JAZZ HOBO TRAIN RIDER

effyoo
09-26-2002, 12:50 PM
Originally posted by KaBar

I think this is one of my original threads. I have been bumping it myself once in a while because it represents quite a bit of effort and time, and in the hopes that some new guy with questions about hopping might hit it and learn something. However, I'm considering letting it scroll off unless some of you guys disagree. Unlike some other threads I've participated in, most of the stuff on this one is pretty uncontroversial, but pretty informative.
Opinions?
Originally posted by test pattern
Someone sticky this..
KaBar is spouting off alot
of wisdom.
even though I realistically never see myself hopping, I very much enjoy the well thought out and interesting posts, Kabar. You are letting people see a side of life that otherwise they would not see and making people more aware of their actions by stressing the ways you believe things should be done.
Now a question. If you could change one decision in your life that you made, what would it be? I was going ask what the best decision you ever made was, but that seems like the answer would be obvious. Ok, anyhow, thatnks for the great posts..... keep them coming.

FR8HOUND
09-27-2002, 03:27 AM
YEAH, ALOT OF FLINTSTONE KIDS WERE THERE I HEARD THAT FROM STRETCH..I WENT IN 2001, BUT DIDN'T MAKE IT THIS YEAR, CAUSE I WAS SICK...BY THE WAY, STRETCH CATCHED OUT LAST NIGHT SOMETIME, GOING TO DAREY GATHERING, BACK TO CLEVELAND, THEN DOWN TO SEE YOU..WELL, HOPE TO SEE KABAR THERE NEXT YEAR IN PENNSBURG, HEARD A RUMOR, THAT MIGHT BE THE LAST ONE?????? HOPEFULLY NOT...TAKE CARE KABAR.

KaBar
09-27-2002, 09:41 AM
The decisions we make in our lives, good and bad, all work to form the person we are today. There are a number of decisions I might have done either way, though.
I wish I had gone to college directly from high school, like all my friends did, except--
if I had done that I wouldn't have gone hitch hiking and hopping when I did, and I would have been young and immature in college, instead of older and more focused.
I wish I hadn't been so dead set against the Draft, except--
if I hadn't been a conscientious objector, I wouldn't have been sent to work in a rehabilitation hospital, and I never would have met the attractive, dedicated young nurse that inspired me to become a nurse myself. (Priscilla Andersen, wherever you are--I never forgot the things you told me, and I have tried to live up to the high standards that you demonstrated for us that night the boy came in from Odessa. You proved to everyone that night that one nurse can make the difference between life and death for a patient. I know that kid will never forget you, and neither will I. I've told myself many times--Fight Like Andersen Did--Never give up.) I doubt I'll ever be a nurse as good as Priscilla Andersen is, but it won't be because I haven't tried.)
The things I've done that I truly wish I could un-do are the (thankfully, relatively few things) things I did where I hurt other people thoughtlessly. There are a couple of women out there somewhere who have probably despised me my entire life because I was thoughtless and cruel and uncaring. I wish I could go back and re-do those occasions. I broke up with girls without a thought for their feelings. I hurt some accidentally. And I wish I hadn't.
Most of my decisions, even the lousy ones, have turned out to have a silver lining. I'm pretty grateful for that.
effyoo

09-29-2002, 05:58 AM

Things just have a way of working out, don't they? Thanks for the reply, Kabar. The part about Priscilla Andersen will strike a chord with my girl (she recently returned to school to take nursing).
KaBar
09-29-2002, 07:46 AM

I know it sounds stupid, and I've never done this, but I used to dream about writing huge messages about Miss Andersen on boxcars and tankers:
"Priscilla Andersen, R.N.--Fight Like Her!"
I always saw her as being "much older" than me, although she was only a few years older. I was 18, so she was probably about 24 or so, and today, probably about 57 years old. She was very tall, for a woman, and had a slim, athletic build, brown hair (back then) and brown eyes, as I recall (it's been thirty-three years) and very attractive.
Back in those days, RN's wore white uniforms, white hose and shoes, and always wore the nursing cap of their school. She graduated from a nursing school up north, with a distinctive cap that looked sort of like a coffee filter (I know this sounds funny) with a band of black velvet running around the bottom edge. She always wore her hair "up" in a French twist. When the weather was cool, she wore a waist-length, blue wool cape, lined with red, clasped at her throat (this used to be common with nurses--the cape dates from the early days of nursing, Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale, two of the pioneers of nursing, who wore capes like this on the battlefields where they cared for the wounded.) Today, of course, we have no time for this sort of thing, and most female nurses are glad to be rid of those "antiquated" relics of nursing, especially the white uniform. Nurses, and nursing, were different back then.
I was only 18, and I had never seen anything like the hospital where I worked. I was assigned as a nursing "orderly" (back in those days, nurses didn't do heavy lifting, they had a staff of orderlies and "nurse's aides" to assist with the routine nursing tasks like turning patients, baths, etc.) on a unit of twenty-eight paralyzed men and teenaged boys. Since it was "total care" (the patients were paralyzed) every bite of food, every drink of water, etc., was provided by the staff. Baths were either bed baths, performed right before changing the bed linen, or "assembly line baths" on 3-11 shift, in which the patients were placed on gurney stretchers (with wheels) and rolled into large, open shower rooms, and bathed by orderlies wearing rubber boots and rain suits.
I worked 11-7 (the "graveyard" shift) and Miss Andersen was my supervisor. She led the nursing team on Unit Three. She was a no-nonsense, strictly business kind of person, and always addressed the staff as "Mr. KaBar,", "Mr. Jones," Mrs. Washington" and so forth. We performed all manner of routine nursing tasks, mainly turning patients from one side to the other every thirty minutes so that they would not develop decubitus ulcers (bed sores). Paralyzed patients have no bladder control (or bowel control, either), so they usually had what is called an "in-dwelling Foley catheter" hooked up to a "bedside urine collection bag." One of the things I did was empty these bags into a bucket and make sure that the patient was producing enough urine, by visually observing the contents of the bag. (Less than 30cc of urine/hour could mean a kidney shutdown.)
One night we got a kid about 18 in from West Texas, who had been paralyzed in a car wreck several months before. He was a very troublesome kid, cursed the staff at the nursing home where he had been sent, threw stuff. His thuggy friends brought him beer and grass and he just drank and stayed stoned all day, and sat up in a wheelchair watching TV. Consequently, since he didn't take care of himself, he developed these huge, deep, infected decubitus ulcers--big as a coffee mug, clear to the pelvic bone. He was shipped to us via ambulance and nobody wanted to deal with him, so he had not been prepped for the trip, and had evacuated his bowels all over everything.
Andersen came to me and told me what supplies to go get, and then she said, "Mr. KaBar, this is going to be unpleasant. No matter what happens, you are not to show any sign that it is disgusting or repulsive. Do you understand?" I said, "Yes, ma'am."
When she whipped the sheet back, I wanted to vomit. He was laying on his stomach. Both holes were contaminated with shit, it was everywhere and smelled awful. I could smell the infection, too. We donned gloves, but no masks, and began cleaning him up. The whole time Miss Andersen was scooping shit out of these two gaping wounds in this kid, she was carrying on a conversation as though there was absolutely nothing wrong, asking about where he went to school, his family, and so on. I could tell the kid was mortally embarrassed. He couldn't feel anything, but he knew and he was just deeply ashamed to be in this condition.
She treated him with such compassion and kindness, it really made it easier for everybody. After we finished cleaning him up and washing out the decubitus ulcers with Normal Saline and 4x4's, we packed them, bandaged the kid good enough to get him to daylight, and Andersen talked to him til he feel asleep.
I was completely grossed out. All I wanted to do was leave that hospital and never come back. It was so---horrible. The kid was about my age. His life was ruined. He was paralyzed, he had these huge, gaping holes in his butt, the shit, the stench, the open wounds---it was just too fucking horrible.
She came out of the kid's room, stripping off her gloves (we almost never wore gloves back then, although everybody wanted to, it was considered to be "too expensive") and looked at me sitting there. She had tears in her eyes. She came over and said to me, "Mr. KaBar, you performed admirably. That poor boy, I can't imagine the hell he has been through." and then she looked at me and said, "Our patients always come first. Their health, their best interests, and their dignity. We did more than just clean him up. We gave him back a little bit of his dignity." Then she patted me on the shoulder, and went to the nursing station to chart.
I think I sort of fell in love with Andersen, right there. She was a fine nurse, and an excellent leader, and a decent, kind woman. We worked together a few more weeks, and then she transferred somewhere else, to a different job, but the last night we worked together, as she was leaving (putting on her blue cape, LOL) she shook my hand and told me, "Mr. KaBar, you should go to college. You are an intelligent man, and I think you have potential." I would have followed that nurse right down the barrel of a cannon. Working there was never the same after she left. There aren't many people in the world like Priscilla Andersen, and I'm glad I got to know her.
duh-rye-won

