Hobos, Tramps and Homeless Bums

[El Jefe Uno]

that was a pretty cool video, watched the whole thing

[Oliver Clothesoff]

kabar if i ever chose go i wanna roll with u, u got this shit down to a science

[KaBar2]

TPIX3227---

 

There's a good book that will teach you a lot, called "Hopping Freight Trains in America" by Duffy Littlejohn. You can get itdirectly from Littlejohn at his little publishing company online. Zephyr Rhoades Press http://www.zrpress.com I think online it costs about twelve dollars. I paid $18 for my copy, but I bought it through a distribution house.

 

If you intend to ride freight trains, you should READ THIS BOOK. It's not perfect, because Littlejohn sugarcoats it a little (well, sometimes he sugarcoats it quite a bit) but it has a TON of excellent information about safety, signals, rideable cars and so forth.

 

The most difficult part of trainhopping to master is finding the correct spot to catch out where you don't have to try to hit a rolling train. This information isn't exactly secret, but the long-time 24/7 riders don't want their catch-out spots blown up by a bunch of immature, inexperienced newbies who do stupid stuff and get arrested.

 

The Crew Change Guide is a book published by xeroxing by a mysterious old-time trainhopper called "Train Doc." There is a mystique about the CCG, because you have to "know somebody" to get a copy. They usually cost about $10, because the xeroxing is expensive. Most people who get one turn around and make a few more, for their CLOSE FRIENDS AND RIDING PARTNERS. The CCG is not to be sold for a profit, and it is not to ever be put on the Internet, ever. In order to obtain a copy of the CCG, you must raise your hand and agree to never sell it, give it to someone who is not a real trainhopper (like a cop or a bull or some wide-eyed kid) and never put it on the internet.

 

There is one guy who tried to put the CCG on the net a couple of times. He goes by a bunch of psuedonyms: Ray Tylicki, Transit Train, etc. He is a rip-off artist who stole over $1,000 from a trainhopper who let him crash at his house, Collinwood Kid, from East Cleveland, Ohio. Collinwood trusted him, Tylicki burned Collinwood, and now Collinwood and most of his friends despise Tylicki and are involved in a sort of cat-and-mouse game on the rails. They have discovered some of Tylicki's hides and jungles, and track his efforts to set up unsuspecting "marks" online. Tylicki is more-or-less a sociopath.

 

Tylicki thought that ripping off the CCG and selling it or publishing it under his own name (it belongs to TRAIN DOC) would be a good way to finance his travels. When he tried to do that, he became a "persona non grata" among tramps. He is not welcome at anybody's jungle. No one will help him, or give him money, food or water. He is "Out." When he realized this, he tried to compromise the CCG by publishing it on the internet, but when Flatcar Frank (of the National Hobo Museum steering committee) heard about it, he convinced the ISP to take it down as a copywrite violation. (Train Doc and friends copywrited the CCG to stop people from publishing it for money.)

 

The CCG is published every year, with fresh information. Trusted tramps spend all year riding the rails and making notes about what goes where, where the crew changes are made, how to find the catch-outs and so forth. They send the information to a person who shall remain unnamed, who is not a 24/7 railrider, who puts it into a word document as he receives it, by geographical location. Train Doc edits it, takes out old stuff, puts in new stuff, and they publish it in the summer, every year, before the National Hobo Convention. It gets distributed from tramp-to-tramp, never for a profit, only for the actual cost of producing it. All the research, all the information, all the typesetting, all that is donated. The only part you pay for is the photocopying. It is actually the work of several dozen tramps, all out riding all over the place and taking notes.

 

You could make your own Crew Change Guide, of course, from your own personal experiences. Ray Tylicki has said he intends to do just that, and then nobody can stop him from publishing it for money. Of course, if everybody is pissed off at him NOW, imagine how pissed off they will be if he blows up half the catch-outs in America? Poor Ray. I guess he will eventually just have to start working for a living instead of fucking over his former acquaintances. Really, the problem is that Ray is a lying blowhard who talks big but never accomplishes anything, except stealing from others. He's about one step up from a streamliner.

