Standing on the ballast

By: Wesley Fane

Oct 04 2010

Category: The Railroad

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As many of you may know, I am no longer at the University of Illinois.

I am now a railroader.

What is a railroader, you may ask? Your guess is as good as mine.

While I’ve been interested in transportation for a long time, I’m afraid I still couldn’t quite tell you what exactly it is I’ll be doing for the foreseeable future.

I was hired by Union Pacific Railroad as a “Train Service” employee in Sioux City, Iowa. My responsibilities include riding on and working around trains.

Today was my first day of a three-week classroom training session; all of my training will take about 3 to 4 months. As my instructor introduced himself this morning, he said, “Welcome to the railroad…it won’t be easy, but I can tell you I’ve never had a railroad paycheck bounce.”

Of course, like everything good, it has its downfalls. I have no set schedule; I have no specific hours. I could go to work at 5 in the morning, I could go at 11 P.M.

And the railroad is a 365 days a year, 24 hour a day operation. Whether its 90 degrees and sunny or -30 and a blizzard, I’m expected to be at work. There is no Christmas, there is no birthday…they are all just another day the railroad is running.

Not too much unlike photojournalism.

My plan is to continue to update this blog as much as possible. Hopefully I can help give you a better idea of what exactly the railroad does and how the people working around them can make it all come together. I can’t guarantee there will always be photos, but there will be information. It is definitely a career path not normally pursued by the normal college student, so I can only imagine my experiences will be worth noting. I’m excited about it though, don’t get me wrong. All I know for certain is that I have a lot of hard work to look forward to.

Perhaps the title of this blog is a bit more appropriate now.

Take care,

Wesley