Hobos, Tramps and Homeless Bums

[wase]

damn..getting locked in a boxcar..i cant even imagine...shit they should make emergency openers or wahtever on the inside...good thing he kept his cool and used his head..

[CACashRefund]

and the cellphone

[Pfffffffffft]

i missed the picture ..

 

did you edit it out kabar?

 

shoot me an email with the pic if you dont want to repost it..

 

beerbellyburp@hotmail.com

[KaBar2]

Stretch and I tried to post it using different approaches for about an hour, then we got disgusted and went to buy more beer. For some reason it won't let us post the picture. I think it's too big for the allowable size on 12 Oz. Allowable size is something like 3 mB and this picture is over 10. I think I added some screwing around trying to blur out my face just enough to make it hard to tell who it is.

 

So Pfffft--send me the instructions for posting pics on this sonofabitch and I'll try to get it to fly.

 

BTW, the fiber optic cable company brought a crew through laying cable, and they bulldozed a fucking freeway through the brush RIGHT NEXT to the jungle. Missed the hooch by maybe twenty feet! Plus there has obviously been a few shitheels crashing at the Hilton, and what a bunch of disgusting pigs. Stretch and I have been piling up garbage and trying to straighten it up all day. Some idiot scrapping out a reel of copper wire left ten tons of plastic insulation all over the place. Scumbag behavior. I hate streamliners, especially thoughtless, don't-give-a-shit, entitled dickhead streamliners.

 

Gotta go to work tommorrow, so I'm out of here. Sure was a fun weekend.

[thebonefabric]

Originally posted by KaBar@Oct 17 2001, 02:16 AM

..."B-Rations" are large-portion containers of field rations, but prepared by the cooks, and served hot, usually out of insulated Melmac containers in a make-shift, field-expedient chow line--the troops file past with open mess kits, and the cooks serve it up with ladles and ice cream scoopers. ...

Quoted post

B-Rats all day, 29 palms 11th marines WORD

[Pfffffffffft]

Originally posted by KaBar2@Feb 27 2006, 12:29 AM

Stretch and I tried to post it using different approaches for about an hour, then we got disgusted and went to buy more beer. For some reason it won't let us post the picture. I think it's too big for the allowable size on 12 Oz. Allowable size is something like 3 mB and this picture is over 10. I think I added some screwing around trying to blur out my face just enough to make it hard to tell who it is.

 

So Pfffft--send me the instructions for posting pics on this sonofabitch and I'll try to get it to fly.

 

BTW, the fiber optic cable company brought a crew through laying cable, and they bulldozed a fucking freeway through the brush RIGHT NEXT to the jungle. Missed the hooch by maybe twenty feet! Plus there has obviously been a few shitheels crashing at the Hilton, and what a bunch of disgusting pigs. Stretch and I have been piling up garbage and trying to straighten it up all day. Some idiot scrapping out a reel of copper wire left ten tons of plastic insulation all over the place. Scumbag behavior. I hate streamliners, especially thoughtless, don't-give-a-shit, entitled dickhead streamliners.

 

Gotta go to work tommorrow, so I'm out of here. Sure was a fun weekend.

Quoted post

 

 

wow..people not giving a shit.

the worst part is that they take pride in that too because the feel if the y are saying "fuck society" then fuck it ALL, even the people who have provided them with a rest. it will come back to haunt them when they get in to a situation they cant handle.

 

 

i use a free photo host on the web that i upload my pictures to and it gives me a web address that i post in the comment box..but that requires signing up and making an account..it IS the easiest way to post pictures on here..so if you want to take the time to sign up and upload your photos..

 

heres a good place to start..

 

www.photobucket.com

[KaBar2]

Bonefabric--

 

Brotha'reen, props to the 11th Marines, as fine a bunch of cannon cockers as ever I met.

2/1 got invited to come down to tip a few for the Marine Corps Birthday in 1977, hosted by the 11th Marines. We had a great time. I was especially impressed by the hard corps boys that brought hooks from O-side as dates! Nothing like a sure thing on prom night, eh?

 

The 11th Marines were billeted at Camp Pulgas, on board Camp Pendleton, back then.