 

If you go on eBay and buy some railroad maps (they are available from time-to-time) or go online to DeskMap.com and buy a "Professional Railroad Atlas" (I've got the Second Edition, but I understand there is now a Third Edition out) you have a very good chance of being able to traverse the U.S. on freight trains.

 

My first couple of trips (back in 1970) I managed to get on a train headed more-or-less the right direction, but when I got to my destination, I was lost. I had no idea where the tracks went from there, I had no idea what railroad I wanted to be on (sometimes another rail yard a mile away has tracks going to where you wish to go, but if you don't know that, you're screwed.) There are scores of rail yards in Chicago. Only a couple have conections to the Hi-Line. The tracks exist, it's possible to send a train from Calumet Yard or Blue Island up to Cicero, but that almost never happens. But trains depart Cicero for the Hi-Line daily, if you know what you're looking for.

 

There are some little bitty towns out in the middle of nowhere that have huge rail yards. Avondale is a good example. Alliance, NE is another one. There are places in the rail system and in the trainhopping world that are virtually unknown to anybody except railroad workers, rail fans and trainhoppers. There are high-security rail yards that one MUST avoid, or you will be arrested. In order to know this information, you must learn.

 

Anybody can just jump on a boxcar and see where it takes you. But to be a true trainhopper or a true tramp, you need to study knowledge. A good place to start, if you are not yet 18, is TRAINS magazine. They have great articles, month after month, after month. Read and re-read them. Get a big railroad map and study it. MEMORIZE where the different railroads go. Do they go through the Rockies? That means tunnels and probably lots of them. BRING AN MSA DOUBLE-CHARCOAL-FILTER GAS MASK. Do they go through the western deserts? Be prepared for VERY, VERY HOT WEATHER AND NO WATER AVAILABLE. Do they go up on the Canadian border, like the Hi-Line? And it's late September? DRESS FOR COLD, COLD ASS WEATHER.

 

You should never board a train without some idea of where it is going. And never, ever break Rufe's Be-Like-A-Ghost Rule:

 

LEAVE NO TRACE, DO NO DAMAGE, MAKE NO DISTURBANCE.

[rolling nowhere]

yea the other videos on squatetheplanet.com are some good ones!

 

CHECK EM OUT!

 

yeah thats a pretty cool site all around. lots of stories and pictures and stuff to keep you busy for awhile.

 

ps. kabar s the realest mofo on this site.

[such_the_kid]

just orderd hopping freight trains in america sound like a good one.

[snazzleshnazz]

If this question has already been asked, i apologize kabar, but when was the last time you got your ass on a train? After reading the first ten or so pages of these posts, i've become very irrate and cant sit to read anymore. You do give out SOME good information, but i've read a few things that make me think you havent caught out of anywhere in quite some time. Do you really think its okay to encourage kids that know little to nothing about freights to hop trains?

 

I'm a woman, i hop trains with other women and men, it all depends on who is willing to catch out with me when i'm leaving (i dont choose my road dogs based on sex). I'm not running from anything, i dont run with a crew, i'm not someone's bitch, i'm straight and grew up in a decent environment. I dont need to be protected. Out of the hundreds of tramps i've met, at least a one third to maybe half of them have been women. Strong, tough, beautiful decent women, NICE women. I'm telling you this because i am under the impression that you think women have to be emotionally disturbed, a lesbian, or running with a crew like FTRA to hop freights. I hope I'm wrong about you.

 

One other thing.. please do not tell people about the crew change. Crew changes are not meant for kids with no experience. They are very valuable to a tramp. VERY. They dont sell crew changes for a reason. They are supposed to be passed on to only people you trust and know will be responsible and cautious.

[Oliver Clothesoff]

he doesnt hop anymore its illegal now adays

[rolling nowhere]

illegal? what? no way.

[rolling nowhere]

ps. kabar doesnt really encourage people to hop trains..id say he does the opposite if anything..when i met him he advised me to go back to school get a good job etc etc. and not to start hopping trains.