10-09-2002, 03:52 PM
what a story. you should write a book, seriously. you have more interesting stories and info than anyone i ever met. thanks for sharing everything.
fatrednecks

10-12-2002, 07:57 AM
:confused: i dont know????????
vinyl junkie

10-18-2002, 08:51 AM
Originally posted by KaBar
I heard from Tex, he said there were more than 70 tramps (edit: 9/25/02--latest figures say "over 100") in the jungle at Pennsburg, including a lot of young, "Flintstone" riders. Redbird Express, King of Hobos, was the organizer and the Perkiomen School in Pennsburg was the host. Pennsburg is a very odd event--a national gathering of tramps, hobos and homeless drifters hosted by a prestigious prep school. Red Bird talked them into it eleven years ago, and it has just been a resounding success since then.
Rik Palieri sent a note detailing playing his banjo and singing songs with the Flintstone Kids up in the Boxcar Hotel, and says everybody enjoyed it, although apparently there was a fight that was quickly broken up. In my opinion, one shouldn't let something like a little tipsy fisticuffs mar an otherwise peaceful event. I mean, after all, five days of 70 tramps and only one fight? Sounds like exemplary behavior to me.
Rik said he learned a new song written by the Flintstone Kids called "Up On The High Line", but that it's not the sort of song you sing for your mother.
There was a wedding, too. Tramp Printer and his fiancee got married at Pennsburg.
You guys near Pennsylvania ought to make plans to go next year. Rubber tramps and old timers in RV's are just as welcome as guys who ride in, and the Flintstones tattoos-and-piercings crowd. I'm definately going to try to make it.
hey kabar... any way i could get some info on next year's one of these? even just a town and a date?
KaBar

10-18-2002, 09:34 AM
Email me with a Hotmail address or something.
Rsaxon50@hotmail.com It's bogus, of course. (My name's not Saxon.)
SMUGGLER RSH
10-18-2002, 04:21 PM
Bump because of the info......
KaBar

10-19-2002, 09:50 AM
http://home.talkcity.com/route66/stretch122
I don't know why, but I can't get any of my links to Stretch's sites to work. VERY FRUSTRATING. I'll ask him when I see him.
KaBar

10-28-2002, 06:42 PM
I carry a pair of 7x50 binoculars in my ruck to watch for trains and also to surveil an area before I move from brush to the open. For instance, if I'm preparing to cross an open area within 100 yards of buildings and people, I'll lay in the weeds for a while, watching activity on the other side to see if there are any police cars or railroad bull vehicles on the other side.
It occurs to me, as I write this, that with a recent occurance of a sniper shooting people from a tree line, and the FBI deciding that railroads are now a terrorist target, that I may ought to take a vacation from tramping/ hopping/ and surveilling stuff with binoculars. On the other hand, who better to be watching the railroads than railroad employees, hobos and tramps and graff artists? I often go for five or six hours hiking around near lay-ups, rail yards and junctions without seeing a single other person. Except for me, there are no human eyes watching these areas, or at least, it seems that way to me.
Sometimes I mourn the change of American lifestyles, where people are so separated from the basics of life that they think of railroads sort of the same way we think of sewer plants or drainage ditches. We are developing a national attitude where if you aren't headed to the Mall or the grocery store, or to work, you really have no business being out of your house. It's kind of creepy. People on foot are almost considered to be a threat, simply because they aren't in a car. It's as though society has been divided into "those that ride in cars" and "those that don't." Watch people's reactions to panhandlers at a light and you'll see what I mean.
If you have a cell phone, program in the number of the local police and the local railroad special agents. If you see anybody harming railroad property or acting like a terrorist (whatever that means) DROP A DIME ON HIM. If somebody had turned in Muhammad and Malvo, nine people might still be alive. I'm not suggesting you should rat off anybody who's just there, only people who are apparently up to no good.
zen

11-03-2002, 12:17 PM
yeah that point about those who walk is true. Its that old "A place for every thing and every thing in its place" syndrome I suppose. Walking to observe just isnt done.
You also notice that people dont look aroudn themselves any more? I remember one time we found an abonbdoned wharehouse smack bang in the middle of my central buisness district (still standing for various reasons). Any way we were painting inside and generally exploring and taking pictures. When we thought of the great idea to write on the write our tags backwards on the windows. (This was the reason of the subsequent closure of the wharehouse, but thats another story) any way the point is that when we did this writing on the windows, for a good ten minutes, not one person looked up at these windows, not one person glanced outside their office windows to see us write 5 foot high letters on these windows. Humans are all about assumptions i guess. but im guilty of this too.
wasnt this thread about bums?

effyoo
11-03-2002, 12:59 PM
Originally posted by KaBar
We are developing a national attitude where if you aren't headed to the Mall or the grocery store, or to work, you really have no business being out of your house. It's kind of creepy. People on foot are almost considered to be a threat, simply because they aren't in a car. It's as though society has been divided into "those that ride in cars" and "those that don't." Watch people's reactions to panhandlers at a light and you'll see what I mean.
I agree, I bought a car for the first time a few months ago because before I never had any use. I always have lived in a neighbourhood where things were within a short walk.
But now that I live in the suburbs, just walking to the store comes with a stare from every yuppie in their suv wondering who that guy is, and why is he wandering around my neighbourhood.
The only time you will see someone walking around is ... wait halloween just passed, thats the busiest i've seen the neighbourhood in a year.
People even drive to take their dog for a walk. To go to the store. To get their mail.
Point is, you can't walk around without being suspect nowadays.
That is all.
russianwrote

11-06-2002, 08:12 PM
last week got the 2003 calender from iowa blackie,
funny guy-little messages all on the envelope and
calender cover, date time and place sent from wrote
in on inside of sticky envelope flap. looks like a good
read, and can't wait for 2003 to start using it.
KaBar

11-08-2002, 09:44 AM
Blackie is crazier than a shithouse mouse, but he is a cool guy anyway. There's a good photograph of him taken in 1984 on North Bank Fred's website http://www.snowcrest.net/bndlstif/britt_84.html These photographs are from the local Britt newspaper. Blackie's photo is in the Part Two Section. He took off most of his clothes in front of a zillion tourists.
Prismacillor

11-08-2002, 08:56 PM
kabar, i have a question, im in the process of reading this thread, so if this was already answered, im sorry, but ive been thinking of doing some traveling soon, but say i got off a train, and im walking into another city or something like that, and im stopped and a cop asks me where im coming from, i mean im sure i can think of something, but it would be pretty difficult when im not familiar with the area and where exactly im even going, and im sure not going to say yeah i just got off a train, and especially when its late, whats my business around where i am? its just something i was thinking about, cause i dont get stopped around where i am, but if im in a little town or something, its definitely a possiblity. thanx
KaBar

11-09-2002, 09:30 AM
It's not illegal to be "just passing through." Personally, I never volunteer information to a police officer. If he asks me directly "Did you just get off that freight train?" I would say, "I really can't speak to that." If you say "Yeah," he can arrest you for tresspassing.
The idea is to NOT BE SEEN. You lowline into the yard, hit a train, ride out of sight, and lowline out of the yard.
"Leave no trace, do no damage, make no disturbance."
BE A SNAKE EATER.

