A TV show asks about secret lives...

[Anita]

I'm a member of a railroad forum, and one thing I learned is that some railroad employees can end up spending a lot of time away from home, in hotels and motels at the end of the line.

A TV reality show was looking for candidates for filming on our forum, and one of the question they asked was:

"Do frequent trips allow you to lead a secret life?"

As we've seen, there does seem to be a "railroad gene" among CDers, as many of us have been interested in railroads and model railroads. But whether that's true or not, railroading life does offer a good opportunity for dressing in private at the hotel in Distant City, U.S.A.
A crew member does their eight hours, goes 250 miles from home, and finds themselves in a city where no one knows them at all.

The members of the RR forum had mixed feelings about this post. Some of them felt it was just another "bottom-feeding reality show." With the above question, I might feel that way, too, but the producer came back on and said, no, this was a sincere attempt to depict life on the railroad.

We all know that the show is never going to feature some engineer going out to the local drag show in 'her' finest evening wear. It was amusing to me to know that dressing is going on out there, while the forum members either don't even think of it, or would not want to hear about it. But my 'sisters' on the railroad forum know, too, and sometimes I wonder which ones they are.

[DonnaT]

The members of the RR forum had mixed feelings about this post. Some of them felt it was just another "bottom-feeding reality show." With the above question, I might feel that way, too, but the producer came back on and said, no, this was a sincere attempt to depict life on the railroad.

It may be a sincere attempt, but it's still bottom feeding since it's based on secrets.

[Davita]

Funny you mention the railroad because I do know a lady in the railroad business and she mentioned a retiree who came out just before she retired. So does this mean I know three girls in or were in the railroad industry?

[Susan]

From talking to many here and elsewhere there seem to be more than average of us who served in the military and/or went away to sea. I am one of the latter variety.

No I don't know why this is.

[Absaroka]

I was under the impression that the CDing link was to model railroads, not the real ones.

It's an intriguing question, one that would also hold true for truckers and airline flight personel. But of course the thing about a secret life is it's secret.

I'd imagine that the secret life is similar to that of traveling businessmen and such.

What is the railroad forum?

[Anita]

It's Railroad Dot N-E-T. The TV show thread has about 10 replies now.

There was a show about unusual trains, and the host was a guy named Matt. He was on the forum, and it was amusing to read how the old hands on the forum shot down the way that the TV crews portrayed railroading on that show.

As far as model railroads go--I guess I'm making an assumption that most modelers are also interested in the real world of railroading.

[Absaroka]

Yeah I'd say most modelers are interested in the real world of railroading. But that doesn't mean most folks who work on real railroads are interested in model railroads.

Thanks for the name of the site. I'll have to check it out.

[Anita]

But that doesn't mean most folks who work on real railroads are interested in model railroads.

No, it doesn't. I left that part of the assumption hanging. It's strictly intuition here, but I think that the "railroad gene" in CDers covers both the modelers and the 'real world' railroaders. I'll never know this for sure, of course.

[Scarlett]

This has a bit of a bogus sound to it.
On what railroad to employees in train service work 8 hrs/day?

[Anita]

Scarlett--
I'm not sure whether you're challenging me or the show, but I don't claim to know railroading. I read that railroad workers are on call 24 hours a day during their early years especially, and it's a hard life in that way.

But whether it takes 8 hours or 12 hours, a crew knows they're going to be in a distant city when the shift is done. That's all I was saying.

[Carolynn]

Secrets? A secret shared is a secret no more. Definitely bottom feeding.