When Bonnie Leake was 23 years old, she worked as a clerk for the Union
Pacific Railway in Las Vegas, Nevada. Day after day, she'd sit at her desk
typing, looking out the window and wondering what the heck those engineers
were doing.
Leake worked eight years as a clerk, envying the engineers for the big
money they made and the life they led. Then a friend suggested Leake put in
an application to become an engineer herself.
"That was during the mid-1970s, during affirmative action," explains Leake,
who drives diesel freight trains. "So I entered the engineering service and
really liked it. I've worked there ever since.
"I like being in control, and I like the variety," Leake continues. "It's
a good feeling running trains. There's a feeling of worth and you make good
money. But it's a feast-or-famine lifestyle -- you never know how much you're
going to work, but if you're willing, there's always work there for you."
Leake says the challenge of her job lies in getting to know her route.
"There's so much planning ahead of time," she says. "You've got to know five
minutes in advance if you've got to slow down. It's not like a car at all.
With the train, your reaction time has to be quick, but the response of the
engine is slow."
Like most railway engineers, fatigue is Leake's enemy. While the money
is great and the jobs keep rolling in, it's not hard to build up a sleep deficit
on the job.
"If I go to bed at midnight, I could get called out at 1:30 a.m.," she
says. "You're already tired, then after your shift you're really tired. You
can only sleep so much, and then you're not sure if you're going to have to
go to work."
And unlike other jobs, once Leake is on the train, she's truly out of commission.
No one can reach her -- there is no phone, TV or radio.
Leake says some of her passengers have a hard time dealing with the fact
that she's an engineer. She remembers one time when a man balked at the idea
of a woman running the show. "'If she's the engineer, I'm not going,'" Leake
recalls the man saying. "And he went up and got the ticket exchanged!"
Leake says students interested in becoming engineers should spend as much
time around rail yards as possible. "Sometimes just being there opens doors,"
she says. "People look around for someone to fill a job and there you are."
For Rick Campbell, becoming an engineer was part of following in the family
footsteps. Campbell's father worked as an engineer during the Great Depression.
Like his father, Campbell decided to go from railway to railway -- "booming"
as it's called -- and his work has taken him to Africa and the South.
"I like the challenge and once I perfect it, then I get bored," Campbell
says. Moving from one railway to another gave him the opportunity to learn
different roadbeds and travel at the same time.
While fun and exciting, the booming lifestyle wasn't doing much for Campbell's
pension -- something he cares about more now that he's older. When a call
came in recently from Argentina, he turned it down.
Campbell compares his job to that of a pilot. He says hours are long, but
it offers the chance to travel and some flexibility. "It's a great life,"
he says.