 

We had a grand time at the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. Everybody wore Alphas or Blues. They had a splendid color guard, and a small Marine Corps Band detachment (eight musics and a drum major, as I recall). The brass and the senior NCO's got royally shitfaced up at the head table, and we had several great fights over girls down in the ranks. We left just as the MP's and the Area Guard arrived, just barely able to drive and all smoking cigars and drinking brandy. It was a great Birthday. Semper FI! I miss those days sometimes, and the guys in my platoon. The boys called me "Grandpa" behind my back. I was twenty-seven.

[riggidyrags]

KaBar do you know how one would go about hopping a train in boling green kentucky and taking it to springfield Missouri? or vice versa

[KaBar2]

Originally posted by riggidyrags@Mar 8 2006, 06:20 PM

KaBar do you know how one would go about hopping a train in boling green kentucky and taking it to springfield Missouri? or vice versa

Quoted post

 

First of all, I have very little knowledge of the rails in Kentucky. I've never actually done this, but here's what I think.

 

First of all, from Bowling Green, the logical catch is south, to Nashville on the CSX. Be wary of the switch at Memphis Jct. You want to go south (left) to Franklin, not west to Guthrie. Ask in the yard at Bowling Green which train goes to Nashville or Memphis. You might be able to catch straight through to Memphis, I don't know.

 

When you get to Memphis, you need to switch to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Tennesee Yard is about 12 miles southeast of downtown, in a suburb called "Capleville". You can catch the #10 bus from the MATA bus terminal at the intersection of Auction St. and Manning St. in DT Memphis. Ask at the bus station, but I think it's the #10 bus (that's what the crew change guide suggests.) Get off at the corner of Raines St. and Chrysler Drive. You are near Chrysler Motor Parts on the south side and Caterpillar on the north. Turn south on Chrysler, go a half-mile to the end of drive, then continue directly on across a grassy field 500 feet to Tennesee Yard. The Departure Yard is across several sets of "dead" tracks.

 

You are looking for a northbound to Springfield. WATCH YOUR ASS in Springfield, the BNSF employees there are reportedly "by-the-book" and will report you to the bull. The yard is northwest of the downtown area, west of Kansas Trafficway, between Florida St. and Division st. The mainline is on the south side of the yard.

 

That's all the information I have. I don't need to tell you (I hope) to WATCH YOUR ASS in Nashville and especially in Memphis. I know very veteran train riders who will go a week out of their way to avoid Memphis. Travel light. Take plenty of water, and because a lot of these yards are out in the sticks, take food that doesn't need to be cooked and won't spoil. Be prepared to run like a deer at a moment's notice.

 

You may get out there and find out my directions are full of shit. Like I said, I've never made this run before.

[riggidyrags]

KABAR U ARE THE MAN. YOU HAVE THE SPRINGFIELD YARD DOWN TO THE TEE. SPENT 3 MINIUTES IN THE YARD TO CATCH A FLICK . WHEN I WAS CROSSING BACK OVER A TRAIN, A WORKER SPEED BY ON A 4X4 LOOKIN FOR MY ASS. GOT OUT OF THERE ALLRIGHT THOUGH.

 

I HAVE NEVER MADE A LONG RUN BEFORE. SO I DONT KNOW IF THIS IS THE ONE I WANT TO START WITH. THANKS FOR THE HELP THOUGH.

[KaBar2]

West of Clinton, Iowa AUG 2005

 

Here's that shot of me on the UP Superhighway in a autorack. Stretch snapped the pic. Burl is asleep on the deck, and this train was HAULIN' ASS.

 

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e280/KaBar2/IMG00025.jpg

 

This is a shot of me that Stretch took of me in the late afternoon somewhere north of Kansas City. We were in a KCS boxcar and again, that train was haulin' azz. Note the gloves.

[Pfffffffffft]

nice KABAR.

[KaBar2]

Catchin' Zees at the Jungle in Boone, Iowa , AUG 2005

 

This is another shot Stretch snapped of me. We were dead on our feet after being awake half the night, getting rousted by the Boone police and sent hiking to the jungle, away from the UP yard. It was a HOT ASS DAY. This jungle is right next to the UP mainline.

