SARTELL, Minn. (AP) - Shawn Klimpel of Sartell has spent his whole life living along the Empire Builder railroad line.

"At 6, the bug hit. I just fell in love. Amtrak was my first love," he said.

Klimpel grew up in Rugby, N.D., known as the geographic center of North America. The train ran right through the center of town, near the grocery store where his father worked.

"I'd watch the silver train carrying all these fascinating people on it, going to places I never went," Klimpel said.

Today Klimpel lives his dream. As a conductor on the Empire Builder, he is the "boss of the train," responsible for the safe movement of the train and all its passengers.

The career started decades ago with a dream sparked by visits to his grandmother in Williston, N.D., three hours away. With a gas crisis raising prices, "my family would take the train on Saturday morning to go see Grandma. I was 6 and spent the trip visiting with the conductors," he said.

From that moment on, he was hooked. On summer days, he started hanging out at the Rugby depot. He talked with station agent Clint Nelson, who became a "surrogate father for the summer," Klimpel said.

"I'd be there when the first train came through at 7 a.m. and stay until 2 p.m.," Klimpel said. "Clint taught me how to sell tickets and let me help out around the station."

"Some kids played baseball in the sandlots all summer. Shawn watched trains at the depot," said his wife, Chris Klimpel.

"I have a lot of respect for Shawn identifying his dream and making it happen," she said. "It's not the norm to have that specific and lofty a goal and make it happen."

Achieving his dream has not been easy. He remembers a high school career day when he was 16.

"We were told we could explore any career we wanted to, and I wanted to go to the train station. But the guidance counselor wouldn't allow me to do it. He said the railroads were dying."

The encounter only strengthened his resolve.

Starting at 18, Klimpel sent Amtrak his resume.

Every month.

For three years.

"I'd hear the same thing each time: 'Thanks, but no thanks,"' he said. "I figured they would either call me to tell me to quit bugging them or offer me a job."

Meanwhile, he went to college for graphic arts.

Finally, at 21, his persistence paid off. Amtrak offered him a summer job as a cook on the train. "When I went in to talk to the human resources person, he knew all about me," Klimpel said. "He must have had 36 of my resumes by then."

The summer job as cook soon became a full-time position. "It was the tiniest space you could cook in," he said.

Three years later, he was offered the position of conductor on the Empire Builder route that runs from Chicago to Portland and Seattle by way of St. Cloud. It also passes his parents' home in Minot.

Today, the railroad industry, despite his counselor's dire predictions, is thriving. Klimpel marked 13 years as a conductor June 5.

"The freight trains are having a horrible time keeping up with demand," he said. "And the Empire Builder is the busiest long-distance line in the country."

With gas prices rising again and long waits at airports, Klimpel anticipates it will be an "incredibly busy summer." Once again families and travelers will take advantage of the trains just as his family did in his childhood.

The job has some challenges: "When I'm gone, it's not like my day ends at 5 p.m." He works 23 to 39 hours at a time, and he always works nights. "It's a normal life … if you're a vampire. Even when I'm home, I have to sleep during the day."

"He's just one of those people, like doctors or nurses, who make the world operate 24/7," Chris Klimpel said. "But it's the best job in the world for show-and-tell for our kids."

The worst part of his job is dealing with grade crossing accidents. He's witnessed five during his career. And as conductor, he is the first one off the train to search for survivors.

Several area cities have explored creating quiet zones that would prohibit train whistles.

"My biggest fear is they will stop us from blowing the whistles," Shawn Klimpel said. "It's the one thing we can do to protect people, and they want to take it away."

The Klimpels have carried Shawn's passion for trains into their home and life. Their oldest daughter, Casey, was named for railroad legend Casey Jones.

Their living room walls are covered with limited-edition prints of trains and depots. Each print depicts a different train, and each is significant to Klimpel.

One print shows the Minneapolis Depot; another, the St. Paul Depot. Others depict locations and locomotives in North Dakota.

"My goal was to collect a print a year," Klimpel said. In 2006, he realized another dream when the family commissioned a painting by Larry Fisher of the Rugby depot that Klimpel grew up near.

The painting, displayed in a place of honor above their fireplace, shows the Rugby depot in exquisite detail.

Fisher, a nationally respected painter of railroad scenes, is known for using a tiny brush and a magnifying glass as he paints.

The artist even captured the Klimpel family in the painting. Chris Klimpel and daughters, Casey and Sarah, stand beside the tracks watching the train.

Klimpel is there in his blue conductor uniform. Even his old mentor, station agent Clint Nelson, makes an appearance.

"The train looks just like the Empire Builder does today," Klimpel said. "See that yellow line on the side of the track? I painted it when I was 13.

And the locomotive numbers are real train numbers - but they're also significant to me."

Chris Klimpel offers a railroad wife's point of view: "A lot of people wouldn't choose locomotives for their main living area. But this is something that is important to our family, and I like it."

It looks like the next generation of Klimpels will be railroad fans, too.

Daughters Casey and Sarah are following in their father's footsteps.

Ages 8 and 4, they already are avid train travelers, riding the rails a half a dozen times a year on the Empire Builder line.