>>1145153>>1145218It sucks. I did it for a few years and got out. You'll start out working the extra board as a switchman, probably (day/night/winter/summer/rain/shine). Then if you're lucky you can start holding road jobs in a few years. Oh, and you'll start out at 75% of the pay rate and won't get to 100% for several more years. You'll probably be furloughed each year for indeterminate lengths of time. (I was lucky and only got laid off once). When the economy was really bad in the early 80s, some guys were furloughed for 5 years (although that hasn't happened since afaik). And keep in mind like
>>1145218 said, you'll be a slave to your phone until you build enough seniority to hold a scheduled yard job (in my experience you needed 8-10 to hold night shift, 30 or more for good day jobs).
At some point you'll make it to engineer if that's how you want to go, or you can keep being a trainman. Keep in mind your boss's primary job is to catch you breaking the rules, and the executives want to get rid of your job permanently, so you've always got that hanging over your head every few years when the union contracts are up for negotiation.
If you make it through all that you'll need to work for about 40+ years to draw full retirement, hopefully Congress hasn't raided that fund by the time you retire.
It sucks dude, it sounds cool but the reality is harsh.
