I got called for the H CLOBAR, which goes from Clovis, New Mexico, to Barstow. It had 4 motors on the head end, 71 cars, weighed over 8,000 tons, and was over 4700 feet long. On duty time was 6:30 pm, and our train came in just as we were coming on duty. It was a decent trip. They stopped us a few times. We rolled into Barstow at 3:24 am. We went into R4. I tied the train down, cut the power away, and we took it to the house. It was routine. I got to the hotel as soon as they started to serve breakfast. The pancake machine was working! I had a good sleep, and got called for the BARBAR again. For some reason they gave me a brakeman, even though I didn't need one. At first we were to get a stack train at Ash Hill, then they changed our instructions and told us to get another stack train at East Siberia. The van ran us out there. The crew was still on it. My brakeman got on the second motor. It took us just over two hours to get to East Barstow. We were relieved there. They told us go get another stack train at Siberia- the B PHXSBD. The crew was on it. They had been DOL for over 2 hours. We got on and this time we were to take it all the way to Main 1. We went DOL at 5:55 am and had to stop at the East D Yard signal. We waited there and were releived. The trainmaster told me to tie up and a van would be ordered for me. Someone at Fort Worth called me and asked if I would hold my van for another person to ride back with me and I said I would. The van finally showed up and he took both of us to Needles I was somewhat irritated because theis cut into my rest cycle, and Iwas planning on starting to move into my new home. I tied up at 10:56 am. I found out that my rest cycle will end at 10:56 am on Friday, which is good. I was exhausted, but I met with my realtor at my new home, got the key, did a walk through, an rented a moving van. My kids showed up at my house. James and I made one trip and unloaded in the evening. The electricity was off and we couldn't see at night, but we still got the truck unloaded. Yesterday we made two trips. I discovered that my ex wife still has a lot of junk in my garage. I am setting that aside and it will be returned to her. I'm planning on making one more trip today. I am to meed with the man who is to set up my internet service, and talk to someone about setting up a burglar alarm. I will return the van before 5 pm today.

I got called for a stack train, but my engineer and I got swapped to a vehicle train, the "V BIRSBD," which goes from Birmingham, Alabama to San Bernadino. It was a good train. We had 2 motors on the head end and one on the rear. Our actual HPT was 3.3. We had 53 cars, weighed 3,932 tons, and we were 5,191 feet long. We were on duty at 9 pm and we departed at 9:39 pm. We got off to a good start. They ran us pretty good. This particular engineer became a trainmaster for a while but now he is "back in the seat" as we say. When an engineer or a conductor becomes a trainmaster we say that they have "gone over to the dark side." But in this case he and another engineer that became a trainmaster the same time that he did are both going back to the seat. They stopped us a couple of times. We passed the Barstow signal at 2:16 am. They told us to tie it down on the Rio Seco siding. I only had to tie one handbrake. I checked into the hotel, slept a couple of hours, got up for the free breakfast at 7 am, went back to bed, got up and grabbed a burrito in the afternoon, and went back to bed again. I woke up around 9:15 pm, just before I got my call to be on duty at 11 am. It was for a stack train with the same engineer. It was the "S LHGMEM," which goes from Los Angeles Harbor to Memphis. We had 71 cars, weighed 6,338 tons, and we were 6,780 feet long. We had 4 motors on the head end. We got on at the steps, and departed at 11:37 pm. Our HPT was 2.9, but they let an X train out in front of us and it was going very slow. They also stopped us several times. We were stopped at Ibis and my engineer tried to call the disptacher on his cell phone because they still hadn't called an outbound for us. As we pulled into Needles on Main 4, he asked her over the radio if she wanted us to tie it down. She said, "Standby." then a few minutes later she said that our outbound would be out. I volunteered to "babysit" the train, since my engineer had to take his son for a wrestling lesson. I figued that the outbound wouldn't be there for an hour but they showed up in 15 minutes or so. Maybe the dispatcher swapped them from another train? I briefed them an rolled them by, and when I tied p I requested a "SMART Rest." I went home, change, and went to church for the first itme in a long time. They had an altar call and several people came forward, crying. Our pastor was crying too. The first woman to come forward had a bunch of tattoos, and quite frankly she wasn't dressed very well, but that's okay. God sees our hearts and today she has a beautiful heart. I could not attache a picture of our leader, the 7437, because they left before I could do so, but I have attached a picture of the 6040 with an open door. Remember, only you can open the door to your heart. Hoping that you had a Happy Easter. Tony

I got called for the "S ALTLBT," which goes from Alliance, Texas to Long Beach. On duty time was 5:25 pm. Our train had 88 cars (the last 40 were baretable flats). It was a light train weighing only 4,950 tons. We departed after being on duty for less than an hour. They stopped us quite often. We passed the Barstow signal at 2:42 am. We did a crew swap on Main 4. I checked into the hotel, slept for a while, and went down for the free breakfast. I slept a little longer, got up for a burrito, and went back to bed again. I was showng out at 2 am on the BARRTUL, and then at midnight on the BARKCK. I got called at 7:15 pm for the "S LBTALT," which goes from Long Beach to Alliance, Texas. (Just the opposite of the train I had the day before). We got on at the steps afer being on duty for 45 minutes. It was a good train: 96 cars, 8,471 tons, and 8,861 feet. We had 3 motors at the head end and 2 on the rear. They stopped us 3 times. We arrived at Needles at 3:16 in the morning. Not a bad trip. I rolled my train by and tied up. I slept for about 5 hours today, got up to run some errands, and will sleep tonight. I'm projected to go out around 2 am. I have attached a picture of our leader, the 8284.