An IAP in Texas, chapter two

An IAP in Texas, chapter two One week down! One of you asked about what Im doing down here Im splitting my time between Service Design/Performance and Technology Services, so basically, applying technology to the analysis and optimization of train routes and service. Im working with some great people, and you know, eight hours in an office sort of fly by if youre enjoying what youre doing. So far, Ive been gaining a wide overview of how BNSF runs their trains and the sorts of performance aspects one would be concerned with in the freight industry. Its all new to me, coming from the passenger side of things. I suppose the best part is that its all making sense so far! :) The headquarters campus is pretty big, and as you can see here, theyve got several train cars parked at the main entrance these are fully-functioning conference rooms used regularly for business purposes! Theres a network of roads connecting all of the various offices, but Ive spent most of my time in the Operations and Technology buildings. The TOB (technology office building yes they actually use this acronym), located across the street from the rest, was formerly the factory where the TRS-80 was made. :-P On an unrelated note, theyve got an old Xerox workstation and laser printer from the late 70s in a glass display case in the cafeteria, from before the BN (Burlington Northern) and the ATSF (Atchison, Topeka Santa Fe) merged to form BNSF. But most importantly, everyones been very friendly and generous, going out of their way to include me in their work activities or just to show me a specific project theyre especially keen on. Take today as an example: a director took an hour and a half out of his day to give me the grand tour of an expensive piece of model dispatching software. Or Ill drop by the desk of a senior manager (the one who had me over to his house for dinner, after taking me to lunch, all on my first day) to ask about something Im working on, and well get into a half-hour discussion about some interesting business problem that Ill then go investigate. Im the only intern around right now (my boss says hes here this month while MIT is in hibernation), but I dont feel out of place one bit. :) The environment is great because a lot of the folks have railroad career backgrounds (as in, out in the field or in the yard, away from management), so theyve always got that extra context to lend. The hardest part about this work is getting up around 7AM! I havent had to do that on a regular basis for what, four years? We MIT kids are so spoiled with our first classes at 10, 11, or later. Its midnight as Im typing this, and I have a meeting at 8. Luckily, though, its typically pretty loose, and as long as I put in a full day, my exact arrival time neednt be so strict. I think itll be a good summer Im already doing neat things!