By Geoffrey Fattah
Deseret Morning News

      MIDVALE — As valley residents put on their jammies and tuck themselves into bed, these guys are just getting started.

The 33 TRAX cars undergo maintenance during the wee hours of the morning. Tom Smart, Deseret Morning News

      When the first TRAX trains begin to roll in to the UTA TRAX maintenance depot after a long day's work, a crew of some 25 cleaners and engineers roll up their sleeves and get to work at an early 10 p.m.
      "We've got to get about 33 cars out of here every night," said UTA light-rail maintenance supervisor Jim Wilson. And with the first Sandy line train leaving at 4:45 a.m., some hustle is involved.
      "We've got a tight schedule," said electro-mechanic Mike Meiser. "We've got roughly six hours to get these cars pulled in and get them out again."
      With more than 7 million miles logged in the past four years, each TRAX car averages about 200,000 miles of track time. Meiser is the first to conduct a spot check on each train before it is pulled into the depot. Walking up each train, Meiser punches buttons, flips switches and inspects each train inside and out for damage.
      "I'm pretty good for a 50-year-old man. I figure I walk about five miles a night. I've lost a lot of weight," Meiser chuckled.
      Sometimes in the course of his inspection, Meiser runs into some lingering customers. "We've had drunks come in on trains to the ship yard," he said. "I was walking on a train one night and there was a man in the middle of the floor, face down."
      But it doesn't happen too often.
      Once inspection is complete, trains are brought in for cleaning. "It's important that we try to keep the cars clean because it affects ridership," Wilson said.

Hazards of cleanup
      From gum and graffiti to vomit and even blood, TRAX cleaning crews deal with some of the more unsavory tasks.
      "Socks. I find socks more than anything," said Shane Gunderson, who was vacuuming the steps a car while a co-worker mopped, although he could not explain why socks are found so often. Each seat cushion on the train can be pulled out and cleaned with a special machine.
      Since the opening of the line to the University of Utah, they're finding a lot of misplaced textbooks.
      "The weirdest thing we've found? I'd have to say a lawn mower," Wilson said. "It sat in our station for quite a while, but nobody claimed it."
      Crews say they are finding more and more gang graffiti on cars. Special liners are placed on windows to keep vandals from etching messages in the glass. The facility has a TRAX version of a giant car wash, complete with spinning rags for a quick dry.
      Cleaning also comes with its own dangers.
      "We've been finding a lot of drug paraphernalia. Needles. You've got to keep an eye open for them. They're usually stuffed between cushions," Gunderson said.
      Although they are required to wear latex gloves, Wilson said each cleaning worker has been immunized for Hepatitis A and B as a precaution. However, one Salt Lake physician said the most danger rests with Hepatitis C and AIDS, which do not have vaccinations.
      "HIV doesn't last very long outside the body, but Hepatitis C can last quite a while," said infectious disease physician Dr. Michael Rubin at the University of Utah Medical Center. Rubin said it's important that workers save the needle if they are stuck.
      Another more mundane challenge: chewing gum. But workers have found a simple solution.
      "We use stuff called Freeze-it that freezes the gum and then we just chip it off," Wilson said.

Car 1016
      Fixing broken things is routine at the depot. From a conked-out air-conditioner to engine work, many things need to be replaced, or rebuilt, within a night to keep TRAX running. But occasionally an automobile and a TRAX train collide, and things get thrown into overdrive.

Jodi Swafford works in the early hours of the morning to have TRAX cars ready for daily commutes. Crew members face a tough schedule. Tom Smart, Deseret Morning News

      Take Car 1016 for example. For whatever reason, this particular car has been involved in four separate accidents, Wilson said. "We've thought about treating cars like fighter jets, you know, putting little cars on the side of them," Wilson said, laughing. Given the steep learning curve of some motorists, mechanics have to use some humor.
      The TRAX facility boasts a crew of technicians adept at fixing any mechanical or electrical problem. And things can go wrong. In addition to being driven by a high-voltage engine, the trains are controlled by a sophisticated on-board computer that manages braking, doors and speed. If any of them malfunction, the train is shut down.
      In addition to the engine, each train has an array of more than a dozen nickel-cadmium batteries, similar to what drives laptops, the size of a car battery. The battery array is tested daily for voltage.
      "The tricky thing about these is if they drop below a certain voltage they reverse polarity," Wilson said. "We heard about an incident in Los Angeles where that happened. It blew out the entire side of the car."
      In addition, UTA has a full-time body repair specialist, who must rebuild any train part if it is damaged.
      "When a train gets into an accident, we can't just order a new bumper; he has to rebuild it," Wilson said.
      Car 1016's most recent crash, in the spring of 2000, left it with a huge gash in the side when it was derailed by a car and smashed into a utility pole.
      "It's taken about two years to rebuild it," Wilson said.
      Sitting in a special body shop, scars of the past accident can still be seen before it is covered with paint.
      UTA rail operations manager Paul O'Brien said the behind-the-scenes men and women rarely get a chance to show the public their efforts in keeping TRAX clean and running.
      "They're a pretty dedicated group," he said.