A bit of context: I've basically wanted to be a motorman for as long as I can remember. I love trains. Like some people love planes, and others love supercars and motorcycles, I love trains.
In some show I recently saw, a very autistic-coded character says they love trains too. And they say it's because they love train horns, they sound so lonely. Something to that effect, can't remember exactly.
But yes, it is very much an autistic thing. I have spent hours watching the vlogs of this really cool assistant loco pilot who chronicles his journey on YouTube. Apart from this guy, though, haven't come across many more motormen who actively chronicle their motormen journeys.
So when I randomly bumped into a motorman on a recent train journey to Mangalore, you can imagine my excitement. I didn't even know he was a motorman until the TC came, and he said to him that he was a motorman.
This is how our conversation started:
Sir, are you a motorman?
Yes.
Then I told him I'd always wanted to be a motorman. He asked why I didn't take the exam. I said life took me in another direction.
We spoke about the schedules, the job, and the daily grind. But very soon, the conversation very organically became about stress and the mental health of loco pilots. It's a super stressful job, which I already had an idea about. But apparently you can't take any leaves even if you have a bunch of them piled up.
This guy had over 100. One of his colleagues had over 300. But they're not given leaves very easily.
He said he works 365 days of the year. They get their schedules in advance, unlike goods train drivers who get them only about a day or so before their journeys. But they still work pretty erratic schedules. One day he'll work from 8 in the morning, and then the next day from 5 in the evening. So technically he'll have about 12 or so hours in between two duties, but hardly ever an entire day off.
He also said diabetes and heart problems are very common among motormen from all the sitting, the rough hours, and never having any time to exercise. And if you're unfit, soon you get declassified, which means they'll take you off from your motorman duties and put you at a desk job. He said he had been offered mail trains and passenger express trains, but he's happy running the Western line locals, because at least he gets to go home every day.
In between shifts, they have a dorm type place at big stations where they can rest, but it's not ideal. In between two trains he gets anywhere between 8 to 15 minutes off - and sometimes even up to an hour.
But what I loved was that he spoke about his love for the job itself. He said he loved driving trains, the feel of it, flooring it to 100, 110 on good days. He also said he loves days when the signals on Western Railway allow him to speed. But more often than not, they don't. If even one train is behind schedule, it affects all the other trains, and everything runs late. He also gets quite annoyed by people on stations wearing their headphones listening to music on loud, completely immersed in their phones. Says motormen have to be very careful about all that nowadays because people have basically stopped looking up from their phones.
It was about 11 pm already, and he seemed very tired from the day's work. So he picked up his pillows and blanket and went to the top berth next to mine, and fell asleep almost immediately. I almost thought of asking if I could ever join him in the cabin on one of his upcoming rides, but decided against it. I don't know why, just figured I didn't want to be one of 'those' ones.
But some day I definitely will ride in the cab of a Mumbai local, and in the cab of a diesel and an electric locomotive. And that day I will take lots of pictures and post them here along with a detailed account of how it all went.
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