Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by Bob-Fryml The railroad industry (ATSF, MoPac, WP, and UP), on the whole, has been very, very good to me. I've had a wide variety of jobs and experiences in both the engineering and transporation departments and have met some personalities that have ranged brilliant to dumb-***, colorful to bland, and comical to really ornery. My favorite comment about my industry contemporaries, both in labor and in management, is this, "In a world full of skim milk personalities, the average railroad man is a chocolate malted - THICK and RICH!" Flat switching freight cars with three well experienced people on the ground and an attentive hoghead or sowhead pulling the throttle is the most fun I've ever had (at least with my clothes on). Switching is good exercise and it engages the brain continuously. The best moments come when a crew can spread a slough track full of cars into fewer classification tracks than the yardmaster wanted and still fold together a freight train that exceeds the company's requirements. There are few activities I can think of that yield a greater sense of satisfaction than creating a beautifully blocked freight train. Although, I must admit, working conductor through the night on a traffic-intense local with an on-board computer that permits the real time reporting of freight car moves and of train delays comes in a close second. But "Haulin'-the-Mail" at 70-mph with big motors, light tonnage, and my hand on the throttle (and don't forget the requisite cigar) ain't none too shabby either. And always, the money's been good. If you're from the Chicago area and want to railroadin', think either BNSF or UP. The reason I recommend these two railroads is twofold: 1) both have a solid freight base and handle a well rounded mix of commodities so their long term financial prospects are good and 2) both operate commuter trains. If a trainman ever gets disgusted with freight operations, the commuter side of the house offers more regular hours, regular rest days, and pay that is often just as good. An old head office engineer on the Western Pacific in San Francisco told me one time, "Kid, the only way you'll ever get ahead in this world is to find your life's work and stick with it - through thick and thin." Those words have sustained me through a lot of bad weather, midnight runs when I was pretty tired, "piston-in-prarie" moments when a unit has failed, and dispatcher snafus that left me pretty disgusted. I may be preachin' to the choir, but you can do a lot worse in this world than becoming a railroader! [/quote] After 40 years on the SP & UP I could NOT have summed it up any better than the above post. Virlon save your ticket..... the P.E. will rise again.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag