KaBar

Tee_Rase---I only hop rarely now, due to work and time considerations. Trainhopping is a notoriously undependable way to get from one place to another. You can't be sure that a train is going to run when scheduled, or even when called. Once you get somewhere, you can't be sure you'll be able to make a connecting train, or if you are there and ready, that you'll be able to catch it without interferance from bulls, passers-by, bad weather or whatever. So if you're going hopping, you need some TIME---time off from work, time away from demands of family and friends. And that sort of time, for a guy with a regular life, is hard to come by more than a few times per year. It's easier for a single man, and unemployed guy, a self-employed guy, etc. Ability and desire are not the problem. Grace from responsibility is the problem.

Trainwatching and Scoping Jungles Southern and I went out trainwatching and checking out several jungles in Houston today. It was a lot of fun, just hanging out in the jungle, brewing up coffee and kicking it. I saw a lot of good catches, but mainly we just chilled and Southern shot some flicks of rolling graff. Sometimes it seems like to me that I'm hanging on to the middle-class, civilized life by a fucking thread. It wouldn't take much to see me back trainhopping. Sometimes I dream about it--like one of those horrible "escape" dreams? Instead of running in concrete to escape, though, I'm running trying to catch a rolling grainer. No wonder I wake up tired.

Vinyl Junkie---I see old re-cycled barbeque pits and stuff like that all the time in some jungles, especially jungles where "homeless" people have set up camp. Being able to create a field-expedient pit or stove or tent or whatever out of whatever one can find around is a great urban survival skill. I enjoy setting out with minimal gear and accumulating appropriate stuff as I go. As far as tramping goes, we live in the Horn of Plenty here in the U.S. We throw away more shit in a day than most people in the Third World see in their entire lives. Ain't it great being an American? No excuse for not being able to "make it" here unless somebody is just terminally stupid or so fucking lazy that they can't be bothered to go pick the stuff up off the ground. I've seen homeless guys with a bicycle and a bike trailer, and SO MUCH SCAVENGED GEAR that they could hardly pedal the bike. Hell, even our beggars are rich!

Running on Empty Cool. But not me--I don't think driving a vehicle with an easily remembered feature like that is a very good idea, especially for graff writers or trainhoppers. Of course, most tramps and trainhoppers don't even own a car at all, and when I was a young tramp, back in my twenties, I didn't either. The whole idea of tramping is to reduce one's consumer consumption, and thereby one's monthly overhead, to the bare minimum, but to still be able to travel and enjoy what life has to offer. At one point in my life, I was really into riding trains 24/7 and I didn't care about or desire a fixed address, a "good resume'," a healthy lifestyle or even having the responsibility of something as basic as having a girlfriend or writing home to my Mom. Most of the guys I met were virtually rootless. They had either suffered some collapse of their normal life, lost jobs, went through divorces, were running from some trouble or another, or (like me) had just deliberately severed all connections with the safe, suburban life they grew up with. One of the reasons the cops hassle tramps so much is that tramps are often in trouble with the law. I bought a van later on, and lived out of that for a while. The very things that attracted me to tramp life and trainhopping are generally repulsive to most women. Female hoppers were rare back then and are still pretty rare today. Seeing a male/female couple is rare. Most women desire a stable, safe lifestyle with some guarantees for the future. Tramping definately does not provide that. The truth is that the sort of absence of responsibility that creates that exhilarating sensation of freedom has a down side. It is that very self-same responsibility that makes it possible to live life safely, to have a "worthwhile future," and to be responsible and economically productive enough to be able to protect and provide for a girlfriend, a wife or a female partner. The women who choose to hang out with tramps and trainhoppers are often either almost foolhardy adventurers, or they are trying to escape something horrible (a wife-beating husband or an abusive father), or they are girls with serious emotional problems or even mental illness. There are, of course, a few "just regular women" who happen to have chosen the tramp lifestyle, but these are much rarer. A few anarchist/punk radical women or tough-ass lesbians can be found on the rails too. But in my experience (and I mean no disrespect to the women who hop who do not fit this generalization) most of the women I met while I was hopping had been physically or sexually abused by men, had low expectations of life, relatively poor boundaries and had a substance abuse problem (either drugs or alcohol, or both.) The men they were with often fit the same description, with the added element of having been to prison. The women often attached themselves to male trainhoppers big enough, strong enough and mean enough to protect them from all adversaries. Sometimes this actually worked out to be a small group of men who contituted a crew. Ten or fifteen years ago, this would have probably been an FTRA crew. Today, due to all the publicity and heat from the cops, probably an independent, unaffiliated crew. Very few independent tramps travel in the company of women or girls. It is too difficult to protect them, unless you have a crew. In any case, tramp life doesn't offer a woman much in the long run. Most stand-up tramps didn't intend to spend twenty years on the road. But shit happens, especially if you are working without a plan.

Yeah, I know what you mean, I have the same problem with reading words with more than two syllables or sentences more than six words long. I just go put on some chillin' music and try not to think too much. It gives me a headache. Now I need to go down a forty just so I can cope with how unfair life is.