[KaBar2]

snazzleschazz---

 

As far as I can tell, this is still a free country, and anybody can hop trains if they've a mind to do so. For every decision, there is a consequence. If one hops a train without knowing what the hell is going on, there is a very good chance that it might prove to be fatal. I answer questions that people ask, in an effort to at least give them the opportunity to avoid the biggest mistakes.

 

The Crew Change Guide belongs to all tramps and all train riders. I KNOW the people who produce it. You are in no position to try and control information about hopping freight trains. If they can convince someone who has a copy to let them xerox it, then they have just as much right to it as you do. This idea that somehow there is a train-hopping "elite" that has a right to catch out, and others shouldn't do so is a bunch of bullshit.

 

I started hopping freights in 1970. I did not know anything at all about it. I had a risk-taking, foolhardy attitude, and had it not been for my old friend Rufe, I might have gotten seriously hurt or killed eventually because instead of FOLLOWING THE RULES I was doing whatever the hell I pleased. I was young and stupid. Back in those days, I still caught on the fly. Catching rolling freights is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND STUPID. It's for chumps. I stopped hitting rolling trains years and years ago.

 

People who wish to hop freight trains are taking a risk. It doesn't matter what your race is, it doesn't matter what your sex is, it doesn't matter if you are gay or straight, none of that matters. What DOES matter is whether or not you are able to safely navigate the railways, and whether or not you are able to defend yourself. I know some "strong beautiful women" who hop freight trains too. They carry great big knives and a dog stick and are more than willing to defend themselves against bad guys. Most of the long-time female riders I know ride with men, sometimes with several men, but not always.

 

I have met a number of people even recently that have been robbed or raped either in jungles or on board a train with someone they did not know well. I can't tell you what to do. I'm sure you will do whatever suits you, but if you think that hopping freight trains is a safe thing for a single woman to do, you are crazy. My friend Frog, a former King of Hobos with many close friends in the FTRA, lost a leg several years after a vicious robbery attack by gang kids, in which they beat him up severely and then deliberately jumped on his leg to break it. The leg never healed properly, and it had to be amputated. Frog lives in a wheelchair now, because he doesn't like the idea of a prosthesis. Despite all this, he is a cheerful, positive kind of guy.

Lord Open Road was beaten so severely by two home guards in Dalhart, Texas, that he died. They robbed him of the pittance that he had (like $3.65) and bought beer with Open Road's money. They sat and drank beer and watched him bleed to death. If it had not been for Steamtrain Maury Graham sending Adman out to locate Open Road (he was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in Dallam County) he probably would never have been found. Adman got legal permission from Open Road's surviving family, had him disinterred, cremated, and Adman and another tramp brought Open Road's remains back to Britt on a freight train. He is buried in the National Hobo Memorial cemetary in Britt, Iowa.

 

A couple of years ago, a group of runaway kids hopped a freight without knowing where it was going. They wound up in Detroit, in the inner city, in the middle of the night. Walking around trying to find a telephone, they were acosted by a group of black kids, who promptly abducted them at gunpoint, took them to the rooftop of an abandoned building where the boys were shot and the girls gang raped all night.

 

If you think this shit can't happen to you, think again. All your "strong, beautiful women" crap pretty much goes away when the creeps and monsters pull guns and knives. I tell these kids, and I'm telling you, don't hop freights unless you are ready to defend your life. You might hop a hundred, or two hundred, and everything just goes peachy-keen, and Number 201 has A Resendez or a Silviera waiting for you. There are a lot of people in the world that are just blinded by their self-delusions. I used to be that way. I was an anti-war activist and an anarchist and a radical ecologist and all that shit back in the late 1960's. It was all a lot of self-deluded bullshit. Shitheels only respect one thing, and that one thing

is SUPERIOR FORCE. Some people just have to learn the Truth the hard way. Maybe you are one of them, maybe not.

 

The real danger in riding freights isn't getting pinched or dismembered OR attacked by some monster. The real danger is that you will waste years and years of your life in a pursuit that is a lot of fun, but ultimately pointless. When you are young, adventure and novelty and eccentricity are enough. Riding trains is a kick. But as you grow older, living just for the thrill is just no longer fulfilling. A life pickled in alcohol, or lived through a haze of marijuana smoke is not a satisfying one.