[Pfffffffffft]

looks comfortable..

 

lokks like you have some snacks there too..

 

were the UP police on the up and up because they knew about the convention?..

[dukecity]

Kabar,

Man your stories and knowledge are great. You gotta keep this thread up. It was my first time reading and I've been engulfed through the whole 17 pages. Anyway, you know anything about the southwest and the system down here? If so, I would like to ask you some specifics.

Thanks!

[KaBar2]

Boys, this is the first post on my brand-new computer. Stretch is the consummate computer jock, and we took an old ATX case and went down to Fry's Electronics and bought a new Gigabyte motherboard, a GB of RAM (two 512s), ADM 3200 processor, ATI 9600XT video card, 200 gig Maxtor hard drive, and "more to come." My goal is to eventually build this bad boy into a PC-based video editing platform. I spent $662 on it, but man, it runs like a scalded cat. It's ten times the computer that my old one is. I only had 128MB of RAM on my old one. It was slow as mollases at Christmas.

 

We've been talking about building a computer for a couple of years. It took me a while to raise the money. NO DEBT. Awesome.

 

To answer your questions, the railroad bulls in northern Iowa were out in full force during the time before and after the Convention. We had one person actually ride a train into the Convention (Stray Cat Julie from Quebec---very attractive and a damn good trainhopper) and Stretch rode into Mason City, and then later Tanner City Kid. But it wasn't because the cops were cooperating, it was because the trainhoppers were slicker than owl shit, and managed to elude them.

 

Stretch and I rode OUT of Mason City, after the Convention (the heat was off, we waited a couple of days) and so did Julie and also Captain Dingo the Airborne Hobo. But the vast majority of people who attend the Convention drive into Britt in cars, vans or pick-up trucks with a camper shell.

 

Dukecity, fire way, I'll do my best.

[dukecity]

Cool

[dukecity]

Kabar, I would rather ask you in private. Would you shoot me an e-mail if you get a chance? My e-mail is Smacken3@gmail.com

Thanks

[KaBar2]

dukecity---activate your 12 Oz. PM feature, and we can communicate via PM's or email me at Rsaxon50@hotmail.com

[KaBar2]

Burlinton asleep on autorack next to KaBar's ALICE pack, AUG 2005

 

Here's another EBD autorack shot from our August 2005 ride down from Mason City, Iowa to Shreveport, Louisiana. This is east of Boone IA, near Clinton, IA.

 

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e280/KaBar2/IMG00029.jpg

 

Here's a shot of Stretch cooking chow in Heavener OK on his MSR Whisperlite International backpacking stove. That is one cool little stove, it really puts out the BTU's AUG 2005

 

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e280/KaBar2/IMG00031.jpg

 

It was an incredibly hot day. We had been drinking beer all morning (note the can of 3.2 Oklahoma horse piss) and I was just about to fucking pass out, waiting for chow to finish cooking. We would not normally sit this close to the rails under any circumstances, but it was a KILLER HOT DAY, and this was the only shade for a long way. We are crashed out next to a sidetrack. The Heavener mainline was about fifty feet to the right. AUG 2005

[GrimReeper]

Awesome flix KaBar...Looks like a damn good time!!! Do you know anything bout catching out of Reno, Nv??? Just curious...

[KaBar2]

Reno is pretty much an east-west catch. You're either going west to Sacramento, or you're going east to Salt Lake City or Cheyenne. It's all Union Pacific. There is an intermodal facility (or was, years ago) at Parr Intermodal Yard. You can get to the Parr yard on the Parr bus five miles north. The departure yard used to be at the enginehouse, near the jail. (There's a tip---AVOID THE JAIL, lol.) There used to be a local that went to the UP "Reno JCT" on the UP Portola (CA)-Elko mainline at night, plus some departures around 0100 -0200.

 

The Sparks Yard is three miles east of Reno courthouse. I-80 is to the north of the Yard. Pyramid Way runs south right into the yard. You can get to Sparks on Bus #11 or #12 from Reno City Center.

