My life schedule revolves around what is essentially a "graveyard" work routine. So right now I am up, awake and it is coming upon what most of you believe is evening. I hear railroad horns blowing! Those are Mission Mountain RR. But this is quite unusual, at 606am! Normally they come into town late afternoon, early evening, human time. Seems strange and has me wondering!!!
I hated working graveyard shifts! I have never been able to sleep when the sun is up; and lack of sleep would cause me to hallucinate such as seeing 'animals' in the road in front of me ... and worse yet, falling asleep at the wheel. I don't envy you, Ken!
I was blessed to not work shifts, but I was "on call" for 30+ years to handle problems at very large manufacturing plants and dreaded the lengthy 2AM calls. I've been retired for less than a year and frustratingly still have awful problems sleeping. The only benefit of laying awake is that I get to hear Amtrak pass by, which I find relaxing. I hope that your work schedule eventually settles out in a better way Boxcab.
Call me insane, but when I was younger, I always liked afternoon shift. It was the only shift I ever worked where I consistently got enough sleep but still got up in time to do some things before work. Later, as an instructor, I still appreciated an evening schedule. Midnights? Been there, done that, didn't like it. Box, hope you can arrive at a schedule you can live with.
I worked 6.5 years on third shift, and it worked out well for my family. blackout curtains helped out a lot.
I worked 28 years on 2nd shift 4 years on 3rd , 2 years on 6pm to 6am[ that realy sucked] and 3 years on swing shift, and rest on days retirement couldn't come quick enuff glad I did it a year ago
When I was still young, around 40-45 years ago, I worked the third shift and I eventually got used to it even though I hated the thought of still having to go to work at the end of the day. Then I worked second shift for a while and I didn't mind that because I didn't have to get up early (I'm a night owl), got to interact with the railroads, and still got off work early enough to go have one with the other guys/gals/wife or whatever. Until retirement almost three years ago, I worked days. And, during all those years, I always got to hear trains as I have always lived close enough to mainlines or yards. The first constant was a Baldwin S-12 in the Milwaukee yard close to where I grew up. I remember the exact sound of that whistling turbo charger. I still love the various sounds of trains. Doug
I forgot to mention, this is a wonderful thread, or chain, or whatever they are called these most recent days. Doug
BTW, Boxcab, were you ever able to be around the Milwaukee boxcabs when they were running. I can only imagine the wonderful sounds and smells of them. It had to have been like running a giant Lionel or American Flyer locomotive. Doug
Yes. I saw Boxcabs and also Bipolars. For me, seeing a Bipolar as a small boy was scary. They were so quiet. (Being gearless.) Excepting rail noises, until one was upon you, they could sneak up so silently. Then only a slight 'whoosh' of blowers, or the air compressor kicking on.... As a huge hulking monster swept past. Boxcabs could have a "rrrrrrrr, rrrr, rrr" sound of their gears, so you could hear them coming. My favorite place to ski was Hyak. And at night, if a set of motors came through, could be quite spectacular. If the pan hit some ice on the trolley, while drawing current, (the separation of shoe from wire), there would be a flash which would light up the valley more so than lightning. The sound accompanying was a VERY loud 'snap-bang!'
Right now I work 4am to 1pm and if I hear something on the radio that’s a good thing I will go after it. At least like today, I have off and have a rare daylight run of the Iowa Northern which I will probably go and video at a decent location. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Buddy- Wish I could do the same. My schedule has me sleeping in the afternoon. As the local rarely comes when I am still awake, I miss out. With the shorter days now, I lose even more possibilities. And, if it does come in good daylight, when I am up and about, I lose my parking space. My apartment lack sufficient parking, so we get permits for an adjacent city lot. Which is only feet away. But the IDIOTS in government, greedy money scroungers they are, oversold the permits. Thus there are more cars than spaces available. If I leave, I cannot get back in until very late afternoon, which is when I MUST be asleep.
when I worked at the plant I was near a window got to watch action on the gm&o mainline usualy amtrack in daytime . up sends lots of stacks this way and with line getting 110 passenger speeds the stacks often roll 50 or better. it was nice having a good view but you didn't see much after dark in less you went to smoke shack by tracks
In my twenties i worked at an ATC radar, we were doing 12hrs shifts, day, then night and then 2days off. I remembered loving the graveyard shift as we split the night in three 12-2.30 2.30-5 and 5-730 and my favorite second shift was actually the quietest and i could sleep both the other twos... getting points as a supervisor with my guys by giving them what they thought were the easiest ones.... Byt he way i was also driving 120 miles to get to work..... and back... Could not do that again, now, and i like the weekends @ home; but i missed the late night jokes... No trains i am afraid, but no planes either as we were in a dark room inside a building.