Prismacillor
11-10-2002, 08:16 AM
thanks , i understand the yard situation, but i was just saying, sometimes cops do roll up on you, hidden themselves, ive stayed a step ahead of em so far, but i also usually have a reason to be out too, work, or a couple of other excuses, but thats just cause i know my city, so if i was at another place, i wouldnt have as many excuses, but i guess ill deal with it when it happens......

Poop Man Bob
11-14-2002, 01:40 AM
Wonderful story from 9-29, KaBar. Thanks for sharing it ..
net pi

11-14-2002, 08:08 AM
someone post flicks of tags on homeless cats....ive caught quite a few tags on some homeless cats in my day. its fun. just ask them, sometimes they say yes.most of the time no. thats just my personal experience with it. the trick is to find a really dirty homeless cat. most of the time the really dirty ones dont deny you a tag. sometimes i catch them sleeping on the train and i do it. even just regular looking people sleeping on the train. usually ones who are assed-out from drinking and they missed their stop and they wake up at the end of the line. i truly love doing that shit. net one pi nwc ftr bs tv 2009;)

KaBar
11-15-2002, 08:39 AM
And you guys thought that the milk of human kindness and a decent respect for your fellow man was threatening to make graff all soft and civilized. Shit, no chance of that.

Weapon X
11-15-2002, 09:09 AM
Originally posted by net pi
someone post flicks of tags on homeless cats....ive caught quite a few tags on some homeless cats in my day. its fun. just ask them, sometimes they say yes.most of the time no. thats just my personal experience with it. the trick is to find a really dirty homeless cat. most of the time the really dirty ones dont deny you a tag. sometimes i catch them sleeping on the train and i do it. even just regular looking people sleeping on the train. usually ones who are assed-out from drinking and they missed their stop and they wake up at the end of the line. i truly love doing that shit. net one pi nwc ftr bs tv 2009;)
if i ever caught someone doing that, i'd skull fuck them with my fist and enjoy it.
tdoter

11-19-2002, 01:28 PM
once i payed a hobo five bucks and i dida bomb on hie body, it was funny cuz he walked around for like a year with this bomb on his pants and coats, trust me, bomb a bum, its instant fame, hardy har bump
imported_b0b

11-20-2002, 10:18 AM
KaBar
I enjoy reading all your posts and have a few requests for info:
How do hobos/tramps deal with personal hygene (sp?) without access to water? Any products that are useful or tricks?
Have you ever had to resort to eating wild plants? If so which ones and any favorite recipes? Infact a jungle cookbook would be interesting.
And finally more info on hobo/jungle ettiquette would be fascinating, more stuff like the 'being given a match means leave' sort of stuff.

Thanks
^^
Edit:
I thought I had printed off the entire thread, but only the first page printed (that alone was 7 sides of paper) Sorry if these topics have been covered already. Am now reading the rest of the thread to see.

KaBar
11-20-2002, 07:42 PM
Sad to say, most modern tramps panhandle and eat at Burger King and places like that. Very, very few live a life sophisticated enough to involve eating edible native plants, except maybe a few of the hard-core Earth First! anarcho-ecology types, and I doubt most of them know enough to do it safely.
There is a very good book about a guy that did this (and died in Alaska) called "Into The Wild." I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU READ IT if you are contemplating trying this. Exactly as you say, he was surviving fine, until he accidentally ate the wrong plant, one that looked EXACTLY like a safe one, illustrated in his wild edible plants book.
Tramp ettiquette is a complicated topic, and a lot of people riding trains are just clueless dumbasses who don't know or care about what happened last week, much less a hundred years ago. Conyers book, "Rolling Nowhere" covers this pretty good.
If you want to ride, find yourself an older, experienced tramp and ride with him for a while. You'll learn a shitload of info in a week that would take me six months to write down.

imported_b0b
11-20-2002, 09:46 PM
KaBar
I'm from England and can't ride as we don't have a fr8 system anywhere like yours. People hitch-hike instead.
Still you must have some jungle recipes for us, or least some seasoning you never travel without?

KaBar
11-21-2002, 07:29 AM
Crazeeb0b---You don't want to stay over there. It's cold as shit in the winter, and there's no good hopping. Scrape together a stake and Jump the Pond. Come ride some freight trains. You don't live anywhere near London do you? I used to know a bunch of really first-rate anarchists who were part of Cienefuegos Press and Black Flag. Of course, that was about twenty-five years ago and more. Ever heard of the Kate Sharpton Library?
Yes, there are some culinary favorites, of course. Like I said above^^^, most tramps just eat at Burger King or MacDonald's. But some of the old hands still do things the old way. We had a first-rate mulligan stew up at Britt this year (the Boy Scouts in Britt cook 500 gallons every year, and serve it up for free.) The hard-core guys, like the FTRA, are likely to go with steaks and whiskey. They seem curiously wealthy, for tramps. Curiously well-armed, too.
I enjoy making stew once in a while. The ritual of making mulligan was formed around having quite a few guys to help find the ingredients. Mulligan traditionally starts with beef chunks, if you've got it, but any sort of meat (chicken, pork, goat, sausage, whatever) will do the job. Traditional mulligan includes any root vegetable (potatoes, rutabagas, carrots, turnips), cabbage, onions, bell peppers, beans, tomato sauce, pasta like macaroni, some corn starch, and seasonings. The whole point of mulligan is that "anything that you happen to have" will make a meal. The more people you have in the crowd, generally the more pasta goes in the pot.
Being a former Marine, the one condiment that I take everywhere is Louisiana Tabasco Sauce. Any kind of hot sauce will do in a pinch, but I prefer, most of all, "Scorned Woman" Hot Sauce from Georgia. ("Hotter than a scorned woman.")
Stews and soups are popular with tramps becauise the clean-up is usually simple. Recipes that stick to the pot are not popular.
I covered "personal hygiene" a little farther up the stack. To tell you the truth, tramps are pretty grimy, especially after a couple of weeks on the road. I have bathed out of a 5-gallon plastic bucket many a time. Most of the old guys wear a beard, so no shaving is necessary. The guys I rode with bathed pretty often (maybe once a week, or whenever we stopped somewhere near a river) and washed clothes when they could. In the winter, that means waiting until you have a washing machine or a laudromat available. When you can get a bath, but have no clean clothes, you wear your cleanest clothes next to your skin, and the most soiled clothes on the outside. If you only have a small amount of water available, you wash your hands, your face and your ass, in that order. I have bathed "out of a canteen cup" before. It was better than nothing, but we still smelled pretty bad. That's life on the trains. You are going to get pretty grubby.

imported_b0b
11-21-2002, 01:58 PM
KaBar
Many thanks for your response. The mulligan stew really reminds me of a recipe I saw from Flavor Flav. All these hip-hop stars were asked for their favorite recipes for some charity book and Flav's was Flav's Special Rice. Basically it was you boil up a load of rice and chop up whatever vegetables you got and chuck them in. Simple as that. I guessed most tramps would rock the "one-pot" dinners.

