At my commuter TOC, we work weekly shift patterns alternating between earlies and lates. Earlies typically book on between 0400 and 0900 working through until afternoon, lates start mid afternoon and work through to after midnight.
Shifts average 35 hours over 4 days per week, so average shift length is 8.75 hours. They may range from 5.5 hours to 9.25 hours.
A typical day would be as follows:
Arrive at the depot in good time, collect your schedule and book on for your shift in full uniform, carrying all necessary equipment and free from drugs/alcohol. Book on is usually around 20 mins before your first movement to allow walking time.
After booking on, catch up with colleagues and check notice cases - late notice case in particular gives you information about ESRs/low adhesion conditions.
You would then go to your train - you may be required to relieve the driver of a train already in service (give the driver your key, jump in and DSD test) or you may be required to prep a stabled train and take it out of the sidings into service. This would involve checking emergency equipment in all cabs on the unit, full brake test, set up radio and sending a "TRTS" to the signaller when you're ready so that you can be given the road by the signaller.
You may be required to travel by cab to a remote location and then take a train into service from there. All of this is indicated in your schedule.
You will then drive all services indicated in your schedule - paying particular attention to stopping patterns to avoid failing to call or making unscheduled stops.
Around half way through your shift you will get a PNB break. In practice the break is not always exactly half way through and you may end up doing the majority of driving either before/after the break. The break will always be at a location with a crew room with microwave and hot water available. Another chance to catch up with colleagues, reading or whatever takes your fancy.
At the end of your shift you key off and are free to go home. No requirement to go back to your depot if your shift finishes at a remote location, although your schedule will always give you a means of returning to your depot by passing on a train, cab or whatever.
The shift work is definitely the hardest part of the job, you are working at the extreme ends of the day and have to be as alert at 0400 one week as you do at 0130 the following week after hours of driving. Of course the time off and salary goes some way to compensate for this.
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Whether it's a good job depends on what you want out of a job really. If you struggle with your own company, don't like early starts, late finishes and irregular shift work then definitely not.
If you want a way out of office politics, decent pay, enjoy your own company and crave an existence away from the usual drab, tedious, office-based, hamster-wheel, brown-nosing schlep which so many "normal" jobs are these days, even professional jobs, I reckon it's a good option. If you like trains (not a pre-requisite, many in the industry actually don't) so much the better!
I watch a few bits when I got in at 02XX in the morning. 
