Thanks again, everyone!
The railroad was a rewarding place to work when I hired out. Unfortunately, the politics and bureaucracy of being a state owned entity, slowly crept into the daily operations. Like everything, it changed.
Running trains is fun, even when extraordinary events occur. The experiences all melt together, the good and the bad, funny and sad, to create a life experience that is difficult to put into words. Walking away wasn’t as hard as I thought, other than the friendships that will be a bit more distant now.
Being on the railroad was a way of life. From getting calls at 4 in the morning, to cover various jobs, to driving all hours to get to work. Sleeping over in a coach to be sure to be on the job the next day during a heavy snow storm, happened now and then. Deadheading with other employees on the trains, in the wee hours of the morning made for an unusual social gatherings with the daily commuters.
The pay was great if you wanted to work all the time. Otherwise, you weren’t getting rich working on the railroad. Usually, the average employee was a “rainy day” employee, where they had a comfortable home life balanced with life on the railroad.
Finally, with the responsibilities entailed with working on the railroad, safety and efficiency were hand in hand. Violate any of the 3800+ rules we worked under, you were going to be punished. 10 days off for running a switch, 15 days for damaging equipment, 30-45 days off for passing a stop signal are common punishments. I had “out of service” insurance my whole career and never needed to use it. In railroad language, I never was “called onto the carpet” for any major transgression.
I was lucky, I never screwed up badly, to incur the wrath of the company hearing officer. I am also glad I never injured another employee by accident. Mistakes could happen to anyone. We all had our small transgressions, but usually they were dealt with in a unofficial manner, or fixed and covered up, leaving no trace.
So with that, I am moving on. I am still intrigued by the rail industry and the hobby, both past and present, and being able to be a spectator rather than a player definitely suits me at this time in my life.
Thanks again!
Tom