Hank Parker
11-25-2002, 02:05 AM
Originally posted by Fox Mulder
Kabar, when sleeping on the ground do you ever worry about animals? Snakes(would be attracted by heat) and bears/coyotes(being attracked by the smell of food)?
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You pussy. "Snakes? Oh my no, get it away". Sorry Fox you sounded too gay. It's cool bro. Hey I'm hopping on friday probably just for the day. We might just take a local and have our friend in that city pick us up. We've got shit to do this weekend so no long rides.

KaBar
12-02-2002, 12:18 AM
That this thread and this topic have lasted so long and been as popular as it is. It's not a very complicated subject, really. The longer I hang out in hobo jungles and the longer I am interested in hopping and tramp life, the more critical that carrying a very light load becomes. It is so easy to adopt the "Everything and the kitchen sink" mode when hopping. One way to avoid this is to keep all your possessions limited to a short list and to substitute knowledge and resourcefulness for equipment.
In the Marine Corps, we were provided what was called an "issue" of equipment. We were supposed to bring all that crap with us whenever we went into the field. Basic issue in the Corps is a 66 lb. combat load, including full canteens, rifle, full magazines for one's weapon, two bandoleers of ammunition, helmet, flak jacket, ALICE pack (today's Marines carry the MOLLE pack system,) entrenching tool (E-tool --folding shovel,) bayonet, pistol belt, combat suspenders, magazine pouches, First Aid kit, poncho, poncho liner or sleeping bag, three meals, Field Protective Mask (gas mask) and carrier, sleeping bag cover, and foam sleeping pad. (Water and ammunition are the two heaviest categories of supplies in a Marine infantryman's combat load.)
Combat load is calculated in light of "available combat support." In other words, the reason you only carry two full 1-quart canteens is that the Marine Corps will provide you with enough water by heli-borne, air resupplied "water bo's" (water tanker trailers). Each man only carries full magazines and two bandoleers of rifle ammo, plus two cans of machinegun ammo because a fifty billion dollar logistical train is lifting ammo to you from a Navy resupply ship. If the Corps screwed up somehow and you did not get the basic re-supply (water, ammo and rations) every day or so, you would be in a world of shit rather shortly--i.e. out of water and out of ammo. Either way, you're dead.
Tramps are faced with a similar (although less dramatic) choice. Either you carry enough water, food, etc. with you to ENSURE that you do not run out, or you assume that you are going to get to somewhere where you can get water (or food, or warm clothes, etc.) If you do not ABSOLUTELY KNOW FOR SURE where your train is going or stopping, you must assume that no provisions are going to be available.
I'm one of those guys that likes his comforts, and I tend to travel way too heavy. This problem can be ameliorated somewhat if you are hopping with a crew. You don't need four lightweight camping stoves, just one. One guy carries the stove, somebody else carries the stove fuel. Whenever you can share the burden with another able-bodied, trustworthy person, you should do so. Traveling with a woman, or a much physically weaker male, apportion the load out so that each is carrying a load appropriate to his or her stamina, strength and experience.
In the Marines, this is done by corporals and sergeants. You don't get to decide what you will carry or what you will not carry. If the corporal tells you to pick up the machinegun (26 pounds), you pick it up, regardless of the fact that it's "not yours." It's yours to carry because the sergeant said so. End of discussion. The flip side of this is that you may be proud of being the squad's 0331 (machinegunner) but if the squad leader tells you to hand off the gun, you hand off the gun just as you are told to do.
It is definately possible to get separated when hopping. This is another good reason to apportion out the load. If one guy is carrying all the water, and he stumbles and screws the pooch on the catch-out, YOU are the one with no water, not him. Everybody should have their own basic gear. A one-gallon water jug, two-blankets in a bindle or an inexpensive sleeping bag, a decent pair of boots with a pronounced heel, leather gloves, a couple of cheap bandana handkerchiefs, a jacket or coat and a cap or hat of some kind is really the absolute minimum of equipment. Anybody with less equipment than that is really risking dehydration and exposure.
I would add a medium ALICE pack without the frame or some other type of DURABLE rucksack, some food, and a gunboat. The more stuff you add, the heavier it gets. Twenty-five pounds is supposed to be the maximum weight for ALL equipment. It's not easy to carry what you need and stay under that limit.

KaBar
12-21-2002, 07:11 AM
bump bump
effyoo
01-05-2003, 12:25 PM

Bunp, I mean Bumo, I mean BUMP!
Fox Mulder
01-05-2003, 05:38 PM
Originally posted by Hank Parker
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You pussy. "Snakes? Oh my no, get it away". Sorry Fox you sounded too gay. It's cool bro. Hey I'm hopping on friday probably just for the day. We might just take a local and have our friend in that city pick us up. We've got shit to do this weekend so no long rides.
so what if i have an irrational fear of stepping on a snake?

cheesecurd
01-06-2003, 12:11 AM
Originally posted by xhobox
in the cn yard in milwaukee there used to be a big one... the one that's under the interstates by the harbor... it was almost like a city inside a city back in the day... but things have changed...
catching out in that place isn't hard... there's always a train leaving... you probably wouldn't want to paint there though because of the traffic...
I seen them in milwaukee along the river on the cp tracks by potawatamie...it's easier to spot em at night with their cooking fires.

SIVIK
01-06-2003, 04:39 AM
Yo kabar that was a very interesting post.