Army Field Jackets If you think about it, the natural affinity that trainhoppers have for military surplus Army equipment makes perfect sense. The Army requires it's suppliers to design equipent that is extremely DURABLE. Back in the 1950's and early '60s, you could get Army equipment dirt cheap. I can recall buying WWII canvas Army combat packs for a dollar. A pistol belt, canteen and canteen cover, and a canteen cup would cost about $3.50. Just about every kid I knew had a collection of "Army stuff", and we loved playing war. In the neighborhood I lived in back then (South Park in Houston, off what is now Martin Luther King Blvd.) there were several bayous and drainage ditches, and lots of undeveloped land, where we built forts, club houses and rode our old-style one-speed bicycles all over on little "roads" made by years of boys on bicycles. I didn't buy my first Army field jacket until I was about 12. I cannot recall seeing them for sale in Army-Navy Surplus stores before that, but I'm sure they must have been there for sale, I just didn't realize what I was looking at. We used to see tramps and hobos, "yard men" and just regular Dads and older brothers wearing military clothing, because it was dirt cheap and durable. People would buy a pair of Army coveralls to wear while they worked on their cars, for instance. When I realized that one could add a "field jacket liner" to a field jacket and make it into an effective winter coat, I bought one. I have owned a field jacket of one kind or another ever since. Back in the '50's, all military clothing was pretty much "olive drab" colored. Once in a while you might see a Marine Corps camouflage combat blouse (like a windbreaker with a hood). All of the field jackets I bought until I joined the Marine Corps were all olive drab. Today, field jackets that are not "woodland" camouflage or desert camouflage are hard to find. I see lots of tramps wearing camouflage trousers or field jackets. The only bad thing is that camouflage attracts attention if you are "in town", but it works GREAT for hopping at night. I always buy a field jacket liner. They button into the jacket, and I used one up north in weather as cold as six degrees above zero and they work fine, as long as you've got a warm knit cap and some good winter gloves. In cold weather I always wear insulated underwear and "snow-pack" rubber boots with a removeable felt liner and two pairs of socks. I think Army field jackets are one of the most versatile coats you can buy. I paid about $60 for the last one I bought new. Military coats from other countries, especially European countries work great too. Dutch and German military combat coats are EXTREMELY warm, almost too heavy for the U.S. You can just lay down and sleep in a Dutch Army coat. They are 3/4 length (just below the knees). Russian coats are full length, but they look really wierd in the U.S. Nobody else here wears full-length coats like that. But they are real warm. I see them for sale at gun shows and places like that very cheaply. Maybe $25. Anyway, I love Army field jackets. They work great.

Cracked---Last weekend I saw a good example of what you are talking about. A train came into the wye where I have my favorite jungle, and it had a bad order car in the middle of the string. They stopped near "my" leg of the wye with the bad order car just short of the switch, broke air, and left the bad order there as the head end. Then the unit pulled the remaining string onto the next leg of the wye, and stopped with the unit just short of that switch. The unit dropped that string, passed over the switch, threw it, and backed around the wye to the third switch, passed over it, then threw that one and came back along "my" leg of the wye again. They then threw the first switch the other way, passed over it, and picked up the bad order car and towed it backwards with the unit onto "my" leg. It was dragging brake gear and hoses, and had no brakes at all. They actually held it in place by putting a piece of dunnage under a wheel, like blocking up a pick-up on a hill, LOL. Then the unit went back around the wye in reverse, "un-doing" what they had just done, until it could back up to the front section, couple up, air up, then back it up and pick up the back section, couple up to that one, air up again, and push it on down the main. I watched it all from my jungle, fascinated. I had never before seen a unit go all the way around a wye like that. During this entire deal, a switchman or some member of the train crew had to get on and off the train about six or eight times, and EACH TIME HE CROSSED FROM ONE SIDE OF THE TRACK TO THE OTHER, he did it by climbing the ladders and passing over the top of the coupler, or over the catwalk on the unit. Not once did he cross over the track itself, even when he was on the very last car in the string. It was a good object lesson. Imitate the railroad workers, and one is unlikely to be hurt. Of course, as soon as they left, I tagged the bad order car. About fifteen minutes later, a goat showed up, and they towed it off to the Yard's RIP track.

NEWSPAPERS Glass Etch--You need to remember that tramps use newspapers as a major resource. Old papers (well, usually a day or two old)_ can always be found in an active jungle, plus, a lot of tramps sell newspapers to make a buck. Since there's not a lot to do in the jungle, a lot of tramps are very well read. Public Libraries are one of the best places to get warm and dry (but you can't bring your gear in--bummer). I spent a little time in Public Libraries, and they always have the latest up-to-date periodicals and magazines. I read Time and Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, The Economist and other well-known magazines, plus the New York Times and the local papers. Up north, that was often the Spokane "Spokesman-Review," the Portland "Oregonian", or the San Francisco "Examiner," the Seattle "Times" or the "Post-Intelligencer." After you finish reading all the propaganda (LOL) you can get your revenge by using the newspaper for shitpaper. It's no tougher on your behind than it is on your mind. I frequently used (and still use) wads of newspaper to start camp fires. I carry a newspaper or two in my ruck, against my back, along with a copy of Trains magazine and Railfan. I leave newspapers, rolled up in their suburban plastic sleeve in my jungles, so the bros will have both reading materiale and shitpaper and campfire tinder. You can use a clean newspaper section or two for a cutting board and food preparation area as well. If you are really in a hurt locker, you can use wadded-up newspapers for insulation. Or a section of newspaper and some duct tape for a field-expedient splint or bandage in an emergency. Newspapers are hot shit for just about everything except one thing. Getting the news. For getting the news, I recommend the Internet, but it makes poor shitpaper or splints, LOL.

