This isn't my first time hopping trains, I've made a few 2 or 3 day long trips just around my area alittle but all I've really brought with me was a large PA Atlas and a compas and a few pictures so I could tell where I was at and I really never had a destination just as long as I was back home by a certain date becuase I have work and a worried wife. Most of the time I'd catch out on a local train that leaves from some factory, every night or every other night at 7:00-7:30 because it was very close and convenient. After that it would head west, following the Susquehanna River to Harrisburg into the Norfolk Southern Enola Rail Yard. This yard is huge. I'm sure most of the East coast lines for straight into at some point. From here I'd usually find a way out some how and walk a few blocks to the Walmart there. Grab some food and coffee, freshin up in the bathroom and sometimes even sleep there. From there I'd either hop a train heading for the bridge to go to the other side of the river or find a nice person leaving walmart to drive me over the river where there is a smaller yard. I'd camp just outside and wait for a train heading west, from there it'd usually take me to Wilkes-Barre area and I'd get off, cross back to the other side of the river again and ride it back up practically right where I started. This is pretty much what I do most of the time, with a few extra stops here and there. Thats pretty much as far as I have gone. Just yard to yard. My biggest fear is it going out west, getting stuck out there and not being able to figure it out in time. It would't be a disaster if I missed it anyway. If I can't hop a train there I probably won't go at all, so its worth a try.