KaBar
01-07-2003, 07:15 AM
I'd like to hear whatever you've got to say about trainhopping in Australia. I've heard that it is extremely difficult, but it doesn't seem like it should be. What would make trainhopping more difficult in Australia than here? Is it some kind of major felony or something?
If you enjoyed the post about deliberately limiting one's equipment footprint, you might enjoy some of the earlier posts.
I've recently read several posts on Trainhoppers.com and on the Tourist Union #63 web site that compare hopping to a military operation, replete with pre-operational recconnaisance, map recconnaisance, rally points, assembly points, communication protocols, signals (radio) recconnaisance, objective rally points and so forth.
Frankly, I think all this shit is way too complicated and formal for most tramps, but to tell you the honest truth, when I hop, I make an op plan just like I did when I was a Marine sergeant. Before I ever go to the train yard, I (informally) do most of the above. I use the normal Marine Corps Five-Paragraph Order as a handy way to insure success.
SMEAC
a.) Situation
1. Enemy
2. Friendlies
3. Attachments
b.) Mission
c.) Execution
d.) Administration and Logistics
e.) Command & Communication
Bizarre as it may seem, I use standard Marine Corps organizational acronyms and tactical organizational outlines for a lot of things in my life. It's easy to remember (I already know it), it's a proven way of conducting business, and it is combat tested. What more could one ask of a philosophy for overcoming adversity?
How about this one for catching out at night?
Infiltration Techniques
A. Purposes of infiltration
1.) to avoid detection
2.) to surprise the enemy
3.) to avoid losses
4.) Used when movement by combat rushes is not practical
B.Day infiltration
1.) Move by crawling
a.) Lie flat, keeping head, ankles and elbows on the ground.
b.) Head, abdomen, chest, arms, knees and ankles touch the ground at all times.
c.) Pull one leg forward and push. Extend one arm to feel and guide.
d.) Carry rifle by grasping upper sling swivel and allowing it to ride across forearm, with operating handle up.
2.) Obstacles
a.) Go around, rather than over, where possible.
b.) Place body alongside and parallel with obstacle grasping weapon at balance, slide it over obstacle. Slide one leg over, avoiding letting it fly into the air, use other leg and arm to push body over, dropping off obstacle between weapon and obstacle. Do NOT roll off onto your back.
3.) Barbed Wire
a.) Roll over on back
b.) Place weapon at center of body, operating handle DOWN.
c.) Move under wire by rocking slightly on shoulders and pushing with outsides of feet. Keep knees down.
d.) If necessary, use weapon to hold wire up
e.) NEVER jerk or pull wire. It may be booby tapped, or hooked to a surveillance system.
4.) Trenches and Ditches
a.) Turn fighting side parallel to ditch (note: if you are right-handed, your "fighting side" is your right side, if left-handed, your left side. Sergeants try to place people in movement formation so that right-handed Marines are on the left side, with their weapons pointed "outboard" i.e., to the left of the direction of travel; and left-handed Marines on the right side, with their weapons pointed "outboard", i.e. to the right side of the direction of travel.)
b.) Feel with hand for booby-traps or mines.
c.) Slide quickly into ditch.
d.) Come out of ditch at a different position, after having selected route and position and next direction of travel.
e.) Slide weapon out to arm's length, slide one leg out, keeping body flat on ground (riverbank), pull entire body from the ditch.
5.) Night Infiltration
a.) Avoid obstacles whenever possible.
1.) Usually covered by enemy fire
2.) May have noise-making devices or booby traps.
b.) When you must investigate and pass through obstacles, MOVE CAUTIOUSLY AND WITH STEALTH.
1.) When approaching wire, stay low to silhouette it against the sky.
2.) At night, you may be able to cross over wire more quietly than crawling under.
3.) If you must cut wire or fences, work in a team to prevent the ends of the cut strand from recoiling noisily into the barbed-wire entanglement.
4.) Learn to cut wire silently, and only when ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY..
Now, obviously, one will not be crawling under any barbed-wire with a rifle. But the principles are sound.

effyoo
01-07-2003, 07:27 AM
^^ Good info, If sure that alot of this will come in handy for alot of people. I know I'll put it to good use.

KaBar
01-08-2003, 07:53 AM
A few posts up the stack^^^, we were talking about favorite recipes and condiments. I happened to run across the original recipe for Britt Mulligan Stew on the net. Here it is:
BRITT MULLIGAN STEW
450 pounds of Beef, 900 pounds of potatoes, 250 pounds of carrots, 35 pounds of green peppers, 300 pounds of cabbage, 100 pounds of turnips, 10 pounds of parsnips, 150 pounds of tomatoes, 20 pounds of hot chili peppers, 25 pounds of rice, 60 pounds of celery, 1 pound of Bay leaves, 24 gallons of mixed vegetables, 10 pounds of Kitchen Bouquet flavoring. Serve with 400 loaves of bread.
Brown kitchen stew chunk-cut beef in the bottoms of thirty clean 55-gallon drums that were cut in half with an acetylene torch (medially, not longditudinally) with a re-bar steel handle welded to each side facilitate pot-handling. Fire the pots over fifteen cooking racks made of welded steel angle-iron, each equipped with a burner fashioned from 1/2" gas pipe with 1/8" drilled holes spaceed 1-1/2" apart. Propane cooking gas will be acceptable, or regular natural gas. In a serious pinch, wood fires would work nicely.
While the beef is browning, have several Boy Scouts or young hobos stir the pots with large wooden ladles made of planks, to discourage sticking.
Wash, peel and chop potatoes, scrape and chop carrots, chop peppers, celery and cabbage into pieces small small enough to ladle.
Once meat is nicely browned, divide the other ingredients more-or-less equally (mind the chili peppers) and cover with potable tap water. Bring to a rolling boil, add rice and Bouquet flavoring, salt and pepper to Cook's taste. Boil hard for fifteen minutes, then cut heat back to just enough to keep pot bubbling. Stir as required, do not let the bottom stick. Cook at least four to five hours before beginning to serve.
Serves 5,000.

KaBar
02-06-2003, 06:49 AM
I don't know what it is about this thread. It's a character flaw, without question, but I just don't want to see "my baby" get scrolled off into Cyber-nowhere.

eli b
02-09-2003, 07:34 PM
this is perhaps one of the most in-depth and interesting things i have read on a messageboard in a long time. i am interested in reading more. why don't you write a book? i would buy it in a heartbeat...

KaBar
02-11-2003, 05:14 PM
Everybody keeps saying that. I really should, just for you guys. Actually, I'm working on a screenplay--I've got over 70 pages, it takes a long time because I vacillate about stuff. You wouldn't believe how misgivings about important major issues can screw you up as the plot progresses. For instance, I agonized over whether or not to make a main character an 11-1/2 year old boy (sort of me, as a little kid) or whether to make him a young teenager (maybe like 16, and he could be played by a very young-looking 18-year-old actor.) In the first case, I'm writing the screenplay that I want to write. And in the second, I'm writing a movie that I could actually shoot "by myself." That is, without Hollywood--an indie.
I am a devoted aficianado of "outlaw" digital video film. You get a combat-ready camera, something tough that can take a good deal of getting knocked around without damage (something like a combat photographer would use) and a fearless sound man, and two or three actors, and a good script, and you just go out and fucking make a movie.
With the right crew, I could probably shoot my movie for less than $10,000. Maybe $20,000 max, and most of that would be processing, fees for professional sound processing and so on.

KaBar
02-11-2003, 05:36 PM
My buddy Stretch, from Cleveland, OH, and his famous trainhopping dog, Burlington, blew into town yesterday from Shreveport, LA. He's been on the road 5-1/2 days from Amory, MS, the site of the Amory Railroad Days and the First Opener Hobo Gathering of the year (2003) in April. It runs between April 9th and the 13th. The town of Amory is a cool little town, and very hobo-tolerant, but, like at Britt, DO NOT HIT STUFF IN TOWN. Get caught and they will have a very bad attitude with you in jail.
Stretch called me yesterday morning from a Dairy Queen in Humble, Texas (just north of Houston about 20 miles) and said "Hey, we're here, but our train went in the hole up here in Humble and we've been sitting here 2-1/2 hours. You want to come up and get us?" I jumped up, put on my clothes, called in sick, and drove up and got him and Burl.
For a tramp, Stretch carries more goddamned gear than anybody I know. His pack (no exaggeration) is at least 75 pounds. He has three sleeping bags (Northern hobos carry what's called a "Montana bindle"--a whole lot of bedrolls, tents and shit,) a tent, a tarp that he rigs over the tent, several gallons of water, a ton of food ("I ate those big cans of Spaghettios first--they were breaking my back,") cooking gear, a pressurized gasoline stove, a tool kit and a mountain of pretty ripe ECW cold weather gear, complete with homemade boot inserts ("I cut them out of one of those foam sleeping mats and glued them to some Dr. Scholl's inserts,") insulated snow pak boots, Arctic-quality gloves and insulated Minnesota-style coveralls. ("I'm an outdoors kind of guy.") Boy, let me tell you, that's no shit. Stretch and Burl can set up camp in a blizzard without a care in the world. ("It was -15 one time and we were riding in the open. That was pretty cold.")
We rode all over Houston checking out jungles and looking at various Yards ("Hey, I recognize that headquarters shack! I got arrested here four or five years ago. They put me in handcuffs and took me to the guard shack, but then they let me go with a warning.") and eventually, after looking at what was available ("No, I ain't going to Congress Yard downtown. It's too tramped out.") he decided on my jungle. We went and got groceries, water, dog food and a half-rack of Busch and then went to the jungle and set up. We built a fire and I hung around drinking beer and telling war stories about hopping, but I've got to work today, so I split at midnight. He and Burl are up there this morning probably checking out the dumpster-diving opportunities.
I wanted to catch out SO FUCKING BAD, but I didn't. I'm a good little soldier---off to work I go.

