I wanted to drive trains for a long time. I love big machines and I love trains, so when I got a gig as a conductor I was excited. I excelled in the training and devoured everything I could in the CROR and the movements of equipment.

When I hit the yard, there were lost time accidents every day, multiple derailments, and when coming into work one day I was late because an engine hit a 52' trailer and flipped it into another engine at a crossing in the yard, in front of the train masters office.

My shifts were 4-12 hours long, but often I'd have to get a taxi across town after a shift to get my car then drive home and go to sleep, only to get woken up by a phone call giving me two hours notice for my next shift. That shit was bananas.

It was explained to me early on that the work lists that we were given weren't physically possible to do in a safe/perscribed manner. Like, they don't actually give you time to move the train forward, stop it, flip a switch, move back and decouple, so often conductors would call out multiple movements and hustle behind the train to get everything done without stopping. Which lead to some dude getting his legs cut off.

I didn't do that for very long. I loved working on the trains, and I was very good at it, but I quit without another job lined up before qualifying since I didn't want to feel trapped working for cn.