currently watching: Simpsons-Season 9 
In the past 9 days i’ve taken 4 round trips and worked over 72 hours. Needless to say i’m pretty worn out so i finally laid off today to catch up on life. It won’t normally be this busy. The railroad is in its “busy season” but on top of that trains are being re-routed from the south through kansas city due to all the flooding in texas and oklahoma.
A more normal schedule would be a day and a half on duty and a day and a half off. right now its like a day and a half on duty and 16 hours off. but at least i’m getting paid a lot i suppose. i need it cause i haven’t really worked much in a while.
with each trip i feel more confident in what i am supposed to do. there have been a few rough spots but generally guys all help each other out cause everyone just wants to get the work done and get it done safely. I really enjoy the work, I hope I can stay on this Jefferson City, MO run in particular. I like it a lot better than when I ran north to Des Moines back in February.
If anyone doesnt know, basically what I do is take care of all the paperwork, talk to the dispatcher, log signals and speed restrictions enroute, and do any ground work if needed like cutting off cars or walking the train if there is a problem. The engineer drives. Typical trip lasts about 9 hours, with a 12 hour rest in Jefferson City, then 9 hours back to KC. Its exciting to finally be working.