KaBar
02-13-2003, 07:18 PM
He says he's living in the mission in east Texas, because the Longview police have burned his camp three times since January 1st. Seems like to me maybe that east Texas is no longer as tolerant of tramps as it once was.
I can understand them getting pushy if you were jungled up in town and causing a problem, but if you are out in the sticks and minding your own business, what's the stress about? I think there's not enough real crime in Longview to keep the cops busy, so they have a lot of extra time to bother with burning down hobo camps and worrying about people who live outdoors. What's next? Closing the border in California to "vagrants?" It's like a Woody Guthrie tune or something.
"California's the Garden of Eden,
a paradise to live in or to see,
but believe it or not,
you won't find it so hot,
if you ain't got the do-re-mi."

KaBar
02-17-2003, 07:31 PM
We spent the weekend in the jungle, and man, it was cold--went down to 40 on Saturday night. (I'm sure this is amusing to you guys up north, but winter in Houston usually means weather around 50 degrees or so.) We just laid around camp, keeping the jungle fire burning, playing with the dog and watching trains. Drank up a case of beer. I am SOLD on MSR gasoline stoves. Stretch has one, and man, that is a first-class piece of gear. I'm going to have to retire my Svea stove and get one of those. We went dumpster diving Sunday morning, and then went and got Stretch a bus pass so he can get around Houston without having to walk. Burlington stays in camp, guarding Stretch's gear. That's the smartest dog I ever saw in my life.

baLLeRplAyA
02-22-2003, 07:27 AM
whoowee!!!! obsess much?!?!?
HUH?
02-23-2003, 05:48 AM
kabar i read a few pages back that you were a welder.what type?i am a welder also an i am jus fixin to bust out workin.did you go to any trade schools or what not? i jus finished with mine.i am jus curious to what kind of welding you do.also what type of metal fumes gives you cancer?i have never heard of that.

KaBar
02-24-2003, 04:35 PM
I'm not a welder by trade anymore, but I did make my living that way on and off from 1973 or so, when I attended Todd Shipyards Welding School here in Houston, until 1995, when I graduated from nursing school. It is a trade that consistently pays a living wage, but you'll never get rich working for wages. Even a "good union job," which I never managed to land, even though I think I worked pretty hard at it, doesn't usually pay more than about $13 or $14 a hour, unless you are such a good welder you can pass the Nuclear Facilities x-ray welding tests. Those jobs paid up into the mid-$20 range back in the day. Probably more, now.
MY SUGGESTION is that if you try welding and you enjoy it (I actually enjoyed it, up to a point) MANUFACTURE SOMETHING TO SELL to others. You take steel, like pipe, channel, flatbar, roundbar, I-beam, etc. and create something of value that enhances the desireability of the "raw" materials. One of the most lucrative "redneck technology" businesses I ever saw was the airboat manufacturing business in Orange, Texas. They have two first-class wire-feed aluminum MIG welders there that are building some beautifully welded aluminum airboat hulls. Of course, the welders are working for wages, but if they can build airboats for their boss, they could build airboats for themselves.
Owning a general service mobile-welding business is a tough way to make a living. You are scrambling all the time to make ends meet. It has a lot in common with owning a tow-truck wrecker service.
Another good low-tech, "redneck rechnology" manufacturing business is building welded-steel barbeque pits and wood stoves for deer camps, etc. To build a wood stove to be placed in someone's home, it must be engineered and UL certified as fire-safe, otherwise, it voids the fire insurance on the house. You need to be real careful, because some idiot burns down his house with one of your wood stoves, then he sues you and says you built it wrong. (Nobody can take responsibility for themselves any more.)
Arc welding and oxy-acetylene gas welding both give off fumes and particulate smokes and dusts that are harmful, but arc welding is the most dangerous. Never weld in an enclosed space (like a tank car or oil storage tank) It's dangerous from both a smoke viewpoint and also a suffocation oxygen-deprived viewpoint. Always ENSURE that you have good forced-air ventilation. An open hatch won't do the job, you need a blower or at least an air hose. I welded for years with nothing more than a dust mask under my welding hood, but this was idiocy. I didn't know any better. Wear a double-filter Mine Safety respirator. They make special welding hoods to fit them. You only get one set of lungs.
All manner of welding rods give off carcinogens (shit that causes cancer), but the mud rods like 7016 and 7018, that contain a lot of manganese and stainless steel electrodes like E-308-15s contain a LOT of chromium and nickle. These heavy metals are absolutely bad for you. How many years of welding it takes to give a guy lung cancer I can't say, but the less of that shit you inhale, the better. If you are a welder, I would suggest you don't smoke cigarettes. Don't wear a beard, and always use a good double-filter respirator.
It's hard on your eyes, too. NEVER weld or tack without a hood. Check your lens every time you remove your hood or drop it, to see if the lens cracked. You'll check it a million times and it will be fine, and the one time you forget to check, it will be cracked and you'll BURN THE SHIT OUT OF YOUR EYES.
It's a tough way to make a living, but a very handy skill to know. Be careful about fire. I always worked with a helper and a fire extinguisher close by.

KaBar
02-24-2003, 04:50 PM
We went up to Longview and picked him up at the Highway 80 Rescue Mission and came back down to Houston. He and Stretch and Burlington are all jungled up, up there near my favorite yard. I'm tired, that was a pretty long drive. We camped in Rusk, and took a look at the Texas State Railroad yards and facilities. It would be fun holding a tramp gathering there.

dosoner
02-25-2003, 02:52 AM
Originally posted by KaBar
BTW, I liked Conover's book, "Rolling Nowhere," too. Read both, but take them both with a grain of salt. Littlejohn sugarcoats hopping, but Conover makes it sound too bleak and depressing and pointless. It's sort of a cross between the two. Some bad, some good. Check it out, you'll see.
"Rolling Nowhere" is great, i read it cover to cover yesterday, it kept me pretty intrested for pretty much every page.

SIVIK
03-02-2003, 02:14 AM
[QUOTE]Originally posted by KaBar
[B]I'd like to hear whatever you've got to say about trainhopping in Australia. I've heard that it is extremely difficult, but it doesn't seem like it should be. What would make trainhopping more difficult in Australia than here? Is it some kind of major felony or something?
Our system isnt all that hard but the size of rail services is alot smaller than yours.We only have a coupple of main freight yards in melburn.It isnt a fellony down here or looked upon as as erious offence like any where u gotta do ur home work & u should be right.
Question Kabar why arent u in the marines anymore??Also when troops are deployed 2 say the gulf how much does there pay increase do they get extra cash depending on there positioning??

