# Riding Freight Trains



## shanghaiamtrak (Jan 28, 2004)

Anybody here ever ridden a freight train? my grandpa said that back in the good ol days many people did this. but these days, it seems all the railroads have police who will arrest people riding on the trains. I also have heard about freight railroad gangs. they sound pretty dangerous.

if it was easy, id try it myself, just for the experience!


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## AlanB (Jan 29, 2004)

Not only is it illegal, since you are tresspassing on private property, it's down right dangerous. 

Many a hobo has paid with his life for a trip, not to mention kids who think that it's cool or fun to try and hop a frieght.

While I'll allow people who may have done something like this in the past to answer your question about "have they ever hopped a freight", be warned that I will delete any posts that give advice on how to hop a freight train or condone the practice.


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## tp49 (Jan 29, 2004)

Matt rides freights all the time, well from his position in the cab since he's a freight conductor which is a practice I would fully condone since he needs to make a living to support the International  All 100% legal.

As for the trying to ride a freight nah too slow, don't know where it's going, dangerous especially trying to hop a moving freight and not worth the aggrivation of dealing with the RR Bulls.


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## Bill Haithcoat (Jan 29, 2004)

I actualy do know a guy who is a friend of the family who hopped a freight from Tennessee to California with his friends years ago. About the mid-80's, I think. He lived to tell the tale but as Alan points out, it is not only illegal but increasingly dangerous.

In the distant past the life of a hobo was considered somehow romantic, but I know those times have gone way way way by. You can find books to read about them, that is as far as one should go.

These kids had zero knowledge of local railroad tracks and they spent the first day fumbling around on little freights that took them out to manufacturing plants, they had a hard time finding which trains were really going out of town.


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## Save Our Trains Michigan (Jan 29, 2004)

You hop on my FREIGHT train you go to jail i don't put up with this crap i have had to stop my train before to get people off that just ticks me off i don't like walking over a mile to put peolpe off STAY OFF FREIGHT TRAINS :angry:


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## Viewliner (Jan 29, 2004)

Bill, I remember you mentioning something along the lines of riding a freight trains that had a passenger car on the back, where you bought a ticket, and it usually carried DHing Crews. Does this sound familiar at all?


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## battalion51 (Jan 29, 2004)

Matt one question. To get back there why don't you just climb down and then have your Engineer slowly pull down? Granted you'll still have to walk back to the cab, but it saves you half the walking anyway.


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## Bill Haithcoat (Jan 29, 2004)

Viewliner, you are thinking about a mixed train which I rode from Atlanta to Augusta one time. That was completely legal. Though passengers were not encouraged at all, the railroad just did it because it got a huge tax write off. It had about 80 freight cars and one badly maintained passenger car. I do not did not have any deadhead crew...I was literally the only person in the car. I was allowed to ride in the caboose for awhile.

I was the only passenger. Usually there were none. It was purely a mood thing to do, only a hardened railfan would bother with it. Trip took 10 hours when Greyhound bus took 3 or 4. No food, no running water, no power, no lights.

That is different from just hopping a freight only train.. What I did was legal and not dangerous.....just exremely bizarre. And a lot of fun for a one time event.


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## Viewliner (Jan 29, 2004)

Bill, I knew what you did was legal, I just remember you mentioning that. That's why I brought it up, knowing *that was* legal.


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## shanghaiamtrak (Jan 29, 2004)

ok ok

didnt think you guys would be so serious (although i know its a serious issue). ill just stick to amtrak.

btw, i know what a conductor does on an amtrak train, but what does a freight railroad conductors job duties entail?


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## battalion51 (Jan 29, 2004)

He, like an Amtrak Conductor, is responsible for the safe journey of the train. He is the "boss" if you will, and is in charge of keeping track of slow orders, copying Form D's, Form EC-1's, Track Warrants, etc. Also if there are any track work foremen he contacts them to get permission through their limits. If something malfuctions with the train, he is responsible for walking the train and notifying the correct authorities, usually the dispatcher.


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## shanghaiamtrak (Jan 29, 2004)

wow, i thought these were all duties of the engineer. i guess conductors use to ride in the caboose, but now with no more cabooses they ride in the cab with the engineers?


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## battalion51 (Jan 29, 2004)

Yes sir. They ride on the Fireman's side, or as them damn freight boys call it, Conductors Side.


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## gswager (Jan 29, 2004)

I believe that there are freight/passenger train in use in Canada, usually the northern side.

Anyone knows about Alaska RR?


