Train hopping

[NPloysa]

Anyone ever done this?



I don't know why, but I have always wanted to travel by train, illegally! You know, catch a coal train or freight train, get off in the next town, wait for the next one. I know it's illegal, dangerous, being a hobo and all, but much safer than hitchhiking!



It's usually only two engineers, right? And of course RR law enforcement, etc, to catch you! All you would need is a backpack and a great pair of hiking boots.



What a way to see the country, riding for "free" on a train! I know, bad, bad thoughts, but fun too. The jail time may even be worth it!



Nick

 

[ndurbin]

You could probably get away with it just going to the next town and back.



I useto live right off one of BNSF's main lines, you could be there and back in a lunch hour. I know they get out and check the cars every so often. Never tried it but ya do get ideas sitting there waiting for them to pass. I useto date a conductor's daughter and he said he'd take along his . 22 and plink at stuff along the spur lines since they were bored from having to travel 25 mph. He also said he could hook me up with a ride for alil ways but never took him up on that one.



Nathan

 

[Bertram65]

There was a special on one of the news shows a few years back, it was dateline or 60 minutes. Showed the hobos as murdering each other and often being murdered by predetors such as serial killers without any one knowing.

I would think twice about it, it's not the happy go lucky lifestyle it may have been 50 years ago.

 

[bmoeller]

I wouldn't do it. My great-grandpa used to do that for several years before he died a couple of years ago. He did it when my mom was a little girl. He wouldn't talk about it. Some very bad things had happened.

 

[Hale on wheels]

I would not recommend it. It is all fun and games when the train is going 1-2 mph in the next town over heading toward your home town. So you figure, what the heck, I'll just jump off when it gets to my hometown and all will be well. The idiocy of that plan comes to realization when you are cruising through your hometown at around 40-50 mph heading to who knows where, and the only way you can think of to get off is to jump off in your small town's water treatment plant's pond



Sometimes I wonder how I am still alive!

 

[Royk]

Ahhh, the memories...

I can tell you lots of stories about hopping trains. Did it with a few friends every chance we got when I was in high school. Two of us were planning on hopping cross-country when we graduated, but that never materialized. We did take some nice long trips though, with the longest being about 100 miles round trip. We had a slow shortline that ran past our high school. If we got lucky a train would pass eastbound as we got out of school for the day. We could hop it for three towns and it would always slow for a bridge entering the yard. We'd jump off there, walk across the street to a conveniently placed bus stop, and be home in about 20 minutes for 65 cents! On the long trip I mentioned, a mainline on Conrail, we'd go through three tunnels and averaged about 50 mph. I still get the urge to jump out of the truck and hop when I'm sitting (note I didn't say "stuck") at a crossing watching a slow train go by.



However, as someone else mentioned, there a lot of sickos riding the rails these days. There is a gang who ride the rails that are no strangers to murder. I think they are primarily in the southern states though. You may remember the guy who was killing people in Texas that all lived close to the tracks. He would jump off the train, murder and rob some old people and hop back on and out of town. I think his name was Ramirez. I think the northern states may be safer.



Roy