Glad You Enjoyed It, but I didn't do it all, you know. Even people who just read stuff and didn't ask a question still contributed by being part of the "audience." If you look at it like a "class" in tramping, remember that for a class to be successful, it requires both somebody teaching what he knows and somebody learning stuff he didn't know. A teacher teaching to an empty classroom isn't a class, and a group of students just asking random questions ("Is this going to be on the test?") isn't a class. For a class to be successful, it requires effort on both parties' parts. Having people respond sort of inspires a "teacher" to try to teach better. When people are uninterested or bored, it hardly seems worth the bother to try and teach anything. I really like 12 oz. Prophet, it's one of the coolest boards I ever came across, and I'm pretty much amazed that anybody from this general age group and orientation to the world would find tramp lore very interesting. Amazed, but pleased. I'm kinda worried that I'm running out of topics though.

TRAIN SIGNALS I have often observed train signals trackside, and often wondered what was the exact meaning of a particular combination of lights. I mean, it seemed pretty obvious that "green means go" and "red means stop", but I knew there was a lot more information being transmitted that I was missing. I also knew that the signals on the RIGHT side of the track (in the direction one is traveling) control the movements of the train you are on, because the engineer operates the engine on the right side of the cab. "Semaphore" signals especially seemed like a mystery. I used to see them trackside, but I never saw one move it's flag, leading me to believe they were outdated and although still existing, probably non-functional or at least no longer used. Today I discovered a website dedicated to the SP, and on it, some re-prints of signal manuals pages. They are not extensive, but it's worth looking at. Duffy Littlejohn covers some of this stuff in "Hopping Freight Trains in America," as well. http:www.railspot.com On the Railspot page, scroll down to "Southern Pacific Transportation Co.", then on that page go to "Block Signals & Rules."

Keepin' it Real I'd hate to think that I encouraged anybody to do something that would get them in trouble, and even more, I'd hate to think I encouraged anybody to take a risk and then get hurt. The truth is that each of us is responsible for the decisions we make, and the consequences of those decisions. I keep hammering on this message because I came to understand it sort of late in life. Once in Montana we got stuck in a little jerkwater town, riding a RIP train of bad order cars. Each night, they would have a westbound deadhead pick us up and we'd go another couple of hundred miles. It was like being tortured. I think it took us eleven days to get to Butte from Illinois. Back in those days we just lounged around the rail yard like we owned the place--we even built fires in the yard right next to the tracks and nobody cared one bit. We were sitting around drinking coffee waiting for a train (ANY train) to come through, and when one finally did, it turned out to be a whole bunch of black, dirty bathtub gons. I was fed up with waiting around, and so was another guy, and we both just grabbed our gear and started running for the train. Everybody else was calling out after us "Hey! Don't jump that train! Hey! Get off of it!" but we just hit it rolling and climbed on up. It turned out to be a coal train (duh) going to the mine at Colestrip, MT. We got all covered in coal dust and looked like a couple of vaudeville minstrels. We had to hitch-hike back, and everybody had a good laugh at our expense. I felt really young and stupid. Rufe was really pissed off at me, and told me, "If you ever do anything like that again when I tell you not to, we are quits. I won't partner up with a knothead. I told you to get off that goddamned train. Didn't you hear me?" I had, and admitted it. "Why didn't you get off? Don't you trust me to know what the hell I'm doing?" I really didn't have a good answer. Finally I just said "I'm sorry, I won't do anything like that again." One of the other men said "What a fucking greenhorn." and Rufe turned around to the guy and said "Shut your pie hole before I shut it for you." What I hadn't realized was that my stupid behavior would make Rufe look like a dumbass in front of the other hoppers. He looked at me and said, "Why don't you go down to the station and wash up, and bring back some water." I got my jug and Rufe's jug and walked down to the station, cleaned up in the men's room, filled up the jugs and walked back. When I got back, our stuff was all packed up. "Saddle up, we're moving." We moved to the east end of the yard and jungled up by ourselves. I felt pretty bad, but I thought it was real cool of Rufe to choose to move, and to spare me all the remarks and teasing. Rufe asked me if I knew how to play chess, and I said "No." He said, "Learn how. You always need to think at least two moves ahead, and always have a back-up plan. Colestrip is at the terminal end of a dead end line. Where did you think you'd be going from there, kid?" To be honest I hadn't even given it a thought. Years later, I had a much better idea of what he was talking about. It isn't just railroads, but life itself. THINK AHEAD. Never be impulsive. What are the consequences of making a particular decision? The possible benefits? The possible detriments? If things don't go as planned, what's Plan B? Always have at least one back-up plan.

