Pros
Co-workers are generally supportive and become very much like family. WARNING: some coworkers will throw you under the bus as they are forced to fight for the scraps they are given (small raises, a small piece of recognition/praise, tiny promotions, etc) and will tear you apart like a wild pack of dogs. I don't know that this is a pro necessarily but you will be forced to sink or swim in a very complex job, if you can swim you will have definitely learned something and should take that knowledge elsewhere as quickly as possible.
Cons
ALL employees are disposable!!!! Management plays favorites but can quickly turn on those favorites for obscure reasons. No one is happy, everyone is unhappy for one reason or another. Stress levels are high due to uncertainty and games played by management, this is already a high stress career. Almost all employees have an anxiety disorder or experience panic attacks after working here. Everyone knows they are on borrowed time at the job. Management are not selected because of experience or leadership ability, education is not valued and is, in fact, frowned upon. (Unless it came from Pittsburg State University). Upper management positions do not even require a high school diploma and can be achieved based on "experience" translation: who you know/good ol' boy system. Pay does not come close to being equal to pay from other railroads and employees are expected to do much more work than they would do if employed by another railroad including work that other departments pawn off on them. Bonus programs are given and taken away without warning and raises are low. Due to management incompetence and insecurity, stellar employees will not receive credit for their work and advancement opportunities are restricted, jobs will be made available only to persons who were preselected to receive them before a job is even posted, if someone deemed undesirable applies the terms of the job change to make it undesirable to outsiders. Management at all levels will lie about almost anything and corporate wide there is a lack of understanding of basic employment laws. You should be prepared to keep extensive notes and have a lawyer on retainer. Female workers are not valued and are even told they should not only expect sexual harassment but if they cannot tolerate it they need not take the job. Women are grossly underrepresented in all fields except clerical and are not valued as equals. Equal work for equal pay isn't even on this company's radar, rest assured that male coworkers will always make more and sexual harassment training was geared toward all the ways women harass men. Expect to have to beg for the appropriate tools to do your job and to receive little to no support from your supervisor. You will be advised to treat people in unprofessional ways even told to be just plain rude. But if you do this to the wrong person you will not receive support for following instructions. Safety is a very low priority and this company is a ticking time bomb waiting to become the next railroad diaaster. They do carefully manage their Internet image rather than fixing their internal problems.