Congrats on the retirement, and thanks for sharing the stories. Working for the railroads has always been different (note, neither I nor anyone on my family worked for a railroad, though I have friends and acquaintances who did). It seems to be one of those things that get in your blood. Looking at the history of railroads and yes, railroad management, It seems to me like it was more desirable to the people working on the rails than the people running it, at least in how workers were often treated. Yet railroad people to a person I have met (I would say man, but met a lot of women who worked for them, too) were proud of what they did, considered it despite all the tension, stress, economic anxiety, etc, the best job in the world
I can tell how much the railroads have changed, even the most die hard train people I know pretty much told their kids that given the way the industry is now and likely to be in the future, they wouldn't encourage them to sign up, to find something else to be passionate about.
