Re: A good, hard day on the job...

If you stick with steam railroading, and get into heavier boiler repairs, only then will you learn the true meaning of dirty. I mean monotone soot black from the tip of your cap to the soals of your shoes, with the exception of the whites of your eyes. Pull the superheater units out of a coal burner that was running a week before. Your TEETH will even be dirty! You may think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Smile at the mirror at the end of the day, and you will see. Your underwear will be 95% as black as the soles of your shoes, and you will go to work the next day a dingy shade of grey, because what's left after your shower will just have to wear off.
But as I said, you're young, there's lots of dirt with your name on it that you haven't met yet.