Jacks House
The First Trip
Saturday, February 17, 2001
On board train #28
Well lets see. I started working for this rail road at the age of 21. 1983. 4 years removed from high school and tired of the default factory jobs. So a friend of the family asked me if I'd be interested in working for Amtrak. He worked there and knew they were about to higher. I figured “Why not??” and sent them a résumé. Never did that before and haven't since. Lol I sent it to them on February of 83 and didn't hear from them until August. Amtrak at that time was something I knew existed but never really though about. I never really thought about what I was getting into either. Just thought about the money really.
They asked if I'd be interested in coming to Chicago for some classes. They'd pay me $8.00 an hour to go to these classes. Well hell…I was only making like $6 p/hour so of course I'd do it. Well I spent a week listening to present workers tell us how things worked as well as show us around the cars themselves. We were fitted for our uniforms as well that week but were told to go buy something close to the uniform on our own because we wouldn't see any uniform from Amtrak for at least a month. Lol That's one thing that has not changed in the past 18 years. Lol If you want a winter coat this winter, you better order it before summer is over.
So they showed us how the cars worked, how to make up a bed, how to talk on the PA, and then sent us out to the wolfs. Lol “Student Trips” is what they called them. They said there would be 3 such trips before we went out on our own. I got one. Hastings Nebraska. Hastings Nebraska…. Nothing against Hasting Nebraska but Hastings NEBRASKA?????? The middle of nowhere!!! Not New York, Not LA…oh no-no-no. Hastings Nebraska.
Getting on that train that first trip…lol Man. Ya thinkin' your lookin' like you know what your doing but in reality you haven't got a clue and the old timers knew you were clueless. Lol They'd dog you about like all rookies needed to be dogged out. They also told you to forget everything they told you in class and just watch and learn. They said there are two versions of reality, Managements and the workers. And man they were not kidding.
So off to Hastings I go. There were three of us all together. All greener than new spring leaves. Lol Looking like the rag-tag army with our mismatched uniforms and all. The train was packed and we just really watched. Lol We didn't know what to do. We were all assigned to different crew members as “trainees”. I was in a sleeper going out to Hastings and in the coach coming back. With this type of job it's almost imposable to verbally tell someone how to do it. It's a job you learn by doing. There's just no other way to really learn the job. So we just followed the guy around and watched.
We were put off the train in Hastings just after midnight. We went into the station and were told the train back was 3 ½ hours late. Welcome to Amtrak. Lol So we sat in this old, dusty waiting room for 3 hours. Just the three of us and 2 old farmer guys who had nothing better to do than to sit in the Hastings train station waiting room and stare at us all night. Lol Up until this point we were pretty much running on adrenalin but that faded fast as the minutes ticked away. By the time the other train came into the station we were all ready for a good night's sleep. But there was no place for us to sleep on the train so we just hung out in the dinner until they opened. A sleepless night. A first of many. The first casualty of working for Amtrak is sleep. There is very little.
I don't really remember much of the return trip except the sun was shinning and hurting my eyes. I remember sweeping the lounge car as well but anything more than that…. lol I remember getting home and standing in my parents living room and feeling the room spin. That's the first and last time I experienced that. Passengers tell me they feel that allot out here when they stand on solid ground.
As for sleeping, well I was use to getting 8 hours a night. It took I'd say 5 years to be able to “train sleep”. Sleeping on a train is no big deal. Just depends on how tired you are. But “train sleep” is being able to get some good sleep AND be aware of what's going on in your car. It's kind of a listening sleep. Certain sounds you learn and when you hear them your instantly awake. Strange but that's the way it is. Don't know how else to explain it. If by chance you over sleep, you miss your stop. Other co-workers are counting on you being there to work your car. If your not then whatever passengers was suppose to get off at that stop stands a good chance of being carried by there stop. Not a good thing at all. Lol They tend to be just a tad upset when that happens. That's a perfect example of managements reality and the real world of life onboard a train. They told us in class that one carry-by and we'd be fired. Lol Well if that's the case I would have been fired 5 times by now. Lol
So that's how it all got started. The following stories are what has happened in the 18 years since. Some funny, a few sad but all an adventure in human kind. Now I'm considered an “old timer”. I have learned from the best as well as the worst. I miss the old days but I'm glad there over. lol
And now my fair reader, it's well past midnight and I need to be up and running by 5:30am. It's the off season now and the load is light but the coffee still needs to be plugged in. lol One last tid-bit and I'm through. They have yet to say the words; “Your hired” to me. lol I went from training to student trips to solo trips to holding a regular job and I've yet to be told that I'm hired. Longest probationary period I ever had to endure, I'll tell Ya that much.
These story's mainly deal with the interactions of people while out here. The physical job is really black and white. It's the people…that's where the weirdness, the funny and the sad stories are to be found.
Good night… J~