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## Viewliner (Jan 29, 2004)

gswager said:


> Anyone knows about Alaska RR?


Is that the one that runs in New Jersey? :lol:


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## Allen Dee (Jan 29, 2004)

I became a railfan at a very young age.

Growing up in Southern California, I had the experience of watching the demise of the once-proud, now-defunct Pacific Electric Railway.

When I was in my early teens, I talked three of my friends into hopping an SP freight train from Alhambra to downtown Los Angeles. We made the trip without incident. We rode an empty boxcar. At every grade crossing, we stood at the open door and waved at the waiting/passing motorists. The train stopped near the Broadway bridge crossing the LA River. From there we walked to Chinatown and Olvera Street.

After finishing our sightseeing, we returned to the SP tracks to go home. The bulls and the LAPD were waiting for us, and we got busted. We were taken by the LAPD to the Highland Park police station. All of our parents were called. One parent was designated to take us all home.

This incident even made the local news. Radio station KRLA made a broadcast that went something like this: "Here's a little bit of humor in the news. Four Alhambra hobo boys were caught in downtown Los Angeles trying to hop a fast freight to Phoenix."

For months afterwards I was confronted by classmates asking if I was one of them. I answered, "Yep, it was me!"

Maybe this should have been posted in trip report section! LOL


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## AMTRAK-P42 (Jan 29, 2004)

:lol: :blink: :lol: :blink: Very unique/amusing story indeed. Im sure your parents didnt think so!


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## Save Our Trains Michigan (Jan 30, 2004)

battalion51 said:


> Matt one question. To get back there why don't you just climb down and then have your Engineer slowly pull down? Granted you'll still have to walk back to the cab, but it saves you half the walking anyway.


Under the rule i had the police call my dispatcher and i was orederd to stop my train and inspect for kids on my train which means we can't do that i wish we could i saw those kids jump off the middle of my train :angry:


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## Save Our Trains Michigan (Jan 30, 2004)

shanghaiamtrak said:


> ok ok
> didnt think you guys would be so serious (although i know its a serious issue). ill just stick to amtrak.
> 
> btw, i know what a conductor does on an amtrak train, but what does a freight railroad conductors job duties entail?


I am the BOSS of the train what ever i say goes to a point.


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## Save Our Trains Michigan (Jan 30, 2004)

battalion51 said:


> Yes sir. They ride on the Fireman's side, or as them damn freight boys call it, Conductors Side.


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: The hot seat


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## Bill Haithcoat (Jan 30, 2004)

gswager said:


> I believe that there are freight/passenger train in use in Canada, usually the northern side.
> Anyone knows about Alaska RR?


Yes, I, too believe there are still mixed trains very far north in Canada, and that they are not part of ViaRail (names like "Ontario & Northern" come to mind) . I am not sure about Alaska.

I think the one I rode in the mid-80's from ATl to Augusta was the last in the continental U.S.

Historically, it should be pointed out that there were many mixed trains all over the country at one time. They started fading out in the early 50's. Their purpose was to serve very tiny communities which may have not even had paved roads. Sometimes the train was the only way in or out. So they carried passengers and freight---all kinds of necessities....think: milk(in refrigerated cars) and newspapers. They usually branched off from a main line. They were not necessarily daily. Though there is a book out called "Mixed Train Daily".

Improved highways were the natural death of the mixed train---the airplane would not even be in the picture for routes that rural. Incidentally, that mixed train that I rode did intersect at some small town in Georgia, connecting to another small train in Ga., thus somewhat more serving the normal intent of a mixed train operation.

That train I rode obviously did not serve such needs as this---Atlanta( metro population today of 4.5 million) and Augusta were not not exactly rural communites without paved roads. It was on that railroad(the Georgia Railroad) purely because they got a tax break for operating "passenger trains". So they followed the law to the bare minimum, operating a service which was really neat for a railfan but of no serious use to the traveling public, as described in my earleir post.(no running water, no lights, mildewey and dusty--never washed by anything but the rain, etc)

Oh yes, the train did have a published schedule but it meant nothing. It actually left whenver the freight was ready to move, which could be hours late or even hours earlier. What one did was call the yard dispatcher and get an estimate. MARTA had a station near by so I got off MARTA walked throught the yard to the dispatcher and eventually the train was ready to roll. One good thing: prices were frozen back to when the last "real" train operated, so my ticket was about $5 one way where as my return Greyhound the next morning was about $30. QUOTE]


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## shanghaiamtrak (Jan 30, 2004)

so freight trains have one conductor? amtrak trains have two or three right (long distance ones) and an on board service chief. is the chief "the chief conductor"?


