Feast or Famine - Some weeks you work 75 hours, others you work 20 hours.
Pros
The best part of working on the railroad is the relative freedom of working outside on the road without a boss constantly breathing down your neck. Working outside can be a beautiful experience but also a miserable one depending on the weather. CSX will move trains no matter what the weather and will stick you out in it to get the job done! 100 degrees or 15 degrees, driving rain or deep snow...you will be out there. Overall it's not a bad job, but it just wasn't for me and my lifestyle. The pay was fantastic, I received FREE full benefits for a year as a new-hire, and you have the opportunity to move up to Engineer in 2-3 years depending on the need. Great job for someone out there, just not interested in breaking my back for 30 years walking on ballast in order to get Railroad Retirement.
Cons
I was on call 24 hours a day, 6 days a week with a rotating off day. This leads to ridiculous sleep schedules and never knowing when to plan personal or social events. Sometimes you would get off at 10 in the morning other days would be 8 in the evening after having worked a 12+ hour shift. I handled it for a while (I was in my early 20's) but it eventually begins to wear on you. Some weeks I would spend 4 nights in the hotel and 3 short rest periods at home. Other weeks I would only work 2 days and be off the remaining 5 days, getting paid for being available. There is a constant battle to actually get PAID after learning MS-DOS hieroglyphic-like commands in order to enter your pay. There is also no printed "rule book" concerning pay or how to input it and asking for days off is even more difficult. You literally have to rely on word of mouth and co-workers who may or may not know how to help you with your problem(s). CSX keeps you in the dark and on a need-to-know basis concerning just about everything.