The sun has set and a full moon shines bright in a brilliant sunset. Behind you, the prime mover hums to a constant relentless sound, hustling a heavy freight towards its destination. Inside, your conductor and yourself sits alert in the noisy rattely drafty cab of a 45 year old locomotive. In the distance, a headlight appears and quickly grows until you meet the opposing train. The two motors on a high priority trailer train roar pass you. But with the combined 120 MPH speed, the entire mile long opposing train is gone within 30 seconds.

Being in the cab of a standard cab diesel rolling along at track speed has its benefits but talk to a railroader and those benefits are FEW. This would be one of the benefits. Watching America roll by at track speed and seeing the splender that nature has to offer. Other than that, everything is nil. The cab is noisy and rattlely. Its cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Did I mention its noisy? You work long hours and so few to rest. When you are told railroading is a way of life, not a job, they are not shitting you. And this is for the engineer.

You start out as conductor. All the above applies with the addition of working outside. Which may be alright in the summer but when its 10 degrees outside and your working yard duty, your hanging onto the side of freight cars all day. Or you have to walk a half mile in 10 degrees with foot deep snow with a 80 pound knuckle because of a broken knuckle. (cussing at the engineer the entire time.) Even better, when your hours of service is finished, you cant just get off and leave. Its even better if your train is stuck in a siding away from the terminal and your waiting on the jitney, which Ive heard stories of crews waiting SEVERAL hours on. Dress warm! Railroading is not for the faint of heart, nor for the weak minded. A job that, atleast in the states, the general public sees as outdated but is one of the most demanding jobs you could have. I think Jethrol Tulls "Locomotive Breath" sums life on the railroad fairly well. [link]

The above reasons are why I DONT work for a railroad. When I seen the Union Pacific Challenger 3985 several months back, several fans dream, foaming at the mouth, of running him. HAHA, I will pass! The cab is hotter than hell in summer and slightly tolerable in winter, which is fine, I worked in a kitchen. Then you are constantly adjusting the throttle, water level, steam pressure, coal feed every minute. Nah, Ill just stick to watching these bahemeths. But you do got to appreciate what the crew goes thru. Lets not even mention the rulebook that works against your every move and supervisers just waiting for you to mess up. Only on the railroad do you have to buy insurance incase your laid off.

If youve gotten THIS far...a little info about this. This is the first drawing where Ive used photos (my own) as part of the drawing. One photo is used for the cab stand while another photo used was for the outline of the cab. The outside environment is all digital drawing. Ive also touched up some things of the cab stand as the photo I have of it, the train was stopped.