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## AlanB (Jan 30, 2004)

Amtrak trains can vary from two conductors to sometimes as many as four. It depends on the number of cars and the passenger load. Typically there is only one conductor, the others are assistant conductors.

However the conductor is the ultimate boss on the train. No one can overrule his decisions. If he orders the engineer to stop, the engineer must stop the train. The engineer also cannot start the train without the conductors ok.

The OSB, if he even exists on the train is only in charge of services provided to the customer, ie. dining car, sleeping cars, cafe/lounge. He can ask the conductor to do something, like make a special stop for some reason, but the conductor (with consent from the dispatcher) makes the final decision if it's safe to stop the train for that special stop or reason.


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## Save Our Trains Michigan (Jan 30, 2004)

AlanB said:


> Amtrak trains can vary from two conductors to sometimes as many as four. It depends on the number of cars and the passenger load. Typically there is only one conductor, the others are assistant conductors.
> However the conductor is the ultimate boss on the train. No one can overrule his decisions. If he orders the engineer to stop, the engineer must stop the train. The engineer also cannot start the train without the conductors ok.
> 
> The OSB, if he even exists on the train is only in charge of services provided to the customer, ie. dining car, sleeping cars, cafe/lounge. He can ask the conductor to do something, like make a special stop for some reason, but the conductor (with consent from the dispatcher) makes the final decision if it's safe to stop the train for that special stop or reason.


Right on Alan thats why i love my job. :lol: B)


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## F59 PHI (Jan 30, 2004)

I once hopped a freight on the one train that passes through on the line by me. Didnt get in any trouble as there are no police in the area. its also on a 3 foot track guage, and the trains dont exceed 5 MPH.


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## Jimisyou (May 25, 2010)

AlanB said:


> Not only is it illegal, since you are tresspassing on private property, it's down right dangerous.
> Many a hobo has paid with his life for a trip, not to mention kids who think that it's cool or fun to try and hop a frieght.
> 
> While I'll allow people who may have done something like this in the past to answer your question about "have they ever hopped a freight", be warned that I will delete any posts that give advice on how to hop a freight train or condone the practice.


If you are plannin on riding dont... not unless you have a good idea as to what yer doin... i ve been doin along time... be careful and dont ask punk rockers for advice


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## Green Maned Lion (May 25, 2010)

This has to be a record.


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## amtrakwolverine (May 25, 2010)

6 years old. anyone want to top that?


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## Cho Cho Charlie (May 25, 2010)

Viewliner said:


> gswager said:
> 
> 
> > Anyone knows about Alaska RR?
> ...


Kind-of like the Lehigh Valley Railroad Museum is not located anywhere in the Lehigh Valley.


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## dan72 (May 25, 2010)

My grandfather used to share stories with me about how he would hop trains from Red Wing, MN to Chicago. He was also a bit of a hell-raiser in his youth and it was back in a time where it was much more tolerated.

A very interesting read on hoboes and riding the rails is _Rolling Nowhere_ by Ted Conover. He took a year off of college and rode the rails all over the Western US in the early 1980's learning about the hobo way of life. He did mention in an updated preface he would never be able to do it these days.

Dan


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## MattW (May 25, 2010)

I hopped freight trains when I was younger...but they were about 8 inches tall...on 7.5 inch gauge track...and I had a ticket 

The Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, GA had the North Georgia Live Steamers running around a figure-8 track until 1999 when the SRM moved up the road a ways. The North Georgia Live Steamers have now settled in a location at/near the Georgia International Horse Park in my hometown of Conyers and are proceeding with construction of their new line.

(I was taught from an early age that trains were to be admired and not gone near unless they had passenger cars, were stopped, and you had a ticket or museum admission, but I was feeling a tad left out  )

BTW-Bill, I had always heard that the Georgia Railroad was required to operate passenger service as long as it existed because of its charter with the state. Is my information wrong?


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## Bill Haithcoat (May 25, 2010)

MattW said:


> I hopped freight trains when I was younger...but they were about 8 inches tall...on 7.5 inch gauge track...and I had a ticket  The Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, GA had the North Georgia Live Steamers running around a figure-8 track until 1999 when the SRM moved up the road a ways. The North Georgia Live Steamers have now settled in a location at/near the Georgia International Horse Park in my hometown of Conyers and are proceeding with construction of their new line.
> 
> (I was taught from an early age that trains were to be admired and not gone near unless they had passenger cars, were stopped, and you had a ticket or museum admission, but I was feeling a tad left out  )
> 
> BTW-Bill, I had always heard that the Georgia Railroad was required to operate passenger service as long as it existed because of its charter with the state. Is my information wrong?