 

Supposedly there is a heavy bull presence in both these yards, but I've also heard of people arriving there and there's "nobody." With 9-11 and all, I would surveill these yards VERY CAREFULLY from a distance with binoculars over a period of time before I just waltzed in there. Look for video cameras, look for heat sensors, stuff like that.

 

It has been about thirty years since I was in this area, and frankly, I wasn't paying much attention, as it was HOT AS A MOTHERFUCKER.

 

Be careful.

[GrimReeper]

Thanks alot...Thats some usefull info. :idea:

[texasmade]

hey whats up kabar

i was wondering if you have ever been to san antonio.tx?

if you have how were the workers?

.................texasmade..................peace

nice to hear about your adventures!!!

[KaBar2]

San Antonio is a military town and has sevral large Army or Air Force bases, so the yards there are pretty "hot." SA is also on the Sunset Route and gets a high volume of IM traffic. The Port of Houston, Port of Beaumont and Port of New Orleans all ship a LOT of cargo to the west through Houston and San Antonio.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe runs on UP trackage rights between the Mexico border city of Eagle Pass and the central Texas town of Temple, which is on the BNSF mainline between Galveston and the Lubbock/Amarillo BNSF tracks that run east/west from L.A. to Kansas City and Chicago.

 

The main San Antonio yard is East Yard, often called "Kirby Yard" because it is in the town of Kirby (now a suburb of S.A.) East Yard is about a 1/2 mile northeast of the interchange of Hwy 81 and I-35 and Hwy 410. The #21 bus goes there a few times a day from DT San Antonio. The westbound crew change is inside the yard opposite the Shamrock station, the Stop 'N' Go and the Pourhouse bar. I'm not sure of the eastbound crew change. Be careful around Kirby yard. There is a bull, but he is a busy man because San Antonio has a lot of illegal alien traffic in and out of here.

 

San Antonio's South San yard is about five miles southwest of downtown. Go out I-35 to the General Hudnell exit. Take Hwy 90 to Quintana road, until passes over the railroad tracks. The UP yard is on your right. I don't know much about it, except that it seems to be slow. Be very cautious entering these yards, the information I have about them is sketchy. Consider them "hot" until you know otherwise.

[texasmade]

thanx for the info!!!

ive been to the kirby yard .yea it is heated.fukn bulls

i bench alot in the yard off new.braunfels ave

right by ih 35 its a good spot cuz the workers there

dont give a shit they never tell meshit when i treaspass.

ive actually stopped and talked to some of them

they seemed pretty koo.

well hope you have safe and fun adventuers train hopping.

give me a holla if ur ever in town ....texasmade..

,,,,,,,,,,,,trenz210@hotmail.com.............peace...

[KaBar2]

Stretch called me last night from Houston's downtown bus station, and told me he had hitched up from Galveston with Burl. He has been down there since last Friday, trainwatching and scoping out Galveston. It's a nice town, beaches on the Gulf, kind of short on jobs, though. He slept in some boxcar on a RIP track in one of the yards (Galveston has two yards, UP and BNSF.)

He's headed to Amory, MS to the Railroad Festival and the hobo gathering there. I drove downtown (it's pretty far, maybe fifteen miles) and gave him a lift in the middle of the night over to a major railyard with a northbound departure yard. We were in the Fifth Ward, driving around looking for a good catchout at 0130 in the morning.

Then I had to drive home and get up for work at 0630. Bummer.

 

Anyway, Stretch intended to catch out last night, and I suppose he did, since I haven't heard from him. Time for a beer.

[Pfffffffffft]

lol. kabar, your the best..

 

i hope he made it out of the fifth ward, that place is in shambles. is that a big festival in MS?

[fukhuman]

hey kabar,

you know where i could find a frameless Alice pack...and how much it would cost?....

also, Is deadmanning a boxcar door absolutely nescicary?

