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Representatives of the city of Des Moines and the Union Pacific Railroad sat down in May to talk about the problem of freight trains blocking traffic, and it sounds as if they considered just about every possible solution.

They talked about moving the railroad yards outside the city. They discussed tinkering with the railroad’s schedule to keep trains out of the way during rush hour. They wondered about building overpasses to carry traffic over the trains. Or maybe, they thought, we should leave the traffic where it is and lower the railroad tracks.

The next suggestion in that sequence would have involved putting wings on locomotives to see if trains actually can fly, or whether that scene in “Back to the Future Part III” was some kind of fancy movie trick. But they hit the air brakes and stopped just short of that.

The only problem with these suggestions, they decided, was that they wouldn’t work. They cost way too much, or they’re just too much of a hassle.

For example, Union Pacific said it couldn’t come up with a schedule just to keep East Side commuters happy, not when it has 7,300 communities to worry about.

Wait a minute. Is the railroad claiming that the 7:30 a.m. string of boxcars clogging Hubbell Avenue is assigned to serve 7,300 communities before quitting time? They must be shoving crates out the doors while rolling through at about 730 mph.

And if Des Moines doesn’t have enough clout to get its way over a few other communities, then what’s the use of being the state’s largest city? When our grade school teachers taught us about democracy, I’m pretty sure they said the biggest group always gets its way.

The idea of moving the yards, that does sound a little ambitious, unless there’s some kind of kit you can buy. Building overpasses would be entertaining but expensive, like a demolition derby featuring DART buses and cement trucks. And the one about lowering the tracks was surprisingly ambitious. “Ambitious” here meaning “wacky.”

But when somebody suggests a plan of action, it should be carefully evaluated. It’s the kind of thoughtful behavior that separates civilized society from soccer fans; that and the barbed wire.

So somebody looked into it, and the minutes of the meeting noted that the concept “would require a great length of rail to create a grade that the train could negotiate. There is not enough room between University Avenue and Dean Avenue to accomplish the proper grade.”

Well, sure, if you want to think small. With that kind of caution, we never would have constructed Jordan Creek Town Center in a spot where relatively few people were wandering through the cornfields, desperate to buy clothes and have dinner.

Really, it’s a pity we didn’t build our railroads below our city streets in the first place, or above, the way big cities handled their subways and elevated trains. Mixing vehicular traffic with freight trains is like sharing an elevator with the Minnesota Vikings’ defensive line.

But there they are, and in the end, the meeting participants pinned their hopes on bland notions like “future improvements on the Union Pacific switch yard.” However, the minutes note, “the curve (into the yard) cannot be rebuilt, so the trains must still travel at 10 mph or less.”

Actually, this is the sort of timid attitude that’s ruining the whole country. It’s why we gave up on a voyage to Mars, and now NASA just has a monthly contest to see who can jump the highest.

A minute ago, we were talking about lowering railroads. Now we can’t imagine changing the radius of a curve? Besides, I bet those trains could take the existing turn at much higher speeds. If not, hey, things tip over all the time. You just set them up again.

But that’s how the meeting turned out, so it looks as if we commuters are doomed to battle the trains for years to come.

Or, I guess I could just take the freeway.