 

The last freight train I rode was August, 2005. Stretch and I caught out after the National Hobo Convention and rode from Mason City, Iowa to Shreveport, Louisiana. From there, I took a Greyhound back to Houston, because we ran out of time. That was a three-week trip. We kind of dogged it on the way home and took our time.

[Pfffffffffft]

If this question has already been asked, i apologize kabar, but when was the last time you got your ass on a train? After reading the first ten or so pages of these posts, i've become very irrate and cant sit to read anymore. You do give out SOME good information, but i've read a few things that make me think you havent caught out of anywhere in quite some time. Do you really think its okay to encourage kids that know little to nothing about freights to hop trains?

 

I'm a woman, i hop trains with other women and men, it all depends on who is willing to catch out with me when i'm leaving (i dont choose my road dogs based on sex). I'm not running from anything, i dont run with a crew, i'm not someone's bitch, i'm straight and grew up in a decent environment. I dont need to be protected. Out of the hundreds of tramps i've met, at least a one third to maybe half of them have been women. Strong, tough, beautiful decent women, NICE women. I'm telling you this because i am under the impression that you think women have to be emotionally disturbed, a lesbian, or running with a crew like FTRA to hop freights. I hope I'm wrong about you.

 

One other thing.. please do not tell people about the crew change. Crew changes are not meant for kids with no experience. They are very valuable to a tramp. VERY. They dont sell crew changes for a reason. They are supposed to be passed on to only people you trust and know will be responsible and cautious.

 

my 2 cents..

 

you have to take into consideration that KABAR is speaking of his OWN life experiences on the rails. the heaviest time he rode was in the 70s.. people were riding for completely dif. reasons than they are now. the times and railroad security have changed. (you should know that) it doesnt take a genius to figure out that KABAR is much older than any of us on here. todays riders are all kids who want adventure and doing it because its increased in popularity among the "punk" scene. YES, its the ultimate in getting over on everything. but the crime on the rails is nowhere where it was in the great depression through the early 80s.. so yeah..you being a female out there, you do prob have it a little easier than the females in his time.

 

so i do think you are wrong about him..

not everyone is going to share the same views but you should learn from your elders.

[such_the_kid]

id have to say that what kabar is saying is a good point because if you hop a freight expecting nothing bad to happen and it does come your way well then your screwd because you didnt prepare for it, sure the crime might not be as bad as it was in his time but people should always prepare for the worst so if somthing does come there way they are ready. so i think people who decide to go into the life of riding freights should be ready for a life like kabar said to defend yourself and fight for your life if the time presents itself. thats just how i feel.

[Pfffffffffft]

bump!

 

whats new KABAR?

[KaBar2]

Not too much, Pfffffffffft. I've been collecting plywood scraps for the new roof we're going to put on the hooch. I have eight 16" long 2x2's that I got out of a dumpster at a construction site and a bunch of odd-shaped 1/2" thick plywood pieces (like trapezoids and rhomboids, etc., from somebody decking in a complicated hip roof). As soon as Rolling Nowhere gets back to town (DEREK, WHERE YOU AT, EH?) we're going to ditch the flat roof that's on it now and put a regular gable roof on it, and deck it with the plywood scraps. Then we're going to roof it with tarpaper and roll roofing or maybe shingles.

 

I'm not going to be able to go to Britt this August, dammit. I started a new job, and I can't get the time off. But I'm planning on catching out for several weeks in late September/early October. It will be a lot cooler then, and I'm hoping for a nice fall trip.

[Pfffffffffft]

good deal on getting the job..i know you were stressed over that..

are you still doing a similar line of work?

 

that roof sounds boss. if you go the route of the tarpaper and the singles then you will have a nice spot to crash in without the fear of getting your supplies wet. from the sounds of things you could use that fire pit and kick back in the dry.

