I come from a railroading family. My grandmother worked for the M&O. My dad retired as a yardclerk, one brother was a switchman, another a yardmaster, and I was a computer programmer, all for the GM&O.
One year I was assigned to do what was called roadway inventory. I worked with the local superintendents. We would hop on a two-seater railcar powered by a small gas engine on ride the rails until we came to a station or where there would be materials used to repair the tracks. We would stop and count everything except crossties. I would record the information in large ledger books (way before notebook computers).
You talk about a young city guy getting an education on railroading and rural life, that was me. Once I remember stopping where a crew was working on a section of track. The crew lived in a camp car for several days if they were out away from towns. If close enough to houses, they often would run long electrical cords and pay the home owner for the use of their electricity. This particular time the supervisor said that he made arrangements with a farmer and plugged into a pumphouse. When he returned to the camp car the eletricity suddenly went out. He went back to the pumphouse and to his surprise he saw an old lady standing there with a shotgun. The supervisor explained his arrangement with the farmer. The old lady said well that is his electricty but this is my pump! So he had to pay her too.
Great memories!