Has anyone just hoped trains to get around the country?

Question

a 29 year old has decided to take off and hop trains with 2 experienced train hoppers and go where the rails take them. Why do people do this? How dangerous is it? Are they escaping life?

Answer 1

This was a fad recently with the Ivy League college students.  Bring a credit card and hop a train.  When you get where you are going take a bath and live it up.  It is dangerous.  A girl in Tennesse, I think an East Tennesse State University student, fell under the wheels of a train and was killed.  You can't escape life remember:  wherever you go, there you are.  I would love to do it, have the time, but prudence dictates otherwise.

Answer 2

some never return,some die some get mug and some go to jail, you can not escape life you only wast time

Answer 3

nemo`s right....

Answer 4

With what concerns we have about national security these days, this subject shouldn't be taken lightly. This is called "hoboing", and I seriously doubt anyone is brave enough to try it these days. Anyone caught hopping trains is usually arrested by a RR cop on the spot, then sent to jail.

Answer 5

If you don't get injured or arrested, you are very, very lucky.

First, it's illegal, and RR cops have the full powers of arrest of trespassers and unauthorized train riders.   They can, and do make arrests.  With the heightened concerns about national security, you should assume the most aggressive enforcement of laws.

Second, all kinds of strange people ride the rails - some are harmless, others are dangerous and will do whatever they want with you - take your money, toss you off the train, or worse.  Including gangs of thieves who want to bust open boxcars and steal whatever they can.  Definitely not for the naive or faint of heart.

Third, the weather is totally unpredictable.  Everything you can imagine from ice storms to desert heat.

Fourth, railroad equipment is dangerous.  Trains start and stop unpredictably.   Couplers can break, leading to a break-in-two of train, so you had better hope the emergency brake system works well. Passing freight cars often have loose pieces flapping in the wind, such as metal strapping bands, which can slice through the air like a scythe.

I don't recommend it as a way to see the country.  Take a bus, find a friend and share a ride, or try some other way.

Answer 6

no if its done correctly its just a hobby

Answer 7

Not escapism as much as embracing life for the adventure that it really should be. It might be physically dangerous for some, but not doing these things can be spiritually dangerous in the long run.

I used to do this years ago in mid-michigan, older kids in the neighborhood would do it so when I was old enough it didn't make it unusual. It felt exhilarating, knowing you could get into trouble by adults, but they didn't get it - that's what being a kid is all about.

Answer 8

Yeah.  This was a major fad amongst the yuppie set a few years back.  It is a stupid stunt that will bring neither nostalgia nor sightseeing.

Nearly uncountable dangers are all around you all the time, but here are a few.

Slack action.  You can be riding in your empty box car enjoying the dust, dirt and dunnage, and in the very next moment, you're pasted aginst the end of the car, which is probably 30 feet away, at whatever speed you were making before taking flight.  Yep, loads of fun there................

You know what else slack action can do to brighten your day?  It can close your window to the world, aka the door.  You're trapped with no hope of rescue.  Remember the immigrants who got trapped in a box car in Texas a few years back?  No?  18 of them literally cooked under the Texas summer sun inside of their self made oven.

Of course the flip side to this coin is extreme cold.  In Truckee, Ca., usually the lowest temperature in the contiguous US states, where even in summer it drops as low as 25 degrees or lower at night.  Hope you brought a heavy jacket, since it was 105 when you got on the train at Roseville.  I've seen 'em come out of the Nevada desert frozen to death in a gondola.  How's that for nostalgia?

The industry had a bad week not long ago with 3 major derailments within days of each other.  Didn't happen to see the pictures?  Well, let's just say it was an E ticket ride for anyone who had been on it.  The good news is they probably would have been killed instantly, squashed like a bug.  The bad news is they could have survived the crash and not died until the flames got to them.

Then there is the FTRA, fright trains riders of America.  These guys make a pissed off h**l's Angle look like a teddy bear.  They will be happy to cut your throat for your drinking water, food, or whatever cash you a carrying.  So, feeling all warm and fuzzy yet on your trip through the portal of time, living the life of a hobo?  Of course, not everyone out there is FTRA.  Most are your run of the mill rapists, burglars, armed robbers and murderers on the lam from the law.  Friendly, by comparison....................

Have you ever noticed box cars with the ends all bulging outward, or a bulkhead flat car that has had the bulkhead blown apart?  It isn't from termites.  These are the results of shifted loads.  Between the load and the bulkhead is some people's only place to get out of the wind, rain, dust, etc.  Guess what happens when you're in between when it happens?

And as pointed out, railroad police will arrest you and have you transported to the jail of what ever county you happen to be in, and they are not interested in anything you may have to say.  It is also a good idea to keep in mind that when you're screwin' around on a train or on a property, offenses committed are the under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, and, consequently, the FBI.

Anyone who wants to find the railroad nostalgia is better advised to go to any of the many fine rail museums around the country, by automobile.

Answer 9

Don't be incredibly stupid. This is a very dangerous activity, in addition to being illegal. With the current concern about security, the railroad police don't put up with "hobos" or anyone on railroad right-of-way, much less rolling stock (trains). You will be arrested.

" Some Web sites now offer a contrary view of hopping. One such site, www.deadtrainbums.com, contains gruesome photographs of what are said to be hoppers caught beneath the rails, and links to news articles about injuries and deaths related to railroad trespassing.

In 1997 deaths caused by trespassing in railyards and on railcars (not including suicides) increased 15 percent over 1996, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. "

" Marmie Edwards, spokesperson for the Virginia-based train safety group Operation Lifesaver, says that while she doesn't know how many of the 872 railroad injuries and deaths nationwide last year were hobo related, there seems to be a new surge in hobo popularity "

Answer 10

http://www.angelfire.com/folk/HoboBoxcar...

learn all about being a Hobo

Answer 11

not a good idea you can hurt or killed leave it alone