[KaBar2]

This is very true. We really don't need it so much in the summer, but in the wintertime Stretch and Burlington come down and use the hooch to crash in. Stretch located another good catch out, just south of I-10 where we're considering building another hooch, and a third one east of Lloyd Yard in Spring, out in the woods.

 

I'd like to build some sort of shelter near every good catch-out in Houston. We sort of cobbled this one together out of junk, shipping skids and political signs and railroad plastic. The one up in Spring would be a lot harder to build, because it's farther away from the road than the rest of them.

 

There's no big rush. We're not on a schedule or anything, LOL.

[Pfffffffffft]

nice..

[rolling nowhere]

ill be back soon-ish...probably a few days.

[such_the_kid]

quick question. ive read in many places never get on a train if you dont know where its goin but how are you supposed to know were its goin, now i have a atlas of northamerica for train lines but i live in a small town and the town is not even shown in the atlas so if i wanted to ctach out from here how do i know were the trains are goin?

[Mister Incognito]

can anyone suggest a way to keep the boxcar door open???...i have only caught out super short distances, then jumped/rolled off before the train really leaves the yard.....i would like to catch out for real someday....and KaBar your advice and stories are inspirational and informative- thanks!

 

or do i have the wrong idea as riding in a boxcar is stupid???

[rolling nowhere]

stick a rail spike under the door. jam that fucker in there good that door isnt going anywhere...in theory anyway

kabar will probably drop some knowledge about a deadman..my hand hurts so im not typing anymore

[Mister Incognito]

thanks for that^^ the thought of being trapped in a box car kinda scares me....

[KaBar2]

Mister Incognito---This sort of information winds up getting asked over and over. If you read the hread, I think it got covered about three or four times in the last couple of years.

Riding in a boxcar isn't dangerous, exactly, but most of the boxcars I've seen recently were of the "plug-door" type. The doors run on a EXTERIOR door track, so there's no place to jam a spike or place a deadman. If you find an empty boxcar or two and take particular notice you'll see what I mean.

You could tie the door open with chain or some steel banding, but his is too unsure of a method. If the door is still able to move at all, it could roll shut, or, it could bounce off the car and fall alongside the tracks ("Ow!", $$$$ if they figure out you did it.) The safest way is to find a plug-door boxcar that has an exterior LOCKING LEVER (sometimes this is actually a LOCKING WHEEL.) Roll the door about half open or so, and LOCK THE DOOR AGAINST THE EXTERIOR DOOR TRACK BY SCREWING THE LOCKING WHEEL SHUT. his totally prevents the door from moving at all, and it also secures it saffely so it can't fall off the car.

 

If the boxcar is not an old-fashioned "revenue" boxcar or the newer type of plug-door boxcar with a locking lever or locking wheel, it cannot be safely ridden. Look for a better ride, like a grainer, an empty gondola or a container well car.

 

BTW, jumping on and off trains just for the hell of it is dangerous. You're taking all the risk for none of the pleasure. Stop jumping off of moving rail cars, and NEVER hit a train "on the fly." Catching out on the fly is for saps and amateurs. STOP DOING IT, unless you want to get your legs chopped off. ONLY HIT STANDING TRAINS. NEVER CATCH ON THE FLY.

[KaBar2]

On the road again--- Again, if you guys read this whole thread, we've covered this several times. There are several ways to determine where a train is headed. If you are young and obviously a newbie, it's a problem, because the rail workers may feel that you are so young and inexperienced that you're going to get hurt, so they might rat you out to the railroad bull or the cops.

 

Some yards send the majority of trains always to the same location. For instance, 99% of the UP trains that leave Shreveport, Louisiana go to Houston's Englewood Yards or Settegast Yards. Stretch and Burl have caught different trains at different times of the day and night out of Shreveport headed south, and they ALL wind up in Houston near Interstate-59 and Quitman Street, headed east on the Englewood Yards feeder track. They almost always stop right near the container yard west of Englewood. The last several times we bailed, we bailed right there, or north of there at F.M. 1960 east of I-59 where the UP tracks cross F.M. 1960. This doesn't mean that they will ALWAYS stop there, but they seem to most of the time.

