cab with the railroad engineer. They visually inspect and evaluate tracks and structures, grade crossings, hazmat transportation, train control systems, rail equipment and overall operations. Roger talks about the importance of having a regulatory posture as an inspector, to not feel pressured to rush an inspection, and to remember that safety is the priority.
“You have to get confident in the skin of a regulator first,” he said. “When you’re working around the railroad, your stance is, ‘I’m not your friend, but I’m here to help.’”
Roger is clear that an inspector never quotes a regulation off the top of their head but should read directly from the written regulation. Different words can change meaning, he said, causing confusion and reducing the CPUC’s credibility. It’s this attention to detail, and concern over what the CPUC wasn’t looking at, that also inspired Roger to recommend and help launch the first state railway bridge and tunnel inspection programs.
“The thing Roger brings to the people of California is the full-on commitment to public safety above all else,” Pat said. “The CPUC is the only agency in the U.S. that invests in rail safety and saving lives to this level.”
In 2019, Roger became the first director of a newly organized Rail Safety Division at the CPUC. Today, the Division’s 125 employees oversee safety for all of the 10,000 miles of California’s freight and commuter railways as well as 12,000 rail crossings, all new railway construction, and 15 local transit systems.
“This work is the highlight of my career,” Roger said. “I came into the CPUC as an entry level inspector and moved up to director, and without a college degree. You can do anything if you’re willing to work hard for it.”
Pat said whether or not he has a college degree, she thinks he missed his calling as a professor, especially in the way he mentors employees across the CPUC and how he knows about so many topics.
Influenced by the old Jimmie Rodgers songs about railroads, Roger taught himself to play the guitar, mandolin, and fiddle, and has hosted a regular folk music radio program on a local radio station. He has written 19 plays, acted in 55 productions, and served as a community director for a local theater company. And he decided to take up oil painting just two years ago. He’s now completed murals in his backyard and kitchen and a series of portraits of famous people, like John F. Kennedy.
While the CPUC is losing much as he retires, Roger’s journey is not at the end of its line. He’s planning on painting more and going to shows in Las Vegas. And as he steps away from inspections and into a well-earned retirement, Roger leaves behind more than just a legacy of safety and professionalism, he leaves a lasting impression as someone who brought integrity, curiosity, and creativity to everything he did. Whether with a guitar, a paintbrush, or a regulation manual in hand, Roger reminds us that expertise and artistry can go hand in hand, and that passion, above all, makes the journey worthwhile.
By Jody Holzworth, Deputy Executive Director, External Affairs Division
