Hobos, Tramps and Homeless Bums

[Mellow]

it means the link is dead (non existant)

[KaBar2]

I know that, Mello. What I don't understand is WHY it happens, and how I can avoid it happening in the future. Do you mean to say that photo links just cut themselves off after a while, automatically? Why?

[rolling nowhere]

maybe the site its linked from changed the name or location on their webstie or maybe their bandwidth was exceeded or you cant directly link to images from their site. could be like 100 different things.

probably riding to san antonio this weekend. should be fun.

this girl sitting next to me is cute. i wonder if she likes dirtbags.

haha

[trueskool]

I dont post very often but felt inclined to on this thread as I just finished a solo cross country tirp from the east coast to the west coast- 3074 miles in 9 days. It was defineatly a learning experience.

 

I blasted through some of these posts and agree with the majority of KaBars posts. Most of this info can be found in Duffy Littlejohns book and if your serious about fr8 hopping you should memorize the book. Everything you need is there....

 

I was lucky catching mostly hotshots on the trip- and a rear unit engine! (its increadable to be going 80 mph on a 20 car piggyback that never goes in the hole!). A note about Atlanta- It an extremely hot yard (even for a hardcore writer!!!). My train got searched thouroghly 4 times while wainting for the bell.

 

Attached are some pics... hope you enjoy and happy highball....

 

PS- SAFETY SHOULD BE YOUR MAIN CONCERN ON THE RAILS! DONT FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF THE CLOWNS ON YOUTUBE.....

 

[watson]

^ thats awesome. how did you not get caught when they were searching the train in atl?

[trueskool]

Hiding from police at night should come naturally to writers (or you wont be in it for long). Atlanta was the hottest yard I passed though. Not only was the Bull blasting his spotlight on all trains entering the yard- The workers were aggresively searching with flashlights- looking under the axels of each piggyback. Something I have never seen before. Piggyback, Modular Freight and Autoracks draw the most attention as these tend to be hotshots...

[rolling nowhere]

looks like someone had some fun.

[Mellow]

kabar, with all of your informative writing you should really publish a zine I can help you if you like the idea

 

send me a pm if you'd like

[trueskool]

Upper Hudson River (Real nice well, kept jungles along the river!) and others...

 

[xen]

Looks like you had some fun there. I'm holed up untill march or april then it's back out. I still prefer the grainer hole myself.

[xen]

I didn't see the point in starting a new thread but Russell Maroney caught the westbound and the world is so much worse off for it. This is the man that taught me everything I need to know about how to survive on the streets and in the world. He is my namesake and my idol and those of you that drink, tip for him. Those that pray, include him in your prayers. May he ride the highball to the big rock candy mountain. May we all meet him on the otherside.

[megatron360]

maybe the site its linked from changed the name or location on their webstie or maybe their bandwidth was exceeded or you cant directly link to images from their site. could be like 100 different things.

probably riding to san antonio this weekend. should be fun.

this girl sitting next to me is cute. i wonder if she likes dirtbags.

haha

 

probably bandwidth if its there one day and gone a day or two later

bleh, but im no techy so...

[This is my name]

UPFE---

 

That I should write a book or publish a 'zine has been suggested a few times already, but truthfully there are a lot of guys far more qualified than myself who should do that. The publisher of the Hobo Times spent a lot of money trying to get it to fly, but he never made a dime. (You can still get back issues of the Hobo Times at tramp gatherings and at Britt.)

 

 

 

What about posting a blog on here @ 12oz... would they let you?

 

Great stories. Keep them coming.

[This is my name]

I just read the first 6 pages.Man,seriously,this is better than any book ive ever read.It keeps me interested.So much knowledge is being dropped.I look forward to reading the rest.Keep up the good work Kabar.

 

Yes it really is a great book. Yes, the kid was an idiot, but I can see where he is coming from. We had to read that book Junior Year of High School. Only me and a few other kids actually liked it. Most other people just called him an ignorant idiot who did nothing for no reason... maybe they were the ignorant ones.

[Father Guido Sarducci]

I know that, Mello. What I don't understand is WHY it happens, and how I can avoid it happening in the future. Do you mean to say that photo links just cut themselves off after a while, automatically? Why?