Start by reading Littlejohn MFFatso and Vinyl---I think I assumed you guys know more about trainhopping than you actually do, so this is sort of my fault. I think you guys need to read Duffy Littlejohn's book, "Hopping Freight Trains in America." I didn't learn by reading a book, I was taught by a master tramp (LOL), but I think you guys need to start at a basic level of knowledge, and Littlejohn is the guy. However, please keep in mind that the information is a few years old, that it is PRE-9/11 and that Mr. Littlejohn, while an excellent writer and a very experienced trainhopper, is also trying to sell books, so he sugar coats trainhopping quite a bit. He doesn't dwell on the negative things, very real negative things, that are part of the tramping life. You can get "Hopping Freight Trains in America" at Sand River Press, 1319- 14th Street , Los Osos, CA 93402 for about $15 postpaid. I forget, I think I sent them $16 just to be sure the postage was covered. There are a few books about hopping in recent times, the other one is by Daniel Leen and it's called "Freight Hopper's Guide for North America." But Leen's book is a little out of date--I read parts of it about ten years ago. MMFatso--Of course, you can "stand up" whenever you feel like it, but it is a risk. I DO NOT recommend standing up 99% of the time. Inside a boxcar, slack action can knock you down, but at least you are inside a rail car. On a flatcar, or a "bulkhead flatcar" I do not recommend standing up at all. If something goes wrong, you could easily go off the end of the flatcar and under the wheels, or off the side into the ballast. Either way, you're pretty much either dead, dismembered or critically injured. "Riding the deck" is like hood surfing with the possibility of getting your arms and legs cut off. Understand? Don't be crazy. People do ride flatcars (I don't.) People do ride bulkhead flatcars (I've done it, but it's too damned risky.) People do ride gondola cars (NEVER IF IT'S LOADED WITH ANYTHING, ONLY IF THEY ARE EMPTY.) The safest ride is a grainer in the hole, I think. Second would be a boxcar or an empty auto rack. Third would be a well car with containers loaded towards the front end and secured (always ride BEHIND the load, NEVER IN FRONT.) Never ride a well car that has no bottom deck (i.e. TTX 48's are okay, never a DTTX 53, etc.) Never ride a chemical car or a tanker, ever. I hate tank cars, I try not to even jump a train that has any, but here in Texas that's not easy, because the Texas Gulf Coast is the nation's petrochemical center. If I take a train that has tank cars, I try to stay as far from them as possible. If the train climbs the rails and the tank cars turn over, there will be a big chemical spill and maybe a fire. If you're there, you're FUCKED. The trick is to simply not be there to start with. Of course people enjoy riding where they can see and enjoy the ride, that's the whole point. But "skylining" is taking dumb unnecessary risks of exposure. "No exposure without a purpose." If you don't need to be out on the grainer porch, then hide in the hole. If you have three or four guys riding together, you can split up into twos, or you can all try to find a boxcar. Keep in mind that the more of you there are, the more attention you will attract, but there is definately safety in numbers. No thugs or streamliners will try to hassle four guys together, as long as you stick together and unite behind one person who is the "leader." Learn to fight as a group. The best defense is a good offense--let assholes know right away that you, as a group, are more than ready to kick their asses pronto unless they leave. Don't assume that they are intimidated, either, they may have ten pals with guns right around the corner. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER allow a group that outnumbers you to board your car. If you are by yourself and someone tries to board tell them "THIS CAR IS FULL." If they try to board anyway, GET OFF. I've hopped with a woman, but quite frankly it is extremely dangerous. I wouldn't do it unless I was armed and with more than one other adult man or an older, strong teenager. It's too risky for the woman. Of course, there are women (and girls) who hop. All I can say is that they are either extremely brave or crazy as hell. Littlejohn says that it's no big deal for a woman to hop. I disagree. Too many streamliners and ex-convict thugs are on the trains for it to be safe unless you are with a group. All the women I see these days are traveling with a crew, and usually, a couple of good-sized dogs. A woman who is flying colors (FTRA, etc.) is generally safe, but in order to be a patch-holder she usually has to sleep with the bros, or at least one of them. Sometimes all of them. http://www.ftra.org/TrampCam/BoxcarBertha.html This site is a pic of some FTRA members up in the Pacific northwest. The story below the pic is nonsense, but the picture tells the story. Look closely--one member is a young woman. Look at the black bandanas rolled cowboy style around these tramps' necks. They are fastened with a silver concho. These men are members of the O.G.'s of the FTRA (also called the Black Bandanas by the cops), and are probably up on the Burlington Northern Hi-Line, where the FTRA originated, but there's no way to know for sure. All I can say is that hopping is risky. Don't expect it to be a cakewalk--you could get fucked up bad, especially if you don't follow the rules.

Everybody is Ignorant About Something Vinyl Junkie---I guess the headline says it all. They say that a wise man keeps his own counsel---that means that you don't tell everybody what you're up to, but I think that it also sort of means people who want to appear smart sort of steer the conversation towards a topic that they know something about. Many people in my generation don't know shit about computers. It comes easy to you youngsters, because YOUR ENTIRE LIFE THERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN COMPUTERS. You didn't have to "adapt." The schools started teaching you guys computer skills in the second or third grade. People in my generation usually don't know much about the upcoming technology. CD players and fiber optics have been around since the late 70's early '80s. I had a friend who advised me to invest in CD reader technology in 1980. I sure wish I had done it. Who knew? CD's cost $25 apiece back then. Cassette tapes were like $7. I didn't think CD's would become popular--too expensive. (Wrong!) Someday you guys will be taking vacation trips into space. It will be like going to Fiji for Christmas. Expensive as hell, but really cool. Many people in my generation hate the idea of "one card" or "one number" being able to handle all your banking, debt servicing, medical information and so on. This is the technology that's coming and it's just around the corner. To me, it seems like Big Brother personified. You youngsters may find it's super convenient, like pagers or cell phones. Paying bills by a paper check will soon be ultra-old-fashioned, like horse-and-buggy transportation. Not just old fashioned, but sort of quaint. We will soon be in a PAPERLESS world, where everything is done "online." Don't say that you and your pals don't know shit. You guys know all KINDS of cool shit. It's just that you are sort of inexperienced about trainhopping, and really that's not difficult experience to get. STUDY the topic. Learn the language. Hell, subscribe to "Trains" magazine, it's a first-class piece of work. I reallt enjoy reading it, and it's extremely informative, and so is "Railfan" magazine. Both of them are a font of information. Try to find books on railroading, you can learn a lot just by reading.

