Maintainance of way

I am going to the testing session for a maintainance of way position. Can anyone tell me what I could expect with this position? I really want to know most of all if there will be alot of travel? How many days per work could I expect to sleep in my own bed? I know you have to start at the bottom but, I am not willing to sacrifice my family for a few bucks. Is there much overtime with these positions? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If sleeping in your own bed and being home with your family are really important to you, then the railroad, especially MOW is not the way to go. Don't get me wrong there are terminals where you can be home most nights working in train service, my terminal is like that but MOW is a totally different story. I'm sure somone else with MOW experience can outline it better for you than I can.

You will be home every night (except big derailments) if you hire on to district. System is a different story. Most system gangs(traveling gangs) work 8 ten hour days with 7 days off. If you're far from home you will spend a couple of those days traveling. District gangs get an hourly wage and some late night calls, weekends included. If you hire on in district, you can bid on the system to make the perdiem and mileage. It adds up to about 20k tax free take home per year. You can get alot of overtime in district but that can wear on you. My advice is to stay in district for awhile learn a bit and talk with some guys on the system and see if thats for you.
Be Safe:
GNU