A federal jury awarded $1.6 million to a train conductor who sustained shoulder and back injuries after he was injured as the passenger in a rear-ended company van on his way to work.A verdict was reached Aug. 15 after a four-day trial before U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber.On Aug. 5, 2013, Mitchell Blake, a Union Pacific Railroad conductor at the time, was traveling west on Route 30 in Morrison, Ill., in a Professional Transportation Inc. van to his train in Clinton, Iowa.Railroad workers are sometimes driven to …