Matt,I do not think it was "required to" as much as it got a huge tax break for doing so. Not sure if you noticed but look back at my reply 21 on this topic--which is only SIX years old-- for a little more info.

Guess you know the Georgia mixed went right through Conyers. In fact, the GA had mixed's between a couple of other genuinely small city pairs but I do not know them from memory and they got very little publicity.


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## wayman (May 25, 2010)

dan72 said:


> My grandfather used to share stories with me about how he would hop trains from Red Wing, MN to Chicago. He was also a bit of a hell-raiser in his youth and it was back in a time where it was much more tolerated.


I'm in no way condoning these actions today, but in the Great Depression my grandfather took freight trains from Copen, West Virginia, to Seattle. He recorded the locations he spent each night on the back of a business card -- about twenty nights, as I recall, on a somewhat meandering route. He gave the business card to my mother. Somewhere I've got a scan of it.

Someday I hope to piece together his route, and see how closely I can parallel it by automobile (I'm sure most of the trackage doesn't carry Amtrak). With so many cities recorded, it should be pretty easy to re-construct the route fairly closely. It must have been quite an adventure back in the day....

Eventually, while in line for odd-jobs at a church in Detroit someone observed he had a good head for numbers and offered to take him on as a clerk in an accounting firm; he impressed them enough that they paid his way through accounting school, and he ultimately wound up a full partner. Once a hobo carrying all his worldly possessions, eventually a rather-well-off CPA. The American Dream of a different era. Nowadays I think the American Dream is something more like "drop out of college, found a start-up software business, and eventually get bought by Google for hundreds of millions"!


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## Bob Dylan (May 25, 2010)

Good post!  Down this way the immigrants coming up from Mexico used to be on all the freights heading North! Since 911 of course the trains are very closely inspected, both @ the border and in the yards as they progress North so you don't see anyone on the trains anymore! When I was a kid back in the day, there were "Hobo Jungles" in most towns since almost every town had a railroad running through it! Some of the best food I ever ate was "Rock Soup" amd "Hobo Stew" from some of the camps along my grandfathers section of the SP! (The railroad bulls didnt seem so vicious out in West Texas as they were reported to be in Cities???)These were steamer days so everytown was a water stop and most of any size had a railyard and depot!(Were talking the 50s here, not the depression! :lol: )

As to the American dream, becoming a world class athlete, a movie or tv star or a musician seems to be the dream of most kids, and of course these are the toughest fields of all to make it in!  What are we going to do with 3,000,000 MBAs and 10,000,000 Computer wizards??? :blink: Amtrak,Civil Service and the Medical field seem like good career fields to me!


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## the_traveler (May 25, 2010)

wayman said:


> my grandfather ... *about twenty nights* ... *on a* ... *meandering route*.


Sounds like one of my current Amtrak trips!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## JayPea (May 25, 2010)

When I was a kid, I had the good sense to befriend another boy whose dad was the depot agent at the town I grew up in. And a few times, when I had the better sense to be visiting at the depot where he and his family lived at precisely the time the daily train came, we got to ride in the cab or in the caboose to the next town down the line, six miles away. All done with permission by the railroad crew, of course.

And the last pre-Amtrak train I rode, in 1970, was a mixed train, the _City of Hinkle_ (or other assorted names; I've heard several) from Spokane to Hinkle, OR and back, with the same buddy and his dad.


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## rrdude (May 25, 2010)

As a kid in the 70's, I hopped a PC freight from Ann Arbor to Detroit, and had a DEVIL of a time getting home. Had to call my older brother to come and "get me", 'cause where I jumped off in Deadtroit, was no where a young suburban boy should be.

My only other "hop" was while in college, took Amtrak to Chicago, then the Black Hawk (?) to Galena. Hitch-hiked from Galena to East Dubuque. Spent the nite in an old RR shack RIGHT at the intersection of a North-South line, and the East-West line, coming out of a tunnel. I bet I didn't sleep fifteen minutes all night, what with all the traffic.

Next day I hopped a slow freight X the river into Dubuque, and had to hop off fast, as it immediately entered a big classification yard. I hitch-hiked again north on US 51 or 151, and caught an IC train "headin' west. By luck I ended up in Fort Dodge, Iowa. My grand parents lived there, and gave me a dressing down like I've never had before, for "traveling that way....."

