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KaBar

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I was planning on leaving atleast a week early. I've done a little bit of research and I'm pretty sure theres a rail line that goes right into the Parris Island area. Probably even right to the base. But I"m not sure if I should be fucking with military rail lines.

 

Heres the rail really close to the base, although it doesn't run right into the base like I thought.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=32.383125,-80.701754&daddr=&hl=en&geocode=&mra=mi&mrsp=0&sz=15&sll=32.379998,-80.695996&sspn=0.017143,0.038581&ie=UTF8&ll=32.379563,-80.695996&spn=0.018049,0.038581&z=15

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or walk downtown get on the tre and steal a ride to dallas from ft worthless.

haha.

i dont think there are any trains that would take you to dallas from htown. they should all be going to ft worth. is there even an actual houston-dallas train? seem slike theyd all go to centennial and get made into some little transfer kind of deal. i might be wrong about that though. im not an expert.

i hate ft worth!

 

 

personally i do not just get on a random trains and see what happens. i decide where i want to go and i get on the right train (sometimes haha) and get there! i take great pride in the amount of train info i have accumulated in the last 5 or 6 years of doing this shit. i pass on the info every chance i get when someone needs a hand ive given several kids on here solid info on how to get where they need to get down to like which bush is the best one to hide in. hahah.. solid legit train info is like gold! even folks ive met who have a lot more time on trains are kind of clueless about REAL train info. specific stuff. not just..oh if you get on a train over there itll take you north. NO SHIT the line goes north. haha.

south sw north nw west i got it son! i need to learn about the east coast. thats the plan after winter.

austin-chicago-lacrosse-minot-havre-whitefish-seattle-portland-bakersfield-colton-tucson-el paso-ft worth.

we missed the train that would have taken us to san antonio by seconds so we went to ft worth instead from el paso. its kind of hard to tell which train will go to englewood and which ones are going to memphis or marion. except the piggybacks. those dont go to houston on the sunset. but all those places were where we wanted to go and we got there no problem.

i like knowing what train is going to get me where i need to go. i dont really wander aimlessly when i ride trains. ill be out for months but going to places i plan on going and of course sometimes ending up in a place i wasnt expecting to end up because no one is right all the time. then ill know how to get there if i ever want to go. (little rock haha)

but i know how to get where i need to be with minimal train switching usually. i know whats up!

 

 

if you have a good amount of time to get where you need to be its usually pretty easy to do it. but you know if you need to get from jacksonville to fucking seattle in 4 days that just isnt going to happen. you gotta be realistic. in my experience trains seem to take roughly 2x as long to get to a place as it does to drive from point a to b. im not saying it will take you 2x as long to get from where you are to where youre going unless its 1 train. like houston to san antonio. takes about 3 hours to drive and the fastest ive got there is 6 1/2-7 hours by train. the longest was around 11 hours. takes about 2 1/2 days to get from texas to west colton on 1 train and like a day or whatever to drive it. but you know sometimes you get that wack super slow junk train that sides at every siding for no reason for 3 hours and it takes you 24 hours to go like 100 miles. ive been on those trains. THEY SUCK. 27 hours to go from houston to eagle lake. look it up!

or maybe your train breaks down for 12 hours. or it takes you 5 days of waiting to get on a train. you have to take things like that into consideration. i always tell people IF EVERYTHING GOES RIGHT it will take you about x number of days to get wherever. but everything does not go right. haha. NEVER. there are always complications. but thats what keeps you on your toes dooodz.

im gonna stop rambling and get back to drawing.

i like rambling about train shit. haha!

 

 

 

WHAT HE SAIDX2

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I was planning on leaving atleast a week early. I've done a little bit of research and I'm pretty sure theres a rail line that goes right into the Parris Island area. Probably even right to the base. But I"m not sure if I should be fucking with military rail lines.

 

Heres the rail really close to the base, although it doesn't run right into the base like I thought.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d

 

You sound like you're out of your element a bit, but lemme see what I can tell you.