Satori Vinyl Junkie---Please don't think I'm putting you down, because that's not the case. Nobody can expect you to know anything about trainhopping--you aren't experienced and you're young. The idea that one might reasonably ride up on the deck (the roof of a boxcar or the deck of an open flatcar) occurs to you because you lack experience. You've probably heard that old saw about parachute jumping and chute failure--"It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop." This is true of hopping as well. While it might be possible to ride up on the deck, if you could find a boxcar that still has ladders and handgrips permitting access to the roof, it is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. I know that people did it back in the olden days. Hell, I did it a few times myself in the '70s, but looking back on it, I must have been the biggest dumb ass on the railroad. "Riding the deck" is super dangerous because there is nothing to stop you from being bounced or thrown off the car, down between two cars to the ballast, or off the side. If you're on the deck, and a brake line parts, effectively dynamiting the brakes, and your train decelerates from 60mph to 15 mph in ten seconds, what do you suppose will happen to you if you aren't holding on or belayed to something with a safety harness and a carabiner? THE RULE IS---"Never ride the rods, the bumpers or the deck." This means that in order to ride safely, you must be on a safe car (no tankers, no loaded gondolas, and never in front of a load) and you must be "secured," that is, holding on to something, riding in a secure spot (like a grainer hole) or secured to some part of the train (safety-harnessed or attached with a carabiner to an upright.) I never used carabiners back then, and I still don't, but I've met a few people who do. You should be CONCEALED, that is, HIDING on the train. Nobody should be able to see you. If you want to "pop out" occasionally and watch the scenery, or "lowline" by watching out the door at an angle, that's fine, but one should never skyline oneself by standing up on a grainer porch or by sitting in a boxcar door. For one thing, if slack action causes the door to slide shut you could easiely become a double amputee. The word "satori" is a Japanese word, I believe, meaning a sudden occurance of insight or enlightenment. RIDING FREIGHT TRAINS IS A DANGEROUS ASS THING TO DO. Eventually, if you don't follow the rules exactly , you would be injured or killed. Even long-term old hands get hurt once in a while. I heard that Collinwood Kid got hurt twice--he was asleep, and the car he was on got humped. (He woke up, and stood up to go look out the door. He didn't realize the car had been humped and was rolling free. He was groggily staring out the door when the car he was on impacted a standing string being made up, and his head "bounced" off the boxcar door edge. He was hurt pretty badly, but he was lucky--it could have killed him. The second time some nut case hit him with a chunk of concrete.) The idea is to lowline in the yards, hop your train, safely ride it until you reach your destination and lowline out of the yards, ALL WITHOUT EVER BEING SEEN OR LEAVING A TRACE. If you get spotted, get injured, or if you leave any trace, you have not done it correctly. That's the way I was taught, and that's the way I am passing it on to you guys. Like Rufe always said, "This ain't no hobby." And he was right.

Skylining Vinyl Junkie---The first time I ever heard of skylining was from Rufe, I think. Like all kids, I couldn't see any reason to not "have a blast" while I was riding a train--waving at girls, yelling "yee-haw", hanging half out the door of the boxcar and so on. I was just as goofy as any other newbie. Rufe schooled me in why I shouldn't be doing those things. He learned about not skylining yourself in the service, probably. The word "skylining" refers to not silhouetting yourself against the sky when humping on a patrol. You want to move quietly, slowly and silently, without ever going up on the apex of a ridge. You don't move from where you are until you know where you are going to , and how you are going to get there. You move in the shadows. You try not to make any noise. I learned a lot more about not skylining yourself in the Marines. You work in pairs, four to a Fire Team, with a Fire Team Leader calling the shots. Each man has a sector of surveillance responsibility, right, left, forward, to the rear. You try not to attract any attention, to make any noise, or to leave any trace. Some situations call for this kind of caution, and some do not. How to tell the difference is what makes an experienced trainhopper or graff artist. In some cases, I've strolled down the high iron like I owned the place. In some, I skulked along, creeping and crawling around, hiding, waiting silently. Just use your judgement, and do the appropriate thing.

Limited Knowledge of Tunnels My knowledge of tunnels is not very good, but-- yes, there is air inside, of course. Sometimes the wind keeps the tunnel pretty clear, sometimes they have great big fans that blow the diesel fumes out. I've never seen mud or water in a train tunnel. They are usually tunnelled going uphill, so tunnels drain pretty well. That's not to say that some tunnels somewhere don't have mud, just not the ones I've seen.

