Instructor Bios

Stephen Hill, PE has been working for railroads for more than 40 years. He has held positions from section labourer to assistant division manager engineering to manager projects for the US for Canadian Pacific and other Class 1 roads. He is currently Vice president Engineering and Chief Engineer Maintenance for Iowa Pacific Holdings. Through his career, Steve has been responsible for bridge inspection and construction and has dealt with the results of scour and worked on many individual solutions and preventative measures. He holds Bachelor’s Degrees in History and Civil Engineering and a Master’s in Business Administration and is a registered Professional engineer.

James Lee Hostler is a 1977 Texas Tech University graduate with his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering.  He has 37 years of class one Railroad experience with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and its predecessor road, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. He has worked for and led teams within the engineering department primarily in the field for new railroad construction, new railroad bridge construction and railroad bridge maintenance.   Lee holds professional Civil Engineering Licenses in California, New Mexico and Texas.  He retired from the BNSF at the end of 2014 and remains active in the railroad bridge construction, maintenance and inspection through AREMA Committee 10.  Lee has taken the opportunity to review railroad bridge plans for consultants hired by other railroads and or State agencies in Texas and California.  He currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Donald L. McCammon has worked on railroad projects since 1982 and is a registered Professional Engineer in 17 states and has an international engineering certification.  He has 11 ½ years of Class 1 RR experience including design, maintenance and construction of railroad bridges in an area including the Powder River Basin as well as track and railroad facility experience.  As a consultant currently working for HDR Engineering, he’s worked a variety of railroad projects across the North American continent and in Australia, South America, Africa and the Middle East.  He is a life member of AREMA, is a past chairman of Committee 7, helped with the original creation of AREMA and, as an active Committee 10 member, helped develop and continues to teach the AREMA Railroad Bridge Inspection Class.  He actively supported the ASLRRA’s response to the Bridge Safety Regulation in developing guideline documents for Shortlines and teaches railroad worker safety.

Peter Schierloh, PE has been working with railroad bridges for 15 years. After graduating with a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Michigan Tech he worked as a railroad bridge inspector and then as a project engineer. As a Project Engineer with SW Bridge Engineers, LLC he is involved in bridge inspection, design and construction on Class 1, Regional, and Short line railroads throughout the US. He is involved in AREMA Committee 10 and is a registered Professional Engineer.

Erich Schmitz, PE is the Adjunct Professor of fluid mechanics and stream stability and scour for the University of Missouri – Kansas City.  He is a published author in the area of engineering education as well as computational hydraulics and scour estimation techniques. He has specialized experience in performing geomorphic analyses, hydraulic studies, stream stability and scour countermeasure design, sediment transport and scour analysis. He has completed hydrologic, hydraulic, and bridge scour analyses at hundreds of locations across the United Sates.

This course is comprised of recommended practices and relevant accumulated knowledge from subject matter experts in the railroad industry.   It is not intended as a regulatory qualification.