(The following story by Jaine Treadwell appeared on The Messenger website on August 9. Mark Joyner reports he recently joined the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, leaving the UTU to become a member of BLET Division 332 in Montgomery, Ala.)
TROY, Ala. — Mark Joyner’s engine was running but he wasn’t going anywhere for 30 to 40 minutes, so he just sat back and enjoyed the Dog Days of summer.
“What’s so great about my job is that I get to go places and see things that most people never do,” said Joyner, a conductor with CSX Railroad. “We go back through wooded areas, far away from the highways and towns. We go across some bridges where, if you stepped off the train, you’d be in the water. There’s nothing like it. I love it.”
Much of Joyner’s journey by rail is off the beaten path. But, other times, he’s in a holding pattern on a side rail waiting for another train to pass so he can hit the rails again.
On Monday morning, he was sitting on the rails near Banks Station AN 841.
“We left Montgomery for Thomasville, Ga. – 213 miles — this morning at 5:30 Eastern Time,” he said. “We’re waiting now for the train from Thomasville to come by so we can get going again,” he said.
To be sidetracked is to avoid a collision so line switches are an important responsibility of the conductor.
“The conductor sets off cars, picks up cars, talks to the crew and the dispatcher – just anything that needs to be done,” Joyner said. “This is a great job and I love it.”
Joyner heard about positions available with the railroad from his brother’s brother-in-law and liked what he heard. He just “felt like” he was suited for work on the railroad, so he followed his instincts and they proved to be right on track.
Joyner, 26, attended conductor school at Waycross, Ga. and has been with the railroad for a year.
“The only down side of working for the railroad is that you have to be gone from your family a good bit,” he said. ” We won’t get to Thomasville until late this afternoon and will have to wait and catch a train coming back. We’re usually gone about 36 hours and at home 12 to 20, but, other than that, it’s great. The pay’s good and you get to be out like this and see what the world’s really like away from everything.”
Joyner said the cargo his train hauls is varied.
“We haul a lot of grain and the train from Thomasville hauls a lot of paper,” he said. “Just depends.”
Joyner has found the “job for me” and highly recommends the railroad for others who think they, too, would like riding the open rails. And, not just guys.
“Oh, yeah, there are some women who work for the railroad,” he said. “In Montgomery, there are a couple of women engineers and one was just promoted to yard master. So, the railroad is a good career for anyone who is interested.”
Joyner climbed back aboard the big engine and sat back to enjoy the rural Pike County scenery and the warm summer day until another engine rumbled by and he was back on track and moving on down the Georgia line.