Extras · 1 of 4

A typical trip

The phone rings at 2am telling you to report in 90 minutes. Sign in, get your paperwork and track warrants, test the brakes, and pull out. For the next 8 to 12 hours it is signals, speed restrictions, grade and radio traffic, with a conductor beside you. Federal hours of service law stops you after 12 hours, wherever you are, so you tie up, get a van to a hotel in another town and sleep. Then you work a train back. Repeat with no fixed pattern.