The days of a train driver are like a rushing train on the railway. They are either on the way out or on the way out. They are both resting at home and in a state of mental tension, and are always worried about the changes in the sports car's transfer to prevent missing rides.

The days of a train driver are like a rushing train on the railway. They are either on the way out or on the way out. They are both resting at home and in a state of mental tension, and are always worried about the changes in the sports car's transfer to prevent missing rides. This mobile and stressful life often leaves them far away from their families and lives in railway apartments in other places.

Speaking of railway apartments, they are different from hotels in the streets and alleys of the city, and they are also different from hotels with grand facades. They are specially designed for train drivers, conductors, inspectors, operation train commanders, and other staff members on board.

During my sports car in the mid-to-late 1980s, I lived in Yigu (South Tongchuan), Mengyuan, Yaoqu, Yanliang and Sanmenxia under the jurisdiction of Xi'an Railway Branch, and I lived in Yigu Apartment for the longest time.

Railway Apartment belongs to the living section management. Under the economic and social conditions at that time, the apartment was poor in food and accommodation. The dormitory facilities are simple, with a three-bucket table, three or four single hardbed beds, a wardrobe with a mirror, a clothes rack, and a washbasin rack. After the flight attendant retired, he lived in such a dormitory. There was no difference between the driver, the deputy driver, the furnace driver, the master and the apprentice.

Because there are people who leave and leave at any time, the apartment canteen and bathhouse are open for 24 hours. You need tickets to eat, and you can exchange them with money and food coupons at a special window. Because the flight attendant asked the meal after the shift to leave before the flight, the dishes in the canteen were prepared in advance, and the meat was mostly cooked with double-cooked meat. It was short-lasting to stir-fry, which was convenient for timely dining, but the taste was always the same. The steamed buns are basically all gangbusters, and the rice is steamed in advance in porcelain bowls. This may also be related to the fact that the chefs in the apartment canteen in a bureau are basically trained by the same mold. Of course, there are also oil pastry , dessert, tea and eggs, etc.

The flight attendant has been in the apartment for a long time and is very familiar with the apartment waiters and other sports cars in the system. Several of my colleagues who worked with me also got along well with the waiters in the apartment.

Locomotive crew members have relatively high incomes, so they are not afraid of spending money when eating outside. When the food in the apartment is not as good as the taste and the shift is off for a long enough time, the crew members of the same class will sometimes go to restaurants on the street to reward themselves.

I remember when I was in Yigu Apartment, the place I went most was Hongqiqiao in Tongchuan City, which was located next to Qishuihe , which was a very large-scale market. On one hand, there were various stalls for buying fresh vegetables, fruits, chickens, ducks, poultry and eggs, pork, beef and mutton, and on the other hand, there were restaurants that sold various food and snacks, including soap buns, braised cakes, stewed cakes, dandan noodles, and dandan noodles, as well as fried rice. Most of them were sufficient in portions and authentic in taste. My favorite food is the braised cakes there. Every time I go there, I buy two eggs and a little mushrooms, and give them to the restaurant chef, and put the egg purse and mushrooms into the braised cakes. At that time, the sports car was very exhausted, so eating stewed cakes often took a large bowl and a small bowl. In the years that followed, I never had such delicious stewed cakes again.

The particularity of railway transportation determines that safe production is the eternal theme. When the flight attendant is waiting in the apartment, if the time is long, he or she must participate in safety education and business learning organized by the locomotive fleet. Therefore, there are locomotive teams in the main transportation lines and apartments where flight attendants are concentrated to manage locomotive crew members outside, provide timely safety reminders and warning education, and deal with some problems encountered by flight attendants in sports cars and life. In addition to the captain and branch secretary, these managers also guide drivers. They also have to take extra rides with the car, especially for new drivers and drivers assigned from other routes. The frequency of rides will be increased so that these newcomers can quickly become familiar with the business and route conditions and ensure driving safety.

I served as the secretary of the locomotive team's League branch in the mid-to-late 1980s. I was in a semi-productive state and my work location was mostly in Yigu Apartment. There is an activity room there double as a conference room and four dormitories, which becomes the office land of the team headquarters.In addition to organizing youth members to carry out various voluntary labor and cultural and sports activities such as car cleaning competitions, practice competitions, photography exhibitions, etc., the main ones are to run board newspapers, wall posters, write large and small slogans, carry out environmental publicity, and write work summary, experience materials, accident reports and other written materials for party branches and locomotive teams.

One of the important tasks is that the section or workshop has important meeting spirit, production safety notification, accident notification, warning education and other content. When it is necessary to communicate to the locomotive crew members, they have to wait for the flight attendants to leave each class regardless of day or night, organize them to study and sign them one by one, and sometimes they have to work until two or three o'clock in the morning.

For a period of time, the Ministry of Railways proposed to improve the main types of jobs in hard-working railway driving, namely the treatment of locomotive crew (train driver), shifter , station duty officer, and train operation commander, and gave these personnel a meal subsidy of 0.75 yuan per trip. At that time, one boiled egg costs 0.25 yuan, and 0.75 yuan is exactly three boiled eggs, which can of course be used as a food purchase. I took on the task of distributing dining rolls to the flight attendants. The number of meal coupons for one month is estimated based on the train operation chart and the daily departure times, and then the meal coupons are collected from the apartment financial staff and sent to the flight attendant who returns to each trip. Although the subsidy is not much, the locomotive crew members are very happy.

At the same time, at the locomotive hydration point of Fuping Station, the apartment is responsible for providing a free meal of eggs and tomato noodles to the flight attendants who work here at each trip, so that the flight attendants will avoid the hassle of bringing meals from home.

During the two or three years I was in Yigu Railway Apartment, although when the crew was in a tight position, I had to go on the sports car from time to time, but most of my time was busy with the motorcycle team. The flight attendant apartment seems to be constantly moving, but when they come and leave, they are basically locomotive crew members who run the same line. They have a special relationship with the apartment, which, to some extent, is tantamount to a second home.

As China Railway enters the high-speed rail era, the salted copper wires used to run cars have now been electrified. The EMU train was launched. In the past, the kind of trains that often run for more than ten hours has become history. What changes follow is the change in flight attendants’ road delivery, which fully realizes going to and returning on the same day, allowing flight attendants to keep more rest time at home.

With the development of the economy and society, the current railway apartments are no match for me when I was sports car, and the accommodation and dining conditions have changed a lot.