Pride Spotlight: How BART’s “rollercoaster tycoon” found his calling in rail

BART engineer Joshua Muñoz pictured in front of 19th Street/Oakland Station in the 2024 BART Pride t-shirt.  

Mechanical Engineer Joshua Muñoz was always a strong student. But in third grade, he got in trouble with his teacher. After finishing an English quiz, young Joshua flipped the paper over and began doodling. When his teacher came over to tell him to focus, she glanced at the back of the quiz and found it covered with an intricate design for a rollercoaster.  

From a very young age, Joshua has been fascinated by wheel and rail systems. The “weird obsession,” as he describes it, began one day at Knott’s Berry Farm as he stared up at rollercoasters so massive, they seemed to poke the sky. He loved the way the trains articulated and twisted, and how they moved loudly yet gracefully around the track.  

When he was seven, Joshua finally rode his first rollercoaster, Knott's Berry Farm’s iconic Montezooma’s Revenge, a flywheel-launched shuttle coaster. 

“I was too afraid at first to ride it. I actually got on then got off,” Joshua said. Eventually he conquered his fear and experienced the exhilaration of being launched at 55mph into a vertical loop, ascending a spike, then reversing direction. 

A photo Joshua took on Montezooma’s Revenge on his last visit to Knott’s Berry Farm in February 2022. He said,” This is the view I will never forget from my childhood.”  

Joshua’s coaster obsession kept growing. During his childhood, Joshua estimates he drew hundreds of rollercoaster designs, including a “gentle rollercoaster for old folks” and one called “Triple Knot,” which had a knot configuration that looped on itself three times.  

In time, Joshua’s interests expanded to include another class of wheel and rail systems (one without the loop-de-loops). That would be railroads, of course. Joshua said being able to combine this passion with BART's mission of safely carrying people around the region makes his work feel important and meaningful. 

Plus, he still gets to enjoy his rollercoasters. In August, he’s taking himself on a vacation to the amusement park Cedar Point in Ohio. “I’ve been ogling it since I was a kid, and I finally am in a place to treat myself,” he said.  

A photo of Montezooma’s Revenge Joshua took on his last visit to Knott’s Berry Farm in February 2022.  

Joshua’s dad was a Marine, and he grew up on Camp Pendleton, an military base in Oceanside, Calif. 

“I’m lucky it was a military base in a progressive area,” Joshua said, adding that his parents were “ultimately progressive.” 

But if there was one place on the base Joshua felt most comfortable, it was the pet supply store he worked at in high school. The manager was outgoing and accepting, the type of supervisor who didn’t take the work too seriously.  

“That environment allowed me to be 16 and gay. It was a nice escape after a school day to go work at the store. It gave me a lot of room to be outgoing and comfortable,” Joshua said.  

Joshua’s dog, Chip, (not adopted from the Camp Pendleton pet store) smiling on a sunny weekend day at Dolores Park in the Mission District of San Francisco.  

Joshua never had a formal coming out. “Judging by the pink shirts I bought at Hollister, I wasn’t hiding the fact that I was gay,” he said. “I was able to present as gay and didn’t have to come out. I do remember hearing remarks out loud here and there, but I am grateful that the harassment never reached harmful levels.” 

“You know, I still look good in pink,” he added.  

Given his love for rollercoasters, Joshua decided at a young age that he’d be a mechanical engineer. At Oceanside High School, he excelled in math and physics and knew he was on the fast track to a university engineering program.  

Then, his family moved inland. It was his senior year, and Joshua was faced with starting all over in an area that was wealthier, more conservative, and less diverse.  

“When we moved, I lost that open world I had back at Oceanside High," he said.  

At his new school, an English teacher pulled him aside after class to tell him to act less gay.  

“I know you’re out,” she told him. “You just have to be a little more cautious.”  

Joshua started to “check out” at his new school. Then he got a C in calculus. 

“I completely lost my confidence,” he said.  

After graduating, Joshua went to a community college to “recover” and get his bearings. He did exceptionally well, and after finishing his coursework, he applied and was accepted to the engineering program at University of California, San Diego. Finally, he was in the big city he dreamed about living in when he was a gay kid on the military base.  

“I couldn’t get down there fast enough,” he said.  

Joshua supported himself in college by working at Seaworld. He had a coveted job as a Dolphin Interaction Photographer (DIP) taking photos of people petting the park’s dolphins.  

“It was primarily a group of young women, and my manager was gay. I was lucky to be welcomed in that space. It was an extremely supportive environment,” Joshua said of his former coworkers.  