KaBar
03-04-2003, 05:07 PM
I wrote you a long reply about this last night and fell asleep on my computer keyboard about 0200, LOL. To answer your questions briefly, the reason I'm no longer an active duty Marine is that I decided that being a professional soldier was not what I really wanted to do with my life. I thought long and hard about it. Several of my friends from the Corps became "career Marines", and two acquaintances were studying French and making plans to join the French Foreign Legion--they said the Marine Corps was too tame, they wanted to go to combat and they didn't want to wait twenty years to do it. Last time I saw them they were trying to arrange passports, travel schedules, etc. They were getting close to their Marine Corps ETS, and intended to fly to Marsailles and attempt to enlist in La Legion.
The Marine Corps is a hard life for a family man. There is a saying "If the Corps wanted you to have a wife, they'd issue you one." I knew several NCO's who had "a hook" in town. Basically, their family life consisted of a long-term arrangement with an attractive prostitute. I also knew plenty of Marines (even young ones) who married their high-school sweetheart and were living in newlywed bliss---until the first overseas deployment when she is left by herself for six months or a year on a base with 40,000 young, single Marines with no girlfriend....
Most career Marines have been divorced a couple of times, drive a decent pick-up truck or sporty car, drink more than they should and are trying to make it the last of their twenty years to their retirement. A few did the smart thing and saved their money, or bought property or something like that, but most are just living from paycheck to paycheck and living the life of a professional soldier. The hours are long, the work is hard, it's lonely and once in a while, it's dangerous.
Young Marines suffer low pay until they make rank.
http://www.dfas.mil/money/milpay/pay/2003paytable.pdf
Here's the U.S. military pay scale.
Hazardous duty pay is $100 a month, all ranks, all services. If you are serving in a combat zone, I think that rule doesn't apply. Everybody knows, if you join the Marines, you are serving in a hazardous area at least part of the time.
Anybody may enlist, if you meet the requirements. I served with a number of Marines from foreign countries--Mexico, Canada, Guatemala, Columbia, Phillipine Islands, UK, Ireland. The vast majority of Marines are U.S. citizens of course, including U.S. territories, like American Samoa, and Guam. It's a hard life. You earn your money, without question.

zen
03-04-2003, 05:40 PM
Frieghts in my state are unpredictable, often run at night, long pointless rides, few and far between, arent box cars, dont run to any where interesting, plus the whole law thing, the government is terified of terrorists, plus kids sneaking around frieghts at night dosent instill the security with alot of confidence.
Having said that, this is purely second hand information, I myself have never felt the need to hop trains, if I was ever homeless there are lots of places to go within my city without threat of hunger or danger.

KaBar
03-05-2003, 04:32 PM
I don't think most people would choose hopping freight trains as a primary means of transportation under normal circumstances. During the so-called "Golden Years" of trainhopping (the 1930's and the Great Depression Years, here in the States) there were very few alternatives. If you wanted to go from one place to another and had no money, you could walk, or your could hop a train. Even a bicycle was often beyond the means of the tramps of that period. If they had one, they'd probably try to sell it for food money. (This is why so few tramps are armed with firearms--they are just too valuable as pawn items. Better to have $100 in your pocket that you need desparately than a pistol that you might never need.)
If I lived in Australia, I believe I would be a sailboater. I've often considered building a welded steel sailboat. My Dad had a friend who built one in his back yard over a period of about five years. It was a 54-foot ketch, all built from re-cycled 10 gauge steel plate and angle iron. It was a beautiful boat--you'd never guess in a million years that the guy that built it had such an artistic soul. He was your typical crude, redneck hill billy type, but underneath that hick exterior was the soul of a sailor. Last time we saw him, he was anchored at Chocolate Bayou, south of Houston. When we went back, his neighbor in the next slip said that he had left a few days earlier, headed for the Panama Canal.
The Gulf of Mexico would also be a pretty good place to live as an anchor-out. I've often considered it.
SIVIK

03-06-2003, 04:03 AM
Cheerz 4 the info Kabar.
wiseguy
03-08-2003, 01:46 AM
i have to say thank you KaBar, for the best, most informative post that i have ever read on 12oz. I have had some kind of fascination with trainhopping for quite a while now. i guess stemming from my latent railfan tendencies. Have you ever heard of trainhopping occurring in any other countries? I am from Australia, currently visiting the US, and i was curious as to whether trainhopping existed or does exist outside of the US. In queensland at least there is quite a lot of freights carrying produce(sugarcane, bauxite, coal, and other raw materials) from the north and west of the state where there is a lot of mining and agriculture. I am without a doubt that they would be considerably less comfortable than boxcars, But queensland is big and without some kind of transprt it would be horrid to travel around, so at soume point trainhopping must have been used to travel about the state.

KaBar
03-10-2003, 06:27 AM
I've been kind of interested to discover whether hopping is common in other countries as well. In Peru, they used to let the poor people ride the decks (the tops of passenger cars) for a few cents paid in cash (no ticket) which, I suspect, went straight into the conductor's pocket. Hopping freights is very common in Mexico (it's a major method of illegal immigration into the U.S.) but since the 9/11 attack, the U.S. security on the southern borders has just gotten extremely tight. There was also an incident where two FBI agents investigating cargo thieves on the very edge of the border area (like 200 meters from Mexico) were attacked and beaten, disarmed and dragged into Mexico itself. Since that occurred, you can't spit on a Sunset Route train without hitting the FBI. We hear tramps complain about being thrown off trains and/or arrested for trespassing by squads of heavily armed INS agents, Border Patrol officers and FBI agents.
There are a couple of other Aussies on 12 oz. that talk about riding trains there, but in general, they don't sound very optimistic. I bet it's possible, but considering the extreme weather conditions found in the Australian outback, you'd better be a DESERT SURVIVAL EXPERT if you get on an Australian train headed into the outback. If you were to get "set off" out in the middle of nowhere (perhaps if the train crew was unaware of your presence) you'd be in big trouble. When headed into the West, American hobos carry lots of water--several gallons is minimum. I once knew two tramps who carried a big plastic 5-gallon military water can, which weighed about 40 pounds. No matter where they went, they had water.
Before I caught out in Australia, I'd THOROUGHLY RESEARCH TRAIN ROUTES, MAPS, SCHEDULES AND CREW CHANGE POINTS. There is an American book (a hand-made book) called the Crew Change Guide. Copies of this book are extremely rare. You might consider taking copious notes, and printing an Australian version of it. It includes routes, companies, stops, crew change points, yard locations, buses and IRT trains that service the yards (what city bus or subway or El train to take to reach a certain yard), costs and so forth. Most of this information can be had through rail fan magazines, clubs and publications. A railroad timetable is a very valuable asset to a railrider. It has times, scheduled trains, arrival times, etc. If you know what time you departed a particular junction, and approximately how long it should take the train to reach the next junction, you can determine where you are "now," even if there are no signs. In the U.S., there are milepost signs along the railway ballast ("MP 236", etc.) This usually tells you how many miles away from corporate headquarters one is. If corporate headquarters is in Kansas City, and you are at MP 236, you should be able to locate your approximate position on a railroad map. Assuming that you have a map, and that you know the location of the railroad you are riding. Respectively, the headquarters are: Burlington Northern Santa Fe (Fort Worth, Texas), Union Pacific (Omaha, Nebraska,) Kansas City Southern (Kansas City, Missouri) and so forth. I have no idea if this is true in Australia or not.
I think that much of the information in Duffy Littlejohn's book would be applicable more or less anywhere. Find out what laws and penalties apply in the various states in Australia. For all I know, trainhopping might be a serious crime there. Find out, before you hop.

