LOWERING THE BOOM ON FOLLY : MAN PROMOTING RAILROAD SAFETY.

Byline: Alicia Doyle Daily News Staff Writer

Trains and railroads were a hobby for Rexford Leong, a passion carried over from childhood, building and intricately detailing model trains.

It was just a hobby until one of the railroad worker friends he had made pursuing his craft began talking about an accident he had had 20 years before when his train hit a young girl riding a horse in a railroad tunnel.

The man's anguish - still fresh after 20 years - and the emotional pain Leong discovered in other railroad workers who had been involved in train accidents, turned his hobby into an equally intense advocacy for train safety.

Now a member of Operation Lifesaver, the 38-year-old spends his vacations, days off and time in between two night-shift jobs to teach railroad crossing safety to bus drivers, students and passengers riding Ventura County's train lines.

``It's like religion,'' said Leong, who talks animatedly about the program's efforts to prevent and reduce crashes and injuries on the nation's train tracks. ``If you believe that something is fully worth your effort, you'll find time for it.''

The railroad tracks in Ventura County are shared by Metrolink, Union Pacific and Amtrak, with between 15 and 22 trains running through the county on a daily basis, said Mike Furtney, a spokesman for Union Pacific Lines.

In Ventura County there have been 11 incidents of trains hitting people on the tracks since 1989. Of those 11, four were killed, Furtney said.

In California two years ago, 152 people died and 127 were injured in 467 incidents that involved trespassers on the tracks or vehicles blocking a train's path, according to the latest figures from the California Public Utilities Commission.

Fifty-nine percent - 276 - of those incidents occurred at public crossings because drivers failed to stop, did not clear the tracks, drove around or crashed through the gates while a train approached, according to CPUC officials.

More than $50 million in local, state, federal and railroad funds have been spent in California over the past 11 years for grade crossing safety. Though the number of accidents have dropped, many motorists, cyclists and pedestrians ignore or don't know crossing safety laws, officials said.

Operation Lifesaver, a nonprofit program now in 49 states and Canada, was first launched in 1972 in Idaho to increase public awareness of highway-rail grade crossing dangers.

Many drivers do not cross railroad tracks often enough to be familiar with the warning devices designed for their safety, according to officials at Operation Lifesaver. Many are unaware that trains cannot stop as quickly as motor vehicles to avoid a collision. Others simply ignore all warning signs because they are in a hurry, or would rather beat the train than wait.

This ignorance is the most common factor contributing to track collisions, officials said.

Since California adopted Operation Lifesaver in 1979, incidents have declined more than 30 percent - 467 in 1994 compared to 693 in 1978 - reports show.

Leong joined Operation Lifesaver more than three decades after first delving into the craft of making model trains.

Since he was 5 years old, Leong has spent countless hours using hairline paintbrushes and toothpicks to add meticulous details to his collection of box cars, cabooses and locomotives. He modeled his vast collection after pictures of real trains inside magazines and books.

Leong was 18 when he looked beyond his stack of research to enhance his hobby. In his spare time, the teen talked shop with conductors and engineers as they arrived and departed from the old passing track that ran through Simi Valley on the east side of town.

He questioned the trainmen for details about their giant steel machines. He learned how the drivers manipulated the massive diesel engines. And he applied the meticulous details of the locomotives inside and out to his tiny model trains at home.

Over the years, Leong became good friends with the men working the trains. Some conductors gave the teen cabin tours or a peek at the engine as passengers were busy finding their seats. Other engineers who owned model trains themselves would invite Leong into their homes for a personal look.

Then three years ago Leong got a look at the working world anguish of the men who ran the trains he loved.

An engineer began talking to Leong about an accident he had been in the early 1970s, when his train hit and killed a 16-year-old girl riding her horse on the tracks through a tunnel.

With no warning and not enough time to stop, the engineer had to drive through the full length of the tunnel and stop before walking back inside to see if the girl somehow had survived.

Leong subsequently discovered many of his train friends suffered nightmares after barely missing someone walking or in a stalled car on the tracks.

``I could see them suffering,'' said Leong. ``When someone is hit on the tracks, the conductor, too, is affected for life.''

While retaining his love of model train building, Leong has taken up the cause of railroad safety. Had the 16-year-old known how dangerous it was to ride through a tunnel, perhaps she would still be alive, Leong said.

``Maybe this could have been prevented,'' said Leong. ``If I can save just one life, if I can make one person think before crossing the tracks, it's worth it.''

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Photo

Photo: (color in SIMI edition only) Rexford Leong stands at a railroad crossing gate in Simi Valley not far from the train station.

Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News