Pros
When work is there, you get lots of hours, easily breaking 60-70K/year as a conductor, engineer 70-90K. Good pay for a regional/short line. Railroad retirement, management is very understanding and extremely easy to work with and get along with. When a manager leaves here, the train crews want to throw them a party and always hope the next guy is just as good. Best manager I've ever worked for, by far. and this is not the first, nor second, nor third railroad I've worked on, management here makes this place dozens of times better than any other line I've worked on anywhere in the USA. Great crews, extremely healthy crew to crew relationships. No union dues as there's no union, and this is a railroad that actually doesn't need a union with how well management treats the people.
Cons
When work is slow, it's slow. If it's slow for too long you won't earn but 47-50K/year. On call is hard for anyone with a family. Start at the bottom of the seniority roster, so you get forced to any of three terminals in Ohio and West Virginia, depending on what no one else wants that bid cycle you'll get forced to what is left. As is the case with all railroads. Too reliant on coal, over half the crews work coal pool, so when coal slows down, furloughs or drastic overtime cut backs are likely.
