(railroad bells ringing) (railroad bells ringing) (electronic music) (electronic music) (electronic music) (train horn blowing) (electronic music) -[Sam] When I was a kid, it's always been trains.

(train horn blowing) That dream I never let it die.

(electronic music) Even in an old yearbook when I was in fourth grade, my future occupation I put for it was train engineer.

So, it's pretty cool.

I still got it.

(train horn blowing) (electronic music) I feel like I'm lucky every day just to be doing this what I'm doing, being an engineer, working for the railroad.

To have my dream job I just feel very lucky.

(train screeching) I'm Sam Read.

I am a locomotive engineer and conductor for the Nebraska Central Railroad here stationed out of Grand Island, Nebraska.

(electronic music) Some days I'm a conductor and some days I'm an engineer.

And as a conductor my responsibility is paperwork, building the train.

(electronic music) Putting together a train, I would say it's kind of like a puzzle.

You gotta get the right pieces together.

(train coupling) (classic rock music) And as the engineer, my position there is operating the locomotive.

I make sure I keep my speed maintained and that I'm always in control of my train behind me.

(classic rock music) (classic rock music) We start in our office, we get all our paperwork squared away, we get everything printed off that we need.

Then we have to call our dispatchers.

All righty.

You got anyone in New York sub?

We'll get our track warrant for our line, which gives us authority to access the main line.

One and two.

And track warrant number ORD 33 to the NCRC 2197 box four work team mile plus eight and end of track.

And after that we will head down to the Grand Island yard.

(engineer radio talking) We always have a little job brief is what we call it and make sure everyone is on the same page when we're doing this.

(track squeaking) (classic rock music) And then we will build our train accordingly to how we need to.

(soft classic rock music) All right, Scott, I'm all good to go when you are.

(train rumbling) After that, it's pretty much straight shot up.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) This is hard to choose a favorite spot along the line that I run on, but town wise, I think Elba is so small.

Seeing the old grain elevators sitting there, it's just a really neat piece of history.

(train horn blowing) (upbeat music) I'd say another spot that's really nice along the line is the Loup River.

Going by that river, especially in the fall time, it's just one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

(upbeat music) There's no way to describe what it looks like, how you feel.

You just have to sit there and just take a deep breath.

Just admire the beauty.

(train rumbling) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Random people along the line that take time just to wave, brings joy to me and puts a smile on my face.

(train horn blowing) We start to recognize these faces, we start to remember them.

(upbeat music) We don't know their names.

We tell other people there's these certain people that sit at these different towns and wave at us.

And it's definitely a memory for me.

I love to wave at them.

If I even see anyone that's not waving, I'll still wave at them.

It's just something I like to do.

(train horn blowing) (upbeat music) So we go by this house along our line.

90% of the time they always come out to wave at us.

The kids just want a horn show and it just warms my heart seeing that because that was something I used to do when I was younger.

And having that connection with that family is just real nice.

(train horn blowing) When the two boys are out there, they're just pumping their arms, up and down just going crazy and that's all they want.

They just want me to toot that horn and it's like an honor for me to do it for them.

And sometimes it is late, it's like 10 or 10:30 at night and they're still out there.

Their porch light's on, that way I can see them.

I would say it's definitely one of the bigger landmarks.

I mean, we know the milepost area, but we just say it's the kids' house and we just know where that's at.

(upbeat music) Finally getting to meet that family in person was a dream that I was hoping would come true and it finally did because I knew that was a kid inside me that would've wanted that to happen too.

And being able to do that for another family was very heartwarming.

It was a very touching moment for me.

(upbeat music) Having stuff like that just makes my night so much better.

Just the little things like that bring joy to my heart.

(upbeat music) (train rumbling) (train rumbling)