Joshua and friends celebrating Pride weekend in 2023. 

Joshua’s railroad career officially began when he became a PhD student, studying at Virginia Tech’s Railway Technologies program.  

Getting accepted into the program was a watershed moment for him. Finally, that C in calculus stopped haunting him.  

“My advice to students is don’t peak early,” he said. “I did the slow climb, the glow up. Know who you are and what your true passion is, not what others insist on you pursuing.” 

At Virginia Tech, Joshua wrote his dissertation on Doppler LIDAR as a multifunctional railroad surveying tool. Doppler LIDAR measures the velocity of a moving object based on the frequency differentials of emitted near-infrared light versus the scattered light that is captured by sensors.  

His graduate research is highly relevant to BART, which uses Doppler LIDAR for a variety of purposes. For example: BART’s new Rail Inspection Vehicle. As the vehicle moves along track, it measures a series or “railroad geometries,” such as superelevation, tilt, and the geometric curvature of the rail.  

After obtaining his PhD, Joshua worked at a series of railroad and consulting companies. He moved to the Bay Area in 2018 to work as a consultant on the Caltrain Electrification Project. Three years later, he found himself at BART.  

“I just love the BART system,” he said. “I used it all the time to visit my long-distance partner over a decade ago, who lived in San Francisco before I moved to the Bay.”  

Years before Joshua worked for the agency, BART was an integral part of his life that connected him to friends and experiences, including the Castro District in San Francisco, where he had many “meaningful queer experiences.”  

“I have all these memories now because BART carried me to these places and memories,” he said. “BART has connected me to the gay community and my favorite experiences for years now."  

Joshua is currently focusing on BART’s Berkeley Hill Tunnel’s emergency ventilation system (EVS) renewal project to replace the system’s old equipment and further bolster its safety and reliability. The work is fulfilling because Joshua knows he is part of a team that’s “holding passenger safety in their hands.”  

Joshua regularly mentors new engineers, including BART’s engineering interns, and contributes to youth outreach efforts. In five years, he said he sees himself in a leadership role where he can inspire young engineers and keep learning.  

BART has been welcoming and highly supportive of him and other LGBT employees, Joshua said. LGBT people bring a unique point of view and skillset to the workplace that benefits the entire organization. Diversity in perspective, experience, and thinking enhances and strengthens every project and situation you face at work, he said. 

"As a gay person, you come into the workplace with empathy because we have all experienced some form of discrimination in our lives,” he said.  

“We also practice resiliency because we have to. We’ve had to put in extra work to prove to others and ourselves our capabilities,” he continued. “And we have a drive to succeed, to prove our worth and demonstrate that we, too, are critical to our communities.” 
 

Joshua pictured with his abuelito, Luis Juarez, in matching train conductor hats. Luis was a railroad worker in his younger years. 

In 2019, Joshua’s family experienced the horrific impacts of hatred firsthand. Joshua's abuelito, Luis Juarez, was killed in a mass shooting in an El Paso Walmart that has been classified as a hate crime. The shooter was specifically targeting Latino people. At 90, Luis was the oldest victim. His wife, Martha Juarez, was injured in the shooting but survived. 

"The experience demonstrated that there is extreme hatred in our country,” Joshua said. “It showed me that all underrepresented, underprivileged communities in this country are living under the constant threat of physical violence, including the LGBT community.” Out in the Castro with friends, Joshua said he always pays attention to his surroundings and makes sure he knows where the exits are.  

The tragedy, he said, also made him stronger. It taught him the importance of resilience and leaning on others for support.  

“You don’t have to be alone in being resilient. The fight for resilience teaches you that you need your community to help with your recovery, to help you find your strength and move forward,” he said. “Find the people and resources you need to recover from a hardship, to understand your trauma, and to return to your life stronger." 

Joshua models the new BART Pride merchandise at Lake Merritt. 

This year, Joshua is looking forward to another jubilant Pride weekend. He’ll be celebrating with BART by walking with agency’s contingent, including the BARTmobile and a cool scissor truck, in the San Francisco Pride Parade.  

“Pride is a time for friends to get together and be ebullient in our celebration and spend the day happy. It is a day to have more pride in ourselves than the hate we receive. It is a day to be more stentorian than the raucous contempt in the world toward the LGBTQ community,” he said. “Pride reminds you that you are loved by your city, your friends, our family. And it reminds you to love and celebrate yourself.”