Typical Day
Ryder Chu-Chu slept the entire night with his phone close by. He's pretty much always on-call and has to be ready to get on a train at the sounding of a whistle (or ringing of a phone).
Since railroad employees can only work eight hours before they need a mandatory eight-hour rest, train crews often de-train in random towns and get nearby railroad employees to take over. Ryder's available just in case they need him to take over.
And what do you know; the phone rings at 6:00AM.
"Ryder? This is Bill. We have a train pulling into your station and we need a crew change. You're on deck."
"Great," says Ryder as he slides on his khakis. "What time does the train get in?"
"7:30AM. You'll be riding it to Chicago, so you may want to make arrangements for staying the night."
"No problem boss," says Ryder, hanging up his phone and going to the kitchen to get breakfast ready. The daytime is his favorite shift to cover—the dining car's always open, there's a beautiful morning view to watch, and when the train gets into Chicago he'll have the rest of the day to himself to enjoy it. What more could a conductor ask for?
Well, maybe a place to get a nap. It's a long eight hours and Ryder didn't actually sleep all that well.
Upon arrival at the station's book-in room, Ryder is greeted by his good pal Tracy Runninsmooth. She's one of the best locomotive engineers in the business. Apparently she'll be his co-pilot on this venture. "Ryder, you son of a gun, I've got to deal with your crazy antics all the way to Chitown again?" Tracy jests.
Ryder smiles. It's going to be a good trip.
They gather up the necessary paperwork and head out to the track where the train's waiting for them. Ryder walks around, inspecting the cars for any damage or malfunctions and inspecting the inside of each one for cleanliness. Everything's up to code, and after the brake tests prove that the train can in fact stop (hooray), Ryder confirms the train for boarding.
Once the final passenger is all aboard, Ryder makes sure everybody's nice and cozy, then makes the call to the traffic coordinator to ask permission to leave the station. He gets the go ahead and gives Tracy the signal. At 7:32AM, the train and her freshly boarded passengers and crew are off on the daytime run to Illinois.
As they chug-a-lug their way along to Chicago, Ryder's in charge of handling all of the routine radio traffic. This way he and Tracy are on the same page with Rail Traffic Control. Based on what they tell him, he can let Tracy know whether to speed up, slow down, or just come to a full-on halt.
The trip goes fairly smoothly until about 11:30AM, when a feud erupts in the dining car somewhere around Cleveland, Ohio. Somebody's taken the last pizza on the train and the next customers in line ain't having any of it (literally—no pizza for them).
Ryder sighs and rushes to deal with the situation. This isn't the first time a passenger has been endangered by a pizza shortage; it's actually a fairly regular occurrence. Luckily, by this point he's an expert.
Ryder tells the man with the pizza to go back to his seat and enjoy his lunch. He turns to the other passenger and says in a calm yet authoritative voice, "Sir, if you can't control yourself, I'm going to have to remove you from the train. You're endangering the safety of others and making passengers uncomfortable. Please return to your seat and try to control yourself or you'll be asked to leave at the next stop."
With no recourse to argue, the disgruntled passenger grumbles and returns to his seat. Another pizza-related crisis averted. Ryder would drop the mic, but it's train company property and he's actually paid not to drop it.
The rest of the day goes as smoothly as it did pre-fight. Before pulling into each station, Ryder speaks with his dulcet tones over the sound system. "Next stop Gary, Indiana; Gary, Indiana, next stop." Sometimes he switches it up and adds a "Stand clear of the closing doors please," just to see if anyone notices. No one does.
Tracy calls up at 1:20PM to see if he'll shout bababooey over the PA system. Once again, Ryder tells her no. He really likes the job and he doesn't want to be that guy.
As they get closer to their destination, Ryder calls the traffic coordinator in Chicago to ask which track he should bring her in on. Of course it's track number four—that's his lucky number.
They slide into Track Four at 2:30PM with ease, thanks to Tracy's precision and control. Ryder may have been in charge, but it's Tracy who got everyone where they needed to go. As the passengers exit the train, he watches to make sure no one gets trampled, and assists an elderly woman with a bag so heavy that he can't believe she's carrying it three feet, let alone lugging it around for a whole trip.
As the final passenger skips off into the Chicago afternoon, Ryder walks with Tracy to the book-in room and submits all of their usual trip documentation—logs, maintenance reports, that sort of thing. After filling in their hours for payroll, the day's already done by 3:00PM. He and Tracy clock out and head into the Windy City.
Tracy turns to her co-worker. After starting the day in eastern New York, who knew they'd end up a whole time zone away? "Hey dude, the Cubs are playing a night game tonight and there are a bunch of tickets available. You want in?"
Ryder's not the biggest baseball fan, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do—and these Romans are massive Cubs fans.