But I was broke, on spring break, and wanted to visit them. They bought me a ticket on the Dog home. Meh. Couldn't turn it down.

I would NOT ADVISE anyone to do this today, WAY to dangerous.


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## roomette (May 26, 2010)

this was on pbs the other night

it's watchable here

Riding the Rail


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## ALC Rail Writer (May 26, 2010)

Jimisyou said:


> AlanB said:
> 
> 
> > Not only is it illegal, since you are tresspassing on private property, it's down right dangerous.
> ...



... Whooz asking for advice? :lol:


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## Donctor (May 26, 2010)

jimhudson said:


> Good post!  Down this way the immigrants coming up from Mexico used to be on all the freights heading North! Since 911 of course the trains are very closely inspected, both @ the border and in the yards as they progress North so you don't see anyone on the trains anymore! When I was a kid back in the day, there were "Hobo Jungles" in most towns since almost every town had a railroad running through it! Some of the best food I ever ate was "Rock Soup" amd "Hobo Stew" from some of the camps along my grandfathers section of the SP! (The railroad bulls didnt seem so vicious out in West Texas as they were reported to be in Cities???)These were steamer days so everytown was a water stop and most of any size had a railyard and depot!(Were talking the 50s here, not the depression! :lol: )
> As to the American dream, becoming a world class athlete, a movie or tv star or a musician seems to be the dream of most kids, and of course these are the toughest fields of all to make it in!  What are we going to do with 3,000,000 MBAs and 10,000,000 Computer wizards??? :blink: Amtrak,Civil Service and the Medical field seem like good career fields to me!


Something in public transit for me.


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## Mike77E9 (May 26, 2010)

Bill Haithcoat said:


> gswager said:
> 
> 
> > I believe that there are freight/passenger train in use in Canada, usually the northern side.
> ...


It's the Ontario Northland (http://www.ontarionorthland.ca/en/index.html), and I believe the train specifically is the Polar Bear Express - It's mostly passenger, with a few box cars, a couple of flat cars to carry cars, and a special canoe car.


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## GAT (May 26, 2010)

jimhudson said:


> Good post!  Down this way the immigrants coming up from Mexico used to be on all the freights heading North! Since 911 of course the trains are very closely inspected, both @ the border and in the yards as they progress North so you don't see anyone on the trains anymore! When I was a kid back in the day, there were "Hobo Jungles" in most towns since almost every town had a railroad running through it! Some of the best food I ever ate was "Rock Soup" amd "Hobo Stew" from some of the camps along my grandfathers section of the SP! (The railroad bulls didnt seem so vicious out in West Texas as they were reported to be in Cities???)These were steamer days so everytown was a water stop and most of any size had a railyard and depot!(Were talking the 50s here, not the depression! :lol: )


And they still do it south of the border, if you want to believe the movie "Sin Nombre," which, by the way, is a helluva realistic depiction of migrant travel. It contains many railroad scenes that are stunningly photographed. IMHO a terrific movie, but it could be very troubling for some viewers.


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## Big Iron (May 26, 2010)

The college I went to had a freight train roll through campus a few days a week, pulled by an ALCO T-6. It stopped at the road crossing and students were constantly jumping on............and getting arrested.


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## zephyr17 (May 26, 2010)

Alaska has some flag stop runs (Hurricane Turn) that used to be serviced by RDCs, and now they have new self-propelled railcar, but they don't have any mixed trains.


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## Cristobal (May 26, 2010)

It's kinda funny to see this thread pop up. I had thought about starting a similar one after seeing some people riding a freight just a few days ago. While on the s/b CS we slowed to a stop somewhere between Richmond and Emeryville to let a freight train go past us. It was a train of stacked container cars and I happened to see a guy sitting down in an area just ahead of the lower container but below normal line-of-sight (I was in an upper roomette on the left side of our train) and then a few cars later I saw 2 more people (with some backpacks and a guitar case) in the same spot. I had really thought that the days of the hobo had died with the container cars taking over for boxcars but I guess that I was wrong.


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## MrEd (Jun 2, 2010)

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY, Ind. (Indiana's NewsCenter) - Seven people who police said hitched a ride on a CSX freight train bound for Baltimore face criminal charges.

The seven jumped the train and were found in two separate cars.

All seven told investigators they got on the train in Chicago and were traveling to Baltimore to attend a religious gathering

http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/95349909.html


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