Well, I never worked for the railroad and alway's wanted to growing up until I found out about the whole not able to have a life thing, so I thrashed that idea. But in my early teen's I went down the street and on to a set of tracks behind the neighborhood. I hung out down there so much that I got to know the two crew's that worked that local switching job for KCS that they started letting me do thing's. Lining the switch when picking up empties and dropping off full load's of rock to be used for concrete. Then I got to start ridding on the side step's of the rear locomotive when coupling up to a cut. The first time scred me to death because it seemed much faster than so but we were only doing 4-5mph. Then about a year later is when I got to operate a locomotive for the first time. I think I was 13 or 14 then. A pair of SW1500's with 32 empty Herzog, Railgon and KCS gondola's. I about had a cow when they let me do that. Uncoupling the cut's but the hardest part sense I was smaller then than I am now was lining the switch stand. They showed me how to do it right because they said the way I was doing it could have gotten me hurt. They gave me crew pack's and water and I even got a hat out of it. That's the only thing close to work I ever did for the railroad. It was really more fun than work to me but when I got home out from under the sun when they were sitting wating on clearance to leave I would nap for a couple hours after getting rehydrated. I don't know if this cout's but it'll have to do. By the way, I'm not that old so it was only about 10 year's ago give or take because I'm 22 now.