Frame Packs/ Respirators An extrenal frame pack is too ridgid and awkward for hopping in my opinion. The purpose of a frame is to better distribute the load from your shoulders to your hips when packing. This eases the strain on your shoulders and your neck and your lower back. I use frame packs when hiking, but it would be awkward throwing one on or off a train car. Secondly, you want to be able to sit on your pack like a seat, to stuff it through a grainer hole, and to pitch it off a moving train without damaging anything. Anything breakable, like an expensive camera or a bottle of wine, is going to BREAK. Don't bring anything with you that can break. Your total hopping gear should only weigh in at about twenty-five or thirty pounds. More than that and you are going to be so weighed down and restricted that you'll hardly be able to trot, much less run. I never saw anybody wear a respirator (a fancy dust mask) on a train. There are some tunnels in the West that are so long that it is actually dangerous to your life to ride them. If the train stopped in a long tunnel, it would probably kill you. If you are ever actually in this situation, the air closest to the ballast should be less dense with diesel fumes, but getting off the train in a pitch black tunnel filled with smoke just seems like an act of suicide. A respirator would help with the particulates in the diesel smoke, but it won't help with the carbon monoxide. Most people carry bandanas and wear a couple soaked in water to cut the smoke in a tunnel. I've heard of people pulling their jacket or coat over their head and breathing through a restricted coat sleeve, too, but in a five mile tunnel on an uphill grade, I doubt it would be any picnic. Tunnels are completely dark, usually, and unbelieveably NOISY. Finding stuff in your ruck in a tunnel would not be easy at all without a flashlight. I don't know the exact location of all the really long tunnels. I've been through a few shorter ones about thirty years ago, but frankly I didn't have a clue as to where in the hell we were. You are WISE to be concerned about it. If you've already got a respirator, what the hell--throw it in your ruck. Knowing where you are headed and what's on that line is obviously the way to go here. If you're headed towards Colorado, GET A MAP AND STUDY IT.

Good Questions I can see that you are definately applying your brain to riding. You've got a point about the deadman maybe attracting attention sitting there in the door track, but most trains have fifty or sixty cars, and one 2x4 half visable in a door track is not too likely to attract a whole lot of attention, especially if the wood is a little weathered and gray, or if you just "weather" it a little yourself. A bright yellow, fresh pine 2x4 would be a lot more noticeable than a gray/rusty one. Also, if you use a solid piece of oak or ash shipping pallet to make a deadman, it will look more like junked-out "dunnage" or "wood they use to secure cargo in a boxcar or ship's hold." A boxcar door held open with steel banding could be anything. It could be because some warehouseman wanted it to remain open, but it also could be that the door is DEFECTIVE and dangerous. Those doors do fall off once in a while. Whenever a train arrives in a town or yard, if it's just passing through, it will continue to roll on the main line, the so-called "high iron." If it switches onto a sidetrack, or starts a sort of back-and-forth banging around, it's probably dropping cars or picking cars up. It will take a while for you to be able to figure out what is going on from just the movement of the train. A scanner will help a LOT in this situation, just be sure you're on the right "road channel" for that railroad. You can listen to the radio traffic between the unit and the switchman or conductor on the ground. There are too many different situations for me to be able to explain it all in a post on the net. Buy Duffy Littlejohn's book, he describes a slew of different ways to tell what is going on. Knowing what the air brake sounds indicate is an enormous help. One thing for sure, never "skyline" in a rail yard or anywhere on a train. HIDE. Way out in the country you can skyline a little bit, but if some rail fan taking pictures sees you, he'll probably call the railroad and report you, and the local sheriff will stop the train and you'll be arrested. Just be serious about what you're doing. Like old Rufe said (all together now) "This ain't no hobby!" High priority freight is fast. Fast is good, you can go coast-to-coast in a couple of days or so. But high priority trains are closely watched. Closely watched is bad--you are more likely to get popped. Empty boxcars are low-priority. They are on slow units. They go in the hole a lot to let high priority trains pass. This is "bad." Sort of. Low priority trains are not closely watched. You are not likely to be popped, but "not likely" is a relative term. When you are riding ANY freight train, HIDE. Hope this makes things clearer.

Humping Tee_Rase-- If what you are asking is will the doors move during humping, the answer is "yes, they will," maybe even more than from slack action, because the humped car (the "cut"), as it rolls down the classification side of the apex, towards the retarder will be rolling faster than 10 mph, probably. When it hits the retarder and the retarder applies braking action (slows it down to less than 5 mph--"No More Than 4") the door is getting 6 mph inertia applied to it. Then, when the cut is switched onto it's classification track, to be included in a consist (when the switchmen are "making up" a train) it will crash into the cars already standing on that track, and the couplers will close and lock from the impact. The string of cars that the cut hits may move a little, maybe a few feet. If there are a lot of cars there, they won't move much, because the string weighs a lot more than the cut, so the impact is abrupt and violent--Ka-BAM. IF YOU ARE INSIDE THE CUT--YOU ARE IN A WORLD OF SHIT. When trains are being broken up, they are pulled over a hump going forwards, by their road unit. The road unit may be taken off the train, and a goat added for power, or, the train may be humped using road power. It depends on how big the train is, how heavy the loads, etc. The trains are BACKED UP over the hump apex, and at the "moment of truth" a switchman "pulls the pin" on the cars as they get right to the apex, and the men in the crest tower direct each free-rolling "cut" to where it's supposed to go, after it goes through the retarder and is slowed down to about 4 mph. Get off trains that are being broken up, preferably way before it ever gets to the classification yard. If you can determine that your train is being pulled up over a hump apex, GET OFF THE TRAIN and get out of the yard, DEFINATELY get away from the hump and the classification yard and the retarder. If you get caught there, you will be arrested, it's a very dangerous place to be. Is that what you were asking?

