One thing that is well known about the trainmaster jobs in this company is that they tend to move you around a lot. This is great for you professionally, you get exposed to a wide variety of management styles and issues that come up on different parts of the railroad. In training I saw 3 different terminals (Avon, IN, Willard, OH and Baltimore, MD) and I came away from each place having learned some valuable lessons (occasionally the hard way). I am hoping to get a chance to do a little bit more line of road work as time goes on, and learn a little bit more on how the divisions work together (and sometimes separately) to make our freight move smoothly.
Personally, it can be a little bit tougher, especially when your spouse also works for the railroad and wants to have a say in his living situation. So since I expect to move around some, and I am a little on the crazy side anyway, I bought a horse trailer with living quarters (something that I have wanted since age 4 or so) and moved into it this weekend. I am staying at a campground and have all the amenities a girl could really need. The trailer has a full bathroom, stove, fridge, freezer and bed. The campground has a bar and restaurant and a creek to fish in, and I found a spot for my horse a few miles away from the campground. So I am quite literally a "happy camper"!
After moving in this weekend, I briefly debated on starting a blog on horse trailer living, but I am hoping that it will be more mundane than interesting (everyone has a tambourine playing hippie neighbor right?!?) I may change my mind as the seasons come and go. I expect the summer to be annoyingly busy, and the winter to be challengingly cold (please God don't let my pipes freeze!), but I am hoping it won't be interesting enough to write about.