 

Chances are the owner of the site doesn't like people hotlinking images, sometimes due to bandwidth constraints. The best thing to do is right-click and save the photo, then upload it to a free image hosting site like Imageshack or Tinypic. You can also sign up for a free account on Flickr or Photobucket. Then just copy and paste the link that you are given onto this site. That should take care of the problem.

[Father Guido Sarducci]

Stolen pic. Caught in MPLS, I believe.

 

[KaBar2]

Well, I'll be damned. LOL.

[Pfffffffffft]

kabar...

 

thats why i encouraged you to do MORE when we met in houston..

[JambaJuice]

Kabar....i dont know if you already have, but can you elaborate on your first few freight hops, and the shit that happened when you first started?

 

if i missed it, someone tell me the page number.

[JambaJuice]

also...if anyone wants it, i have compiled Kabar's posts from page one in a word document. I didn't put the questions asked because he generally restates them in his response. FOURTY FOUR PAGES SINGLE SPACED. If you would like it, email me at

 

keepitrail@gmail.com

[JambaJuice]

edit: 12 point font, times new roman, the file is over 200 pages long, single spaced.

 

also, that's with kabar's permission to distribute of course. and i swear not to turn it into the police...haha

[KaBar2]

Yes, you do have my permission to distribute it, on two conditions: that it never be sold for a profit or used to make tramps, hoboes, homeless people or graffitti writers look bad.

 

I benefitted a lot from trainhopping information freely given by other tramps and the old time hoboes, back in my younger days. They never asked for a thing in return except that I ride trains with a sense of responsibility and respect for myself and other people. I haven't always done that, but nobody's perfect. I did try.

 

One of the best parts of hobo culture is the Frisco Circle, where everybody present pitches in what they can afford and they share out and share alike in the meal, or the bottle, or whatever the Frisco has been used to buy or make. You don't throw down in a Frisco so you can "get something for nothing." You throw down in a Frisco because today you may have a few bucks, but tomorrow you may be broke. You may be the crumb boss today, tomorrow it will be somebody else. That's okay. That's the way it works.

 

A teacher can't teach without a willing student or two. Someone, somewhere, taught the teacher what he or she knows, and they in turn, teach someone else, Teaching and learning are a two-way street. You give, and you get. You get, and you give. The things I know about trains have probably come down from one tramp to another for a hundred years or more. We add a few tidbits of new information, we forget the stuff that no longer is germane. There are no ice bunkers to ride in today. Nobody "rides the rods" any longer, because today's trains don't even have "rods," and haven't had any for about fifty years.

 

My knowledge of trains and trainhopping is pretty limited. I know a lot more about it today than I did when I was an active, 24-7 tramp. One reason I do this on 12 Oz. is so that some crazy young kid like I was back in the day will know a little bit more about it, and will be less likely to make a serious error.

 

KEEP A CLEAN CAMP. RIDE SAFE.

[JambaJuice]

yeah man, i respect all that shit, as well as the idea of not-for-profit distribution. I would never do that, although the sheer irony of it is tempting. anyway, i plan on catching out around February, for as long as necessary, with a need to return in about 5 months. it will be my first time, and i am very excited. i have been writing for about 4-5 years and have always been curious about hopping freights. i think it is something i need to be a part of. i've read littlejohn's book as well as "rolling nowhere", on audio-cassette. both good reads. i dont know if you saw my post asking about your first few rides and especially the bad experiences which you encountered which perhaps i could avoid. i have no destination in mind for my trip.

[desism_ktc]

I thought this was an interesting read and somewhat applicable to this thread.

Adventures I wish I could have been part of I guess...

 

 

Life as the Keystone Kid never boring

 

In 1929, Blaine Manocchio was a 16-year-old Altoona youth with no money, no work and a desire to see the world.

 

With lots of trains running daily through his hometown, his option was to hop a freight train for a free ride.

 

It took him a little while to work up the nerve, but when he did, he rode as far as the Horseshoe Curve.

 

That trip whetted his appetite to go beyond the mountains.

 

“Riding freight from age 16, I saw all there was to be seen,” the 94-year-old Manocchio, a resident at Valley View Home, told his brother John during a recent visit. “I saw most of the World’s Fairs, Cleveland, New York, Chicago. I went to New Orleans four times to see the Mardi Gras. I saw the Tournament of Roses and the big parade.”

