Les,
Thanks for the encouragement.
Because I have a chronic medical condition, I wonder if I would be able to even pass the initial physical. I'm not sure, however, what policies the railroads have towards chronic conditions such as mine are. Any place to find out? On other hand my vitals and lab work are always excellent (good blood pressure (my systolic is seldom over 110, usually between 100 and 105), cholesterol excellent, etc).
On the bright side, I have noticed that BNSF sometimes posts salaried positions related to my field (computer science) at Fort Worth. That is always a possibility too. With everything becoming so technology centric, there is always a need for the nerds who know their way around code.
Ultimately, though I would LOVE to have a career on the railroads deep down, going to college and getting my degree is sort of a safety net so I *hopefully* will have a job no matter what (and I do enjoy working with computers and coding).
I totally agree with you that people who never try will never know. My school is actually not far from a pretty major through terminal for BNSF...