Dead Men and Hot Shots Agent Uprise---I wrote a long explanation about something that happens on trains called "slack action" afew weeks ago, but after everybody read it it sort of slipped on off into the ozone. I don't know much about computers, this BBS or archiving. If you know a lot about all that maybe you can figure out how to retrieve it from archives. Slack Action is created when the slack in the couplers and the draft gear under the cars is pulled out or pushed in. The slack between two cars usually winds up being between 8-14" considering weight, length of train, etc. For arguments sake, let's say a foot per car. If you have 50 cars, that means that the unit will move FIFTY FEET before the last car moves an inch, and when that last car starts to roll, it does so with a zero-to-twenty BANG. As the slack action comes "down the line" you can hear it: bam-bam-bam-Bam-Bam-Bam-BAM-BAM-BAM-BANG! When the train takes off, this is called stretch-out, or "draft." (as in draft horses.) When the engineer applies the brakes, it happens in reverse. It sounds the same, but the noise is caused by the couplers and draft gear being pushed together, or "buffed in." This is called "buff," as in buffeting. Either type of slack action can cause a boxcar door to roll. They can roll open, or they can roll shut. Usually, because Rbox doors are heavy as shit, they just move a little bit, maybe a foot or two. But if you are travelling 600 miles, the repeated slack action can cause the door to rattle shut. If the door slides shut, and your car gets sidetracked out in the middle of nowhere, you are in a world of shit. You could die, for real. SO--since there is no way one can open one of these heavy-ass, two-ton doors, the trick is to prevent it from sliding all the way shut to start with. It's true that you can drive a railroad spike under the door, and in an emergency, I'd do that, but a "deadman" doesn't harm the door or the track and doesn't create any hassles for railroad workers or warehousemen. "Spiked" doors piss off the railroad people. If you use a spike, TAKE IT WITH YOU WHEN YOU GO, unless it is too dangerous to retrieve it. I carry my deadman under my bindle, under the nylon straps. I made it out of a 2x4 about 26" long. You put a deadman in the door on edge (usually) because the door track is a couple of inches wide, and a 2x4 is actually 1-7/8" thick. It usually fits fairly well. I clean the dust, rust and crap out of the door track first, if any is in there. I put the deadman all the way against the door frame on the "forward" side. Deadman BOTH doors if you can. If every hopper carries his own deadman, and you always travel with a partner, you can deadman both doors, no problem. The only problem about deadmanning the doors is that it is a dead giveaway that there are hoppers on board that car, but nevertheless, ALWAYS DEADMAN THE DOOR. "Always means always." No exceptions. Riding hot shot cargo is hazardous. "Well cars" designed to hold cargo containers (like TTX 48's) are a good, fast ride, but this type of cargo is extremely high priority and the bulls watch it carefully when it gets to their jurisdiction. Never, and I mean NEVER, tamper with cargo. The stack trains (two containers "stacked" on top of each other) are uysually loaded with the boxes all the way forward in the well, leaving a tramp space behind the containers. NEVER board a well car with the containers loaded to the back of the car. If anything goes wrong, you will be crushed into mush. Always ride BEHIND the cargo, and "always means always." NEVER RIDE IN FRONT OF CARGO. No exceptions. There is only one circumstance that I can think of that could result in tramps riding BEHIND a container box to be crushed, and that would be if the front of the container were to strike an overhead obstruction, like a bridge or a cable hanging down across the tracks, and the boxes were slammed to the rear of the well car container deck. But this is very unlikely--I've never heard of it happening, but I guess it's theoretically possible. . TTX 48's aren't the only rideable well cars, but many of the other well cars (TTX 53's, for instance) have no floor, just a web of steel girders. Too dangerous. Don't ride unrideable cars. An old hobo rule was "Never ride the rods, the bumpers or the deck." This sort of rule still applies. Tramps who want to live only board rideable, appropriate cars. Dumb asses ride bad cars and get killed. Don't DO it.

The Rails Are Just People Vinyl Junkie---The railroad guys are just people, you know. They go to work, get a paycheck and bitch about the company just like everybody else. Their attitudes vary, just like our attitudes vary. One car knocker or switchman may have a real slack attitude, and not have a problem with you writing or hopping; but the next guy may be some kind of CSX nazi who yells at you and chases you around. I have asked car knockers and switchmen many times for information about trains and I've only gotten bad scoop a couple of times. Even then I might have misunderstood the guy or might have accidentally boarded the wrong train in the dark. (If the guy says "Oh yeah, all these trains in this side of the Yard are westbounds--Track Seven is going to El Paso" and I boarded Track Eight and wound up in New Mexico, that's my fault, not his.) You need to be careful not to "front off" the railroad workers. If management, supervisors or the bulls see him talking to you and not reporting that you are trespassing, he's in a world of shit. If you are talking to a car knocker or a switchman, and you suddenly spot The Man, pretend like the car knocker is ordering you out of the Yards. (Like pointing your finger towards "out" and saying "This way? You want me to go out this way?" and then act like he kicked you out.) If it's a bull, they can pursue you even off railroad property, so don't bother to run unless it's at night and you think you can lose him. If you DO get popped, NEVER RAT OFF A RAILROAD WORKER. NEVER. We know that we are breaking the rules, and that we could get popped. If you get caught, just suck it up and grit your teeth. Getting popped once in a while is a risk we agree to take. IF YOU CAN'T ACCEPT THE CONSEQUENCES, DON'T TRESPASS ON RAILROAD PROPERTY. If I get popped, it's my own fault. Never say "That guy over there said it was okay." He doesn't have the authority to say shit. He's there to hook up brake lines and check for dragging gear. If you rat on him, he could lose his job, so keep your mouth shut, or if necessary, lie, and say that he told you to get out and you disobeyed him. Blaming somebody else is punk behavior. Be a stand up guy.