I don't know the deal with the activity at your spot. But looking at your map I see that your destination is at the end of a branch line off the main at Yemassee. This presents a couple problems:

1. Just because a line appears on a map doesn't mean it's not abandoned. Or, it gets a train once or twice a year (special shipment to the base, or a "blue moon" customer). Or maybe more often, but not often enough for you to make the connection in time. You need to research who gets rail shipments on that branch and how often, if it's active at all.

2. You need to know what's up at Yemassee, whether or not the branch line looks good for business. Is there a yard? Do trains stop there? Just looking at the map and relying on my knowledge of trains in general, I bet you ten bucks even if you get on the right train heading south toward Yemassee, it highballs straight through the town and your next stop is in Georgia. You can't count on being able to get off a train at every podunk town. It might not even slow down.

3. There aren't any "military rail lines" per se. You might have a mainline or short line that runs near a base and the base has its own siding or short branch line. No train will come from a hundred miles away and pull right into a military base and drop off a couple cars and then keep going. If the military is getting a shipment it will come to the nearest regular yard and a special switcher, possibly with DODX (Department of Defense) caboose (and/or armed escorts, depending on how sensitive the cargo is) will take it to the base. You definitely don't want to be riding a DOD shipment, if you could even sneak on in the first place.

 

In general I would not try this trip if it's your first ride ever and it's important for you to be on time for this event. If you leave a week early and are prepared to overshoot your target and wind up on a bus FROM Atlanta or Savannah back to Parris, you might be OK. But it sounds like you need more research.

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WHAT HE SAIDX2

 

big bad eatso beatso had traveled thousands YES THOUSANDS of miles with me. so yeah....

ive seen him naked at least 10 times. HAHA

 

a week is not enough. persoanlyl i could probably get to the area in a week. youve never hopped trains. it migth take you days just to get on one. and the what? i cant tel you its not going to paris isdland. i dont know where that is but its not a crew change so dont expect a train to go there and stop.

 

 

it might seem awesome and romantic to hop a train down there but realistically it just isnt going to happen man.

if you wanna ride a train some where do it some time. i encourage everyone to go for it and see what its all about.

but ion this case it isnt going to work.

 

NOW... if you do it and prove me wrong you get props forever and then some.

but i dont see it happening.

 

i kind of kno what im talking about.

 

and im kind of drunk.

 

 

EATS EATS EATS EATSOOOOOO.

 

 

dude new orleans is going to be insane this time!!!!

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You sound like you're out of your element a bit, but lemme see what I can tell you.

I don't know the deal with the activity at your spot. But looking at your map I see that your destination is at the end of a branch line off the main at Yemassee. This presents a couple problems:

1. Just because a line appears on a map doesn't mean it's not abandoned. Or, it gets a train once or twice a year (special shipment to the base, or a "blue moon" customer). Or maybe more often, but not often enough for you to make the connection in time. You need to research who gets rail shipments on that branch and how often, if it's active at all.

2. You need to know what's up at Yemassee, whether or not the branch line looks good for business. Is there a yard? Do trains stop there? Just looking at the map and relying on my knowledge of trains in general, I bet you ten bucks even if you get on the right train heading south toward Yemassee, it highballs straight through the town and your next stop is in Georgia. You can't count on being able to get off a train at every podunk town. It might not even slow down.

3. There aren't any "military rail lines" per se. You might have a mainline or short line that runs near a base and the base has its own siding or short branch line. No train will come from a hundred miles away and pull right into a military base and drop off a couple cars and then keep going. If the military is getting a shipment it will come to the nearest regular yard and a special switcher, possibly with DODX (Department of Defense) caboose (and/or armed escorts, depending on how sensitive the cargo is) will take it to the base. You definitely don't want to be riding a DOD shipment, if you could even sneak on in the first place.

