I have read the majority of this thread and it is what got from being interested in hopping to actually doing it. so far i lit out from nashville in a coal car and wound up having to jump off 35 miles from chatanooga and walking up the line to a small town somewhere. got hassled by the local cops that knew we had just fallen off a train. we were pretty drunk but had left the bottle under the bridge so we just got told that if we were seen again that night, we would go to jail. they circled us all night and as soon as the sun came up we walked about 8 miles up the track to where a train was stopped at a switch and we climbed up into a car hauling lava rocks. that took us through atlanta on down to jacksonville, fla. we lucked out because that was our destination. we thought we were about 5 miles out of town but in fact we were 18 miles out. we hitched on in and stayed for 5 weeks. we couldn't figure out where to catch a westbound out of there despite all our scouting, research, etc. we got drunk and i wound up on an empty coal car headed north and i have no idea where my buddy went. obviously i was very under prepared for this hop so i wound up climbing out of the car at manchester, ga to get some food, water, etc. they had a rail map on the wall overlooking a small yard ther and despite my best figuring, i wound up not in atlanta but montgomery, alabama. i think i have it figured out how to get to mobile from here but i have thought that before. my question is, how do you know where a line is going and if it will switch. i haven't worked up the nerve to ask the yard workers. i got yelled at when i jumped off the train here in montgomery. it was vital that i got off for need of provisions. in the preparadness, i know where i went wrong but i thought i had done all the figuring right as far as destination. by the way, if anyone asks, montgomery sucks. there is little work here and i also refuse to steal or panhandle so pass the word.