DeadTrainBums.com Valek--DeadTrainBums.com is one of Eric Jackson's sites. His passwords are usually pretty simple and direct. In this case, they are "dead" and "bums." The opening pic is pretty gross--a teenaged boy that was killed under a train, severed limbs and a huge gash in his head with his brains out on the ballast. I think Jaks got tired of it after a while--the last addition was like in 1999. It's still pretty sobering. SAFETY FIRST. And like old Rufe used ta say, "This ain't no fucking hobby!"

Old Friends and Acquaintances Tee Rase---Regretably, I almost never hear from my old friends. Rufe has very likely passed away years ago (he was in his late forties or early fifties in 1970, if he is alive, he'd be probably in his late seventies.) Most of the tramps I knew were just everyday guys, they weren't well known. I did meet "Utah" Phillips once in Berkeley, he was playing a college gig and I was hanging out with some trainhoppers who were IWW members. He always allowed the IWW to set up literature tables at his concerts. Of the people I personally tramped with, an old girlfriend is now an executive with the U.S. Forest Service. Another one, who was an LSD and pot dealer back before LSD was illegal, is now an LCDC (a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor.) My late ex-wife (who was a fearless hitch-hiker and trainhopper, in her day) was murdered by her landlady's ex-convict son in 1989, and is buried in Houston. My old running buddy from the late Sixties is a folk musician with several albums out. His ex-wife is a very well-known singer and guitarist, but I can't front her off so I guess I shouldn't mention it. Another of my old buddies, who was a hellacious drinker and druggie in the Sixties is now a born-again Christian who works offshore in the North Sea oil field. The "famous" trainhoppers and hobos often don't ride all that much. A lot of the old guys have died. "Herbie" passed away--I didn't know him, but I saw his streak about a zillion times. Z.Z. Top (who?) used to live around the corner from me on West Drew Street in Houston's Montrose district. A lot of the folk singers or country-and-western crossovers, like Lyle Lovett, got their start in a cafe where I used to hang out, Anderson-Fair Retail Restaurant. Before Anderson Fair, there was another Houston hot spot, The Family Hand Restaurant. The Family Hand was one cool group of people. I've never known another group of folks since then that were quite that creative or sophisticated. I guess the short answer is "Nah, not really." Appreciate the friends you have when you are young. You may never see most of them again.

Monikers TeeRase---Actually, I only started using "Kabar" as a moniker relatively recently. I never thought that much about using an alias when I was hopping full-time. I was young, and inexperienced. A "moniker," or nick-name, is supposed to be given TO you by older, wiser riding companions, you see. The idea of some twenty-year-old naming himself "Tennesee Pass Paulie" or 'Thousand Miler Mike" or some such thing is pretty funny to me. Rufe used to call me "Prospect" all the time, as in "Hey, PROSPECT, go get some fucking firewood! This ain't no hobby!" but I wouldn't consider that a moniker. More like an epithet. (If you don't know what a "prospect" is, it's some young guy who is trying to join a motorcycle club, more or less like a recruit. Below the level of "prospect" is "hangaround." Hangarounds aren't even included in stuff like beer runs, they are considered to be unworthy of much consideration at all. I once saw a patch-holder decide to get rid of a bunch of hangarounds. (A patch-holder is a full member of a motorcycle club, someone who has completed his time as a prospect and has been "voted a top rocker", i.e. voted into the club and given the "top rocker" to his colors. The top rocker has the name of the club on it, like "Hells Angels", "Bandidos", Satan's Slaves" etc.) Anyway, the hangarounds were sitting around at this bike shop out behind a patch-holder's house, and one of the bros decided to "clear out the light weights." He came out of the shop with an M-1 carbine and fired about ten rounds into the ground, pow-pow-pow-pow-pow. ZOOM! All the hangarounds except one hauled ass running. The only guy that just sat there calmly drinking his beer got promoted to "prospect" at the next meeting, and the guy with the carbine sponsored him. Anyway, Rufe used to call me "prospect," but I wasn't really a prospect, I was just younger than him. Actually, having someone around as young and strong as I was back then was a real advantage for Rufe. If anybody had tried to hurt him, I would have kicked their ass into next week. He would have never admitted that to me, of course. "What the fuck--are you asleep at the switch, or what? You're lucky I'm here to show you the ropes, or you'd be dog meat for these fucking streamliners, no shit. Listen up, prospect! I shit you not, these guys are assholes!" He was a cool old guy, and to hear him tell it, he took care of me, not the other way around. I figured I'd just humor him. I learned a lot from him, especially about how the railroads do business.

Books about Hopping Kid Kazoo--Sure. "Hopping Freight Trains in America," Duffy Littlejohn 1993 $13.95 ISBN 0-944627-34-X 354 pg. Sand River Press, 1319--14th Street, Los Osos, CA 93402 Send them $16 in a MONEY ORDER not a check. "Freight Hopper's Guide for North America," Daniel Leen 1992 $8.95 ISBN 0-9632912-70 112 pg. My address for this book was in Seattle, but it's no longer good. Try used book stores or out-of-print services. I heard you could still get it from Loompanics, but I don't know. Maybe. Leen's book is kind of out-of-date, there must have been a lag of several years between the time he wrote it and the time he found a publisher. "Done and Been," by Gypsy Moon (Jaqueline K. Schmidt) 1996, $8.98 ISBN 0-253-32985-X Indiana University Press. You can get this one from Barnes & Noble or some place like that. Daughter of a hobo wrote a book about all the old tramps she has met over the years at the National Hobo Convention at Britt, Iowa.