 

In general I would not try this trip if it's your first ride ever and it's important for you to be on time for this event. If you leave a week early and are prepared to overshoot your target and wind up on a bus FROM Atlanta or Savannah back to Parris, you might be OK. But it sounds like you need more research.

 

 

pretty legit from a non train rider point of view.

 

i remember this one time seeing a line like 100 dodx emtpy flat cars heading north out of houston.

can tell you how many times ive seen train of trucks/jeeps/tanks coming into houston.

so many.

i was going to paint some trucks once but decided not to.

 

I KNOW MY TRAIN SPOTS!

 

 

and now i make tacos...

 

RIDE HARD MOTHER FUCKER.

 

 

rh. mf.

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Anyone have an estimate on how long a cross country (east to west) trip might take on freight? I understand that it varies depending on origin, destination, planning, and experience levels, but regardless, any idea?

 

Where might you start from on the east coast for the best route(s) to the west coast?

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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.

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Just talked to friend who hops pretty frequently and he said one could probably do chicago to portland in 3-4 weeks if you caught mostly hotshots. Then it just be a question of getting to chicago from any given place on the east coast. It's be a few days to get there from where I am.

 

Any input on that time estimate?

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yes, you could potentially make it from portland to chicago in 3-4 days.

assuming everything went right, which I can tell you right now, it will not.

either way

tacos fucking rock.

oh yeah,

tell bill and tina I said hi.

also tell mr havre bull I said

"GOTCHA BITCH!"

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Word, thanks.

 

Any tips for cold weather riding? Going on my first hop tomorrow night.. 19 degrees and probably around 0 with the wind chill. Just lots of warm clothes, a sleeping bag, and water I guess. And cardboard depending if we're on a grainer or not.. Anything else y'all might recommend?

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Insulated coveralls, preferably Carhartt's brand.

 

A really warm coat with a hood that will close.

 

A ski mask or a balaclava.

 

Warm winter gloves on a cord (through your coat sleeves) so you cannot lose one.

 

Genuine no-bullshit insulated boots.

 

A serious cold-weather sleeping bag.

 

WATER. FOOD.

 

TOILET PAPER.

 

Considering the fact that one can die of hypothermia in 40 degree weather, I sure hope you know what the fuck you're doing.

 

Stretch and I slept outdoors in 25 degree weather in Minnesota. I used a 1965 USGI Intermediate Cold Weather sleeping bag. It wasn't too bad until I had to get up to go piss. I would have preferred a 10 degree bag, though.

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Selkirk, NY to Chicago wouldn't take too long if you knew what trains to work with. But there is a different feel, I believe, to the rail network east of the Mississippi. Out west you have huge distances, less lines, less yards (but larger), less junctions. Back east there's more population density, more interchanges, junctions, and jobs where (despite a long history to the contrary) it makes more sense to talk about north and south than east and west. In short, although I am not a rider (never rode more than 35 miles in one hop), it seems like it would be easier to get lost or radically misdirected trying to work the eastern part of the country, unless you know your shit pretty well.

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thanks eatso. Here's a question that came up during that ride... How much does the average boxcar/grainer/whathaveyoufreightcar cost to build? I've been trying to find out info on the web but google hasn't really turned up anything yet. How much does their worth depreciate over time? Old cars cheaper than new?

 

Anyone know?

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shit, that's a new one.

I'd imagine you would google the car manufacturers

rather than a wide car search.

That's a part of train know-know I can say with much humility I know nothing about.

that's alot of steel and iron.

sheesh.

we're gonna have to make a new thread.

KaBar?

I'm going to google it either way?

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http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1215/is_n5_v191/ai_9079635/

 

that took less than 10 seconds.

 

come on lazy asses...

 

that shits old but its got numbers and what not.

 

if you REALLY want to know just push those little beepy buttons and call a company like trinity and ask them some questions.

 

you took the time to ask all the retards in here why not go straight to the source? tell them its for school or some bs.

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