Well I read a lot on railroad.net and a few airline pilots that have done it. There are new rest requirements, as the railroad rules (still CFR14) are also written in blood.
Basically you have a mandatory UNDISTURBED 24 rest after any 5 days working and a mandatory UNDISTURBED 48 hour rest after any 6 days. If they call you on the phone at 47 hrs 55 minutes into your 48 hour rest, you get ANOTHER 48 hour rest, starting from when they call you. The maximum duty day is 12 hours, that's from show up, to off the rails. From there you get a mandatory 10 hours of UNDISTURBED rest. If they get you off late, say you've been on for 14 hours, then you get your rest, plus any time that you went over. So in this case 14-12=2+10=12 hours of rest.
Usually, they have you work 5 days on with 2 days off. 12 hour days each day blocked. Pay is variable, sometimes it's hourly sometimes by route. If you get a route, it doesn't matter how fast or long you take. Say the route is 300 miles, and the plan is for 6 hours. You get paid for that whether it takes you 4 hours or 12. There are generally bonus pays for bad weather, such as track closure, slowed down, or maintenance issues, as usually you have to deal with them, alone.
The conductor is the one who walks the train at a stop and unhooks cars, and then directs the engineer what to do with the locomotive. It's a lot of walking in the cold or heat. Once engineers retire (there's a lot of them retiring as well) then you can choose to upgrade to engineer. Which is a bit like a ground school for trains. It lasts 4-6 months and you get paid to do it.
Pay works out to around a guarantee of around 38K for the first year with the average being 41-45K. Then it gets up to around 68K a year for a conductor. An engineer goes for around 75K starting up to around 175K a year. Full benefits and full pension. You are on call, but you have the mandatory rest periods. I have no idea about vacation times, I'm checking into those.
Usually you can bid, just like the airlines, for routes. Some stay in the yard all day, some are on the lines heading out. Most will have you head out 3 days, and then back 3 days for a 48 hour rest. Some are out and back in a day. Some are all over the place, depends on what you like.
If you can work the ramp, you can do this job. If you stay for 30 years, or 10 years and at age 60, then you get a pension, 100% of your salary until the day you die. Some railroads it's 150% of your lifetime average pay.
I'm applying for BNSF, which has the highest pay, think the Ethiad of railroads. Just so happens I applied on a whim. Basically read through this:
Interview process
http://www.railroad.net/articles/columns/hottimes/hottimes_20060602.php
Hours of Service (duty time)
http://www.railroad.net/articles/columns/hottimes/hottimes_20100814.php
I'm thinking of doing this for 2-3 years. Make some money, buy a house, start a family. I want to head back to grad school, but I have a buttload of debt. So, I can start to pay that down, get a little more stable, and take as many classes online as I can. There is a lot of time sitting on the line without moving. So I have time to study. I'll let you know how it goes. 6 interviews in the last 2 years, not a single other job so far. We'll see.
You werent just working in Michigan CFI'in were ya?
