Interesting article and slide show...
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/emily-kask-hopping-freight-trains/?_r=0
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/emily-kask-hopping-freight-trains/?_r=0
Hopping Freight Trains With the Dirty Kids
- Thread starter TinCan782
- Start date
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What a sad story about misguided souls engaging in one of the most dangerous activities imaginable. I always hate to see the occasional stories about this, as it may spark some interest into newcomer's. What they should show is what happens when you slip and get cut in half by the wheels. Or when some debris along the tracks blows up and smacks you in the eye..... 
NW cannonball
Conductor
Yes, I sometimes meet people living like this here in Saint Paul. Mostly in the Autumn, why I don't know. Hang out under bridges for a few days, and yes, travel with dogs, again don't know why. Then they find a comfy railcar (not an autorack or a coal hopper) and move on, where to I also don't know. Sometimes they have a low-key party in the park in my neighborhood, no trouble, they don't bother the kids, the kids don't bother them. Errant frisbees are dealt with totally competently.
None have got confrontational, and I've never called the cops on them, because they never bother anybody.
Why they choose to live as they do? The cited NYT article doesn't say. Because I don't think any of them feels a need, nor has the skill, to explain. To a reporter, to a short-term neighbor, to nobody.
Yup it's dangerous.
But it's how they choose to live.
None have got confrontational, and I've never called the cops on them, because they never bother anybody.
Why they choose to live as they do? The cited NYT article doesn't say. Because I don't think any of them feels a need, nor has the skill, to explain. To a reporter, to a short-term neighbor, to nobody.
Yup it's dangerous.
But it's how they choose to live.
Hey, stoopid is, as stoopid does, but I had a couple of "freight hops" as a kid.
You'd have think I learned my lesson when a PC freight, rolling thru Ann Arbor, "dropped me off" in a not-so-nice area of west Detroit.
While hitchiking from Kalamazoo to Ft. Dodge, Iowa for spring break in college, I had the assistance of the Illinois Central.
I would not recommend it, and highly discourage this behavior. Too dangerous, and I don't mean just the illegal boarding / detraining of the freight.....
You'd have think I learned my lesson when a PC freight, rolling thru Ann Arbor, "dropped me off" in a not-so-nice area of west Detroit.
While hitchiking from Kalamazoo to Ft. Dodge, Iowa for spring break in college, I had the assistance of the Illinois Central.
I would not recommend it, and highly discourage this behavior. Too dangerous, and I don't mean just the illegal boarding / detraining of the freight.....
Yep, I too rode a few Freights and remember the "Hobo Jungles" that used to be next to the tracks in most Cities and towns and weren't safe places by any means!
Today's versions are "Homeless Camps" found in all Large Cities, especially in the Sunbelt!
Today's versions are "Homeless Camps" found in all Large Cities, especially in the Sunbelt!
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NW cannonball
Conductor
I've never copped a ride on a freight. Don't wanna.
In my long-ago youth -- even a hick-town of 15K souls where I grew up had it's "hobo jungle" near the tracks and the river.
I remember walking (as a 9year-old with no clue) across the border of (hobo-town? homeless-town) , and somebody in the "jungle" giving me a hard time -- idiot - I knew us locals owned that space - then as now -- but I let the fool be. Didn't call cops (back then I was only 9yo, calling cops meant calling mom and dad )
I'm thinking that there's no "Hobo jungles" but for sure there still are "places where people who sleep outdoors and ride the freights" hang out.
They never bother me
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caravanman
Engineer
Many different reasons why folk end up on the outskirts of society... Job loss, mental illness, family issues, addictions, and some who just feel that the values of mainstream consumerism are not the same as their own.
If we have these problems and wealth, we can sometimes get by by being labled eccentric, or maybe buy some land and live "off grid".
One hopes that the poor folk who end up in these situations can be tollerated and not just feared.
I felt sad for the guy with no money who was sent to jail for not having the money to pay a fine he got for asking for money...
Reminded me of a song: "30 days in the jail house, for the crime of having nowhere to go..."
Very hazardous to ride a freight train, dunno if hitching is any safer these days?
Ed
If we have these problems and wealth, we can sometimes get by by being labled eccentric, or maybe buy some land and live "off grid".
One hopes that the poor folk who end up in these situations can be tollerated and not just feared.
I felt sad for the guy with no money who was sent to jail for not having the money to pay a fine he got for asking for money...
Reminded me of a song: "30 days in the jail house, for the crime of having nowhere to go..."
Very hazardous to ride a freight train, dunno if hitching is any safer these days?
Ed
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NW cannonball
Conductor
From all I know, and from the few words from the people who -almost- invisibly pass through my neighborhood --
Hitching a ride on a freight train is much much more dangerous now than it was even a few decades ago. There's NO boxcars with open doors. Most freights here are either unit coal or ore or oil or grain trains, no shelter on the freight car -- there's a place near the coupling but "don't ever fall off" even if sleeping , or double-stack container trains which go fast, but where can you get on or off? After 10-12 hours (crew change) stop - where could one sleep? Where and when "detrain"
But there's people living like that, people sleeping under a nearby bridge waiting for the next suitable train in my neighborhood, but most of my neighbors don't seem to know.
And "those people" never ever hassle the locals. They don't even beg. They just "detrain" near the railyards, maybe sleep under the freeway bridge, and move on.
The original NYT article was, I think, just one of those "there but for the grace ..."
BUT the few people who live, like the oldtime "hoboes" -- I know a CEO or a politician or two who would be happier living day-to-day and going somewhere else tomorrow.
Anyhow, yes, hopping freights is more dangerous than ever -- but probably there's an app for that
Oy.
Hitching a ride on a freight train is much much more dangerous now than it was even a few decades ago. There's NO boxcars with open doors. Most freights here are either unit coal or ore or oil or grain trains, no shelter on the freight car -- there's a place near the coupling but "don't ever fall off" even if sleeping , or double-stack container trains which go fast, but where can you get on or off? After 10-12 hours (crew change) stop - where could one sleep? Where and when "detrain"
But there's people living like that, people sleeping under a nearby bridge waiting for the next suitable train in my neighborhood, but most of my neighbors don't seem to know.
And "those people" never ever hassle the locals. They don't even beg. They just "detrain" near the railyards, maybe sleep under the freeway bridge, and move on.
The original NYT article was, I think, just one of those "there but for the grace ..."
BUT the few people who live, like the oldtime "hoboes" -- I know a CEO or a politician or two who would be happier living day-to-day and going somewhere else tomorrow.
Anyhow, yes, hopping freights is more dangerous than ever -- but probably there's an app for that
Oy.
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