You'll start out at a local hiring session, usually in a hotel's conference room. You'll get a couple lectures, fill out an application, and take some psych tests. Usually you'll know the same day if you get a job offer and the final decision will be based on a subsequent physical exam and drug test.
If they hire you, you'll be shipped to their training center in suburban Atlanta for six weeks. They pay for hotel and give you food vouchers. After your return to the terminal you'll be a trainee for a year and liable for the cost of your training if you leave before that period is up.
The pay varies wildly based on exactly what you do a given day. Working on the road pays more than working in the yard. The training pay sucks, but if you're flipping burgers now it'll still be an improvement.
If you're hired and make it through training you can expect to be put on the conductors' extra board after the first year. This means when there's a vacancy you'll get called. The board gets called in order so as guys get called off the top you'll move up towards the top. Sometimes the extra board moves fast and you'll literally work eight days a week. Some times you'll be lucky to make two trips a week. It entirely depends on how many trains need to be run and how many vacancies there are to fill.
You work up to twelve hours on duty with a minimum of eight hours off. That's how you can get an extra day in the week. You can be called for any territory you're qualified on out of your terminal. This means one trip might take you to Reading, another to Baltimore, and another to Altoona all in the same week. After a few years if you have enough seniority you can hold a regular pool which will take you to the same terminal every trip. This is handy because it'll start to even out your hours and because some pools pay better than others. You can also work in the yard; you'll take a hit in pay but you'll also have a regular shift to work, too.
How long you'll be gone from home when on the road is highly variable. You could make a record run to the next terminal and sit for twenty hours because there aren't any trains for you to take back home. You could also get in the terminal and get called from the hotel eight hours later to turn and go back only to sit on the train at a red signal or with engine problems until your hours of service goes tits up. The thing to remember is that you have no schedule on the road and you have ninety minutes to show up at the terminal after they call you, regardless of what time of day or night it is.
Being an engineer is a mandatory promotion under the new work rules on Norfolk Southern. This means after a couple years you'll get a call to go back to Georgia for a few weeks. Once completed you may not get to be an engineer however, and may go back to being a conductor until there are engineer vacancies to fill. After a few years of working as an extra engineer, however, you'll probably get enough seniority to bid on a regular engineer's job.