[KaBar2]

Pfffffffffft---

 

Actually I heard from him again today. He hiked from the spot where I dropped him up to the northbound yard, but got rousted about daylight by a couple of switchmen and the yardmaster. (This is very rare.) Apparently the UP had just sent all their people through some big Homeland Security "how to deal with trespassers" course. The Yardmaster told him to get out of the yard and stay out, and threatened to have him arrested if he saw Stretch again. So, Stretch and Burl hiked about four miles south to another yard, where he ran into Louisiana Red. Apparently the two of them hung out drinking beer for a couple of days, and then they got rousted again, this time by the Houston cops, who ran Stretch for warrants (he has one for flying a sign: "soliciting donations in the roadway") and told him that if he wasn't gone within 24 hours they would arrest him and send Burl to the Pound.

Frankly, I can't imagine why the cops would give a shit one way or another, but apparently this one has a hard on for tramps. Anyway, they didn't arrest him or Red, but told them to disappear.

I'm going to go give him a lift to an easier catch-out Saturday morning.

 

Fukhuman--

The acronym "ALICE" stands for "All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment." The ALICE pack is now obsolete. (The new load bearing system is called MOLLE, which stands for MOdular Lightweight Loadbearing Equipment, I think.)

 

You can get military surplus ALICE packs at just about any Army-Navy type store, or you can get them from an online suplus dealer. Just fire up your browser and type in "military surplus" or "military field equipment," or even "military ALICE pack."

Here's the deal on ALICE packs. First of all, you can spend a lot on one, or very little, it depends on the seller, the condition of the pack, how far you have to ship it and all that. The Army had several different types of ALICE packs, but the LC-1 Medium is the one designed to be used with or without the aluminum pack frame. It's kind of a small pack, designed to be a limited capacity combat pack. As long as you pack light, "no problem."

I carry the LC-1 Large, but it requires a frame. Unlike the Medium ALICE, the Large ALICE does not have any provision for attaching the shoulder straps directly to the pack bag. When I was in the Marines, we called the Medium ALICE without the frame a "ruck"--short for rucksack. Generally speaking a ruck is a teardrop shaped, frameless pack, like a mountaineering pack.

 

If you want to carry the Large ALICE without a frame, you must come up with some provision for attaching the shoulder straps, which normally attach to the frame, which then fits into a padded "frame

pocket" at the top of the pack. Small securing straps at the bottom of the pack bag cinch the pack bag downwards and prevent the bag from sliding upwards and off the frame.

 

You could cut a piece of stout broomstick or a 1" wooden dowel (I'd use hardwood if I could) and push it up into into the frame pocket, so that it shows in the opening at the apex of the pack bag, allowing you to attach the shoulder straps to it. However, the pack frame is designed with a couple of little brackets that position the shoulder straps in the right place to carry the Large ALICE pack comfortably. Without the frame and the little brackets, the shoulder straps slide outwards, and it is very uncomfortable and awkward to carry. You will need to buy/make/invent some sort of little bracket out of welding rod or something like that and attach them in the same place on your broomstick/hardwood dowel as they are on the aluminum pack frame. This will allow you to hump an ALICE Large without the frame. Try not to overload it, it's a big ass pack. I would make TWO brackets kind of like this (top view):

 

O-----O O-----O

 

The two "circles" are places for a small-diameter bolt to go through the broomstick/hardwood dowel and be secured with a washer and locking nut on the other side of the broomstick/dowel. Make sure the brackets FIT THE WIDTH OF THE SHOULDER STRAPS WELL and are SPACED MORE OR LESS THE SAME AS THE BRACKETS ON THE PACK FRAME.

 

I bought my ALICE Large with frame for $49 plus shipping. I've seen them as cheap as $30. Find out if the price includes the shoulder straps, because they run about $20 a pair if you have to buy them separate.

 

You can get an ALICE Medium for about $25, sometimes that includes the shoulder straps. Try EBay, I see them on there all the time listed very cheaply.

 

Military equipment is tough as nails, but my ALICE pack frame is beginning to show damage from being thrown on and off trains, out of the back of trucks, etc. Keep in mind, it was used by the Army for God knows how long before I got it. Then I carried it every other weekend for nine years in the Texas Militia, plus I've been using it for trainhopping for about five years. If your frame ever breaks completely, you could saw the top bar with the brackets out of the frame and insert it in the frame pocket of the pack bag just like the broomstick/hardwood dowel. Throw the rest of it away, I guess.