 

You need to find out where the trains do a Crew Change near your catch-out. Sometimes the switchmen in the local yard will tell you.

 

Mainly you need to watch the trains arriving and departing, and figure out where they are coming from and/or going to. Buy a railroad scanner (over 200 channels) and program all the existing railroad radio channels into it (there are 97 railroad channels, plus a bunch that are digitally scrambled.) That way, regardless of whast channel they are on, you will probably receive their transmissions. MAP THE LOCAL YARDS. Go visit every one and scope it out. Mapping the yards is called "map reconnaisance" and going there to check it out is called "ground reconnaisance." Take binoculars, scanner, maps, high-liters, etc. and make notes of what you see. Do certain tracks always seem to have trains with two or three units and a blinking FRED? Those are your "departure tracks." Does one particular track just seem to always have long trains that roar right on through? That's the "high iron," the mainline.

 

If there is a major rail route heading north from, say, California, and you see a lot of empty lumber racks on trains, they are probably going up to the Pacific Northwest. If you are in New York, and you see a lot of white Orange Juice cars headed south, they are probably going to Florida. Get a great big map of the rail lines in the U.S. and look at it and figure things out.

 

For instance, if you look at a railroad map of the central U.S., you'll see that there is a rail line running between Los Angeles/Long Beach (the nation's second biggest port) and Chicago (the nation's busiest rail hub.) Most of this line used to be the old Frisco Line. It's now called the "U.P. Superhighway." There must be seventy-five trains a day on this line, both ways. If you catch a container well car in L.A. or San Bernadino, there's a good chance you could ride it all the way to Chicago. It goes from Long Beach, to L.A., to San Bernadino, to Las Vegas, to Salt Lake City (maybe Ogden) to Cheyenne, to North Platte, to Denison, to Cedar Rapids, to Clinton, across the Mississippi, to UP's Chicago Proviso Yard or maybe Global 1.

 

The real consideration is whether you are willing to learn all this geography, etc. If I were you, I'd try to set up a "triangle" route, or a loop. Here in Texas, I could ride from Houston to Fort Worth, to San Antonio, to Houston again, and get off right where I started. Or just ride a train from one city, to another and back again for a while until you get some experience. You may have to ride the bus home a few times at first. That's no shame--you're trying to learn the ropes. If you attend a few hobo gatherings and make friends, you'll eventually be trusted enough that someone will be willing to let you get a copy of the Crew Change Guide. If you do get a copy, don't carry the original with you. Carry a photocopy and keep your original in a SAFE PLACE (like, at home, for instance.) Same thing with your maps, photocopy them. That way, if you get arrested, you won't lose all your maps and railroad atlases and whatnot.

 

BE CAREFUL. LEAVE NO TRACE, DO NO DAMAGE, MAKE NO DISTURBANCE.

[such_the_kid]

thanx kabar yea i think ill try n get a railroad scanner and map and scope out my local yard n then ride to another town not to far. so thanx for the advice

["inkie"]

kabar, Have you ever heard of paul petzoldt before. And also, if the train has no caboose, it's not leaving the state.

[Mister Incognito]

. ONLY HIT STANDING TRAINS. NEVER CATCH ON THE FLY.

 

Word-a-saurus!!!

 

But seriously, thank you! Reading through this thread, although tiresome, has provided tons of knowledge.....you should write a book!!

[KaBar2]

Inkie---I'm sorry I've never had the pleasure of meeting Paul Petzoldt. Perhaps I know him by a different name. How old is he? I assume he is a tramp. Where does he ride?

 

That remark about cabooses is in error. I have ridden trains hundreds of miles across several state lines without a caboose. Modern trains have a FRED attached to the last car. "FRED" stands for "Flashing Rear End Device." It's also called an EOT Device--"End of Train." I haven't seen many cabooses in the last twenty years or so.

[Pfffffffffft]

look at this idiot i saw the other day...

 

[waseface]

every coal train ive ever seen here has a caboos on the end. and their always nice clean new looking bnsf engines on both ends too