Prior to joining Trains he served as assistant editor of HyRail Production's CTC Board magazine.
[1] Hemphill was the first Trains editor to have worked in the railroad industry, having started Mountain Diesel Transportation in Denver with Dale Sanders, also of CTC Board.
He later joined the Kansas City Southern Railway in Shreveport, Louisiana, as a train dispatcher.
[1][2] From 2005 until 2007, Hemphill was the Senior Consultant, Rail, for the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, an arm of the US Department of State.
In this capacity he assisted the Director General of the Iraqi Republic Railways in the reconstruction of Iraq’s national railroad system.