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A typical shift

A call comes in with about two hours' notice. You book on, get the train list and the dangerous goods paperwork, and check the power and the brakes. On the road you handle switching at sidings, set out and pick up cars, walk the train when something drags, and keep the rail traffic controller informed. In the yard it is more constant: building trains, pulling cuts of cars, climbing on and off equipment in whatever weather there is. Road jobs end far from home, so you sleep in a bunkhouse and take a train back the next day.