 

John Manocchio, 87, has listened many times to his brother talk about his days as a hobo, a once-common lifestyle that disappeared along with the dozens of trains that ran daily through Altoona.

 

With Blaine’s memory fading with age, John has started to write down his brother’s words, which offer a glimpse of the past.

 

“His stories, they ought to be preserved,” John said.

 

Blaine was the only one of seven Manocchio children who became a hobo and traveled the U.S., mostly during the Depression years.

 

Life in Altoona was tough at that time, with little money and little opportunity to work.

 

The family received postcards from Blaine, his way of letting them know where he was and evidence of where he had traveled.

 

“I stopped in Cheyenne [Wyoming] to see Pioneer Days Rodeo, and it was really something to see that rodeo,” Blaine told his brother recently. “Next stop was in Denver, the Mile High City, then next day, I was in Salt Lake City. It was beautiful. I left there and headed for Albuquerque, N.M. ... stayed the night in Santa Fe.”

 

In a 1980 interview with the Mirror, Blaine said he traveled about eight years after quitting school and leaving on a freight train.

 

He later returned to Altoona and got a job with the Pennsylvania Railroad and its successor, the Penn Central railroad.

 

But during the 40 years he worked, the common furloughs gave him opportunities to travel again.

 

“Hoboing is a tough life, day in and day out,’’ a 67-year-old Manocchio told the Mirror during that interview. ‘‘It takes a lot of guts to do what I did. Looking back, I can hardly believe it myself sometimes. I think I must have had some vagabond blood in my veins.’’

 

John Manocchio said his brother took the name Keystone Kid, reflecting his Pennsylvania origin. It was common for hobos to use and know one another by nicknames.

 

When Blaine Manocchio talks about his hobo days, he refers to Montana Slim, Texas Kid, Pennsy Kid, Wabash Wibby — with his big mouth — and his old buddy, Altoona Ty, with no known connection to Altoona, Pa., but maybe to one of the 10 other Altoonas that Manocchio said he found away from home.

 

“I think I rode about all the railroads in the United States and one or two in Canada and one in Mexico,” Blaine said.

 

Other hobos were riding, too.

 

“I [saw] box cars full, as much as a hundred men and women on trips,” he said. “When I [saw] too many, I made it my business to get off the train at the next chance I got. Then I would try my luck in whatever town it was.”

 

Manocchio typically offered to wash floors or windows in exchange for a haircut, or he pledged to wash dishes for a meal.

 

He usually didn’t have to do either, but got the haircut or meal because he showed that he was willing to work, John Manocchio said.

 

When interviewed in 1980, Blaine Manocchio said he worked as often as he could, including a stint as a stickman in a carnival and panning gold in Montana. When he had money, he had to hide it.

 

“I didn’t like to sleep in the flop houses more than one night. Too many would cut you up for a dollar. ... In those days, if you had a dollar, you had money,” Blaine said.

 

The hobos also were on the run from the police.

 

While the railroad police — Manocchio calls them bulls — sometimes tolerated the hobos who rode on the freight trains, the same officers would take justice into their own hands when finding hobos on passenger trains.

 

“They would kick us off and beat the hell out of us if we couldn’t get away from them,” Manocchio told his brother.

 

He also landed in jail more than once for his freeloading and panhandling.

 

“I can remember hitching a ride on a passenger train all the way from California to Pennsylvania with no trouble and then getting caught in Pittsburgh,” Manocchio said. “I had to spend 10 days in the Allegheny County jail that time.”

 

John Manocchio said his brother, when able, enjoys talking about his past.

 

‘‘You asked me why I hobo?’’ Blaine said one day to his brother.

 

“I can’t say why,’’ Blaine said. “Hobo days were good or bad, happy, sad. I never thought before, but one thing I can say, they were never a bore.’’

[rolling nowhere]

about to head for the west coast.

its gonna be a bit chilly on the trains i think.

[JambaJuice]

where you heading out from? passing through the mid-south area?

[shiit2kill]

im in austin right now. either going up to ft worth or down to san antonio to head west.

[rolling nowhere]

forgot i was on that dudes name.

little dickhertz cant go on this trip.

maybe next time...

[blood fart]

I already miss you.

[JambaJuice]

anyone headin through TN has a guide or a bed if needed. well, not anyone, but