I got called for the "U NEEPPH," and the automated message said there was no train location. I also had a brakeman, so i assumed that we would be putting our train together in the Needles Yard and doing a Class I Air Brake Test. Whern I got to the depot I found out it wasn't that bad. It was the work train, in was in the "dead track" at Ibis, and we would just need to get on the train, untie it, and take it to Barstow. The work order said that we were to "et out" the train in Barstow, but the dispatcher said that it woud be going on. The work order said that it would be going on to Porphory, California. I really didn't need a brakeman. A van came and picked us up and ran us there. My engineer got on the two DPs and conditioned them. This train had 40 cars and two motors on each end, so it could go either direction. The van ran us up to the head end. My engineer had a few things to do. I volunteered to help my brakeman go release the brakes on the rear of the train but he said he would do it, since he was the "brakeman." The van ran him to the rear, he realeased the brakes and we were ready to go. We taked to the dispatcher and he said that a "foreman Meir" would throw the handswitch for us. We approached the switch, and the signal, which was red. The dispatcher gave foreman Meir perission to put the switch in manual and throw it. My engineer asked if theis was our authority to go onto the main, and he said it was. (Normally we need authority from the dispatcher to come out onto the main, and he needs to give us verbal authority to pass a red signal but this was an unusual situation. We were coming off a "dead track," and the signal is not "cut in" as we say (they haven't started to use it yet). Later we ooked in the rule book, and it's somewhat vague. But the way rwe read it, once you have authority to throw the switch, you have authority to come out onto the Main. The "dead track" is actually the old Main Two, but now they have built a new Main One, so the old Main One is now Main Two, and the old Main Two is now a "dead track," but it will soon be the new Main Three. Our train was limited to 45 MPH, yet we got around 5 crews. They kept us moving and our trip was 5 and a half hours. They told us to bringin it into I3 and spot it up for fuel, but it really didn't need fuel. I got to bed, around midnight, woke up and watched some TV, slept some more, went down to breakfast at 6 am, then went back to bed and slept like a log. I got called for a Q train with an on duty time of 1745 with a different engineer. My brakeman would have to go back with ,e. When I got down to the depot I found out that we had been "swapped" to the X SWAMNX5. I asked the trainmaster about it an he said it was on I1, they were performing a Class I Air Brake test on it, and when they were done we should be able to get on it and go. After we were on duty a differnet trainmaster said that it was ready to go. My engineer said that he thought something was wrong with the train. He called the router and he said there was a bad car that we had to set out. It was car # 68. Our train had 3 motors on the head end and was made up of 100 hoppers going from Swanson, California to Mina, South Dakota. I grabbed a van and we got on our train. My brakeman volunteered to do the setout himself, but I said I would help him.We got off and had our engineer pull the train ahead 68 cars. We tied 3 brakes behind the bad car, had him pull ahead and made the separation. We were to set it out in I4. My brakeman and I rode the car past the signal, I asked the router for the switch and when we had a red over a flashing red we shoved into I4, riding the car. The derail was donw and there were other cars in the track. We got off, shoved our engineer back to a hook, tied the brake on the bad car, and made the cut. We rode ahead past the signal. This time the router flagged us past the signal. He recited a script,and I repeated it. We shoved back into our trian mae the hook my brakeman laced the hoses, and we released the 3 brakes. The van ran us to the head end of our train. Wer got the signal very quickly, and we got out ahead of the crew that got our Q train, the crew that was called for our train. We departed at 1949 and they ran us good. We only stopped twice, and arrived in Needles at 1:50 am. I rolled my train by and tied up. It looks like I won't be going to work until around 4 am.