On the 26th I was called for the "U NEEPPH." An ususual symbol. I found out it was a "ballast train." There were some ballast cars in Yard 6. There were two engines on the east end. My engineer and I had to take 2 motors out of the roundhouse and put them on the west end. After the locomotive air brake test we took it to Amboy. A fellow from Herzog got onthe second motor there. We had to go 16 MPH while he dumped ballast using a laptop. Once done, we took the train to Barstow. The next day were deadheaded back to Needles in a van. On the 28th I was called for the "S OMASCO." When I looked at the work order it said that we had to pick up several cars, and some engines. I called the dispatcher and she said that two inbound crews were putting two trains together. A baretable with two motors coupled to the rear of a stack train with one DP and 3 motors on the head end. I had to go to the middle DPs and do the locomotive air brake test. They flipped us home in a van. The next day I got called for the H GALBAR. The work order said that we had to set out 21 cars in the Needles Yard. The first car was 18 cars back. I had my engineer pull ahead. I tied 3 handbrakes, made the cut, had my engineer pull over the swtich, and then shoved him into Yard 6. I was going to ride the shove but the car was not safe to ride. I watched it from the van.I tied 3 brakes, had the van run me up to the head end, and we departed to Needles with 4 hours on duty. We had 2 and a half hours left when they stipped us at Dagget and told us to swap wit a Z train. We took the train into Barstow and we were relieved. For the trip home I got called for the "Q LACATG." On duty time was 11:30 am Pacific Time. It was a routine trip home On the 31st I got called for a stack train. We had a "qualfying engineer." He was an engineer who has been out for a while due to some medeical issues and he wand to refamilarize. For the trip back I got called for the "Q LACCHI" with the same two men. We had 3 motors on the head end, and two on the rear. Our instructions were to set out our number two motor when we got to Needles. Usually we set out the last motor but this time they wanted the second one. This would be more complicated than usual. Also, the outbound was not available because the van was tied up. We started the setout on our own. We got the head motor back to the train, and had started the locomotive air brake test when the oubound showed up and took over. I am now on my rest cycle. It was a busy week.