"Hopping Freight Trains in America" by Duffy Littlejohn.
Zephyr Rhoades Press
P.O. Box 1999
Silver City, New Mexico
88062-1999
telephone 505-534-1888 fax 505-534-2888
email: dlittlejohnZRP@zianet.com

As a side note, my buddies Stretch and Texas Mad Man are headed towards the hobo gathering at Amory, Mississippi. I dropped them off at the KCS yard in Beaumont, and within fifteen minutes, Stretch had made friends with a yard worker and had an approximate departure time for their train. The world-famous hobo dog, Burlington, was happily eating dog food out of his side-saddle packs last time I saw him. Raised on a freight train, he is "most at home" in a freight classification yard. I'm going to miss them, but I expect I'll see them at Amory.
wiseguy

03-10-2003, 11:56 PM
thanks for the info KaBar, if i do attempt to trainhop in australia, i will make sure that i stick to the more populated, temperate east coast. im also gonna research some info about the workings and timetables of freight system here...
stretch

03-18-2003, 04:56 PM
Hi Kabar, tex and i are here in Meridian,MS heading for Tupelo,MS this evening. This library sucks cause due to the war you cant even check yahoo here but mabee in tupelo. see ya soon and dont forget to bring your bindle.
stretch and burlington dog K-9

KaBar
03-19-2003, 09:27 AM
My mother is ill, she is going in for a heart-valve replacement on Monday, 3/24/03. This may screw up my plans to come up to Amory early, but I'm still going to try to make it. If Mom is doing okay, and we have plenty of nursing care from my sisters and other family and friends, I'll try to be there just like I planned. I haven't heard back from Derek, I don't know if he's coming with me or what.
Tell Tex howdy, give old Burl a "tweat" for me.
stretch

03-21-2003, 07:09 PM
:confused:
Well hope things work out with your mom and we will keep in touch here in tupelo where i have internet acess.
stretch

KaBar
03-29-2003, 08:00 AM
Hey, I got an email from Backwoods Jack, from Litchfield, Illinois. He says he's going to try to make the Amory gathering. He also said that some idiot bow hunter shot his dog, Patches, in a deliberate attempt to kill him. (Apparently Patches survived the murder attempt.) It would be great to see him again. Man, the guy has GREAT HATS. I never met a man with such crazy fucking hats as Jack. The last night at Britt he showed up at the campfire with a huge Mexican sombero. The thing looked like a tent!
Anybody from Litchfield? Jack owns an auto junk yard there.

LungFactory
04-05-2003, 05:45 AM
Wow, i have to say, that on all of 12oz, this is probably the most intelligent post that has ever been done. Ive read this whole thread, and learned alot. Kbar, youve got quite the cornicopia of know how racked up, you seirously should publish something. One of those how to for dummies books maybe. Good stuff, keep it coming...

*Bumps*:king:
KaBar
04-05-2003, 09:56 PM
Well, thanks, bro, it's always nice to hear a compliment. Truthfully, though, the information on here is not really all that unique or anything. Most of it is readily available from other sources. Look up the stack for the address for Duffy Littlejohn's book "Hopping Freight Trains in America." It's a great book--the information is absolutely required before anybody attempts a long-distance hop.
There is a class of trainhopper called a "forty-miler." I never appreciated this when I was younger, but now, as a confirmed adult, it makes a lot more sense. These guys travel back and forth between two places that they know well. They like riding trains, but they don't want to go long distances for one reason or another. So they just ride forty miles or so to the next junction or yard, get off, and then ride back.
I used to feel sort of superior and disdainful towards them, I thought they were just barely a cut above "homeguards," but I understand their motivation a little better now that I am older.

ghostvandal
04-06-2003, 10:23 PM
I started reading your post last night and im only at the half of page 2 but its really interesting. I have 2 questions though: You said its not respectful so shit in a boxcar but what if your on a long trip, the train is going fast and you really have to shit?
My second question is do you build a small shelter with trees for when it rains or you just dont care about getting wet all night long, or for a week long?

KaBar
04-07-2003, 08:03 AM
Both good questions. The first one "How do I take a dump if I'm on a boxcar?" is pretty obvious. Always take some cardboard, or railroad plastic or Thousand-Miler Paper with you whenever you hop. Take a dump on a chunk of the cardboard, then carry it carefully to the door and pitch it out without getting any on you. A package of "Baby Wipes" is a good idea in addition to plenty of shitpaper. They come in a small plastic dispenser, and they are good for cleaning your hands and face, as well as personal hygiene after taking a dump and using regular shitpaper. Having a raw, itchy ass is hell when you cannot take a bath or shower.
I know you guys will laugh like hell at this last information. I didn't learn that riding trains, though, I learned it in the Marines. Spend a month in 29 Palms, California without a bath, running up and down desert mountains in the same stinking, filthy set of cammies and shitting in the open and you'll get creative about ways to attain a high degree of personal hygiene. (How does it go? "Please Believe.")
As for personal shelter, a little two-man pop-up tent would be great. I never carried one back in the day, but I do carry one now. I have also rigged rain shelter from scavenged Visqueen plastic from dumpsters, Army rain ponchos, tarps that blew off of loads on rail cars and so forth.
ONE OF THE ABSOLUTELY BEST SURVIVAL TRICKS I EVER SAW---I learned a month or so ago from Texas Mad Man and Stretch. They found a large inflatable packing bladder used to cushion a load of red bricks alongside the tracks here in Houston. It made a great air mattress, then they cut it open and it made a great sleeping bag, then they completely removed it's paper cover and made it into a large plastic tarp by cutting down three of it's four seams. VERY tough plastic, and durable as all hell. It could easily save your life in cold weather, especially as a "sleeping bag" with a couple of blankets.
Carry 505 shock cord wherever you go. It is great survival stuff, cheap, and lightweight. You can use it to rig a tarp or tent anywhere. I met one guy who wove a hammock out of thin shock cord. You can attach it to a piece of plastic or a tarp by placing a rock on a corner on one side, and "pushing it through," then tying shock cord or rope to the OTHER side, "trapping the rock" within the plastic. I did this once in the face of a big thunderstorm blowing in off the Pacific. My girlfriend was freaking out. I used our four bootlaces and a large piece of Visqueen to produce a storm-worthy shelter in about ten minutes. I tied the bootlaces to the limbs of a small tree, making a little tent. We jumped inside, got in our sleeping bags and pushed the loose edges of the plastic sheet underneath the weight of our bodies just as all hell broke loose with the storm. Lightning crashed, it rained like a motherfucker, flooded all around us (we were on high ground) but we barely got damp. My girl looked at me with shining eyes and said "You are the most resourceful man I have ever met in my life." Too bad I only had about twenty bucks to my name, LOL. That was a good day.

ghostvandal
04-08-2003, 06:08 AM
haha nice! thanks for all the infos. now back to my reading im at page 4 hehe
ghostvandal
04-09-2003, 04:18 AM
Originally posted by KaBar
TeeRase---Actually, I only started using "Kabar" as a moniker relatively recently. I never thought that much about using an alias when I was hopping full-time. I was young, and inexperienced. A "moniker," or nick-name, is supposed to be given TO you by older, wiser riding companions, you see. The idea of some twenty-year-old naming himself "Tennesee Pass Paulie" or 'Thousand Miler Mike" or some such thing is pretty funny to me. Rufe used to call me "Prospect" all the time, as in "Hey, PROSPECT, go get some fucking firewood! This ain't no hobby!" but I wouldn't consider that a moniker. More like an epithet. (If you don't know what a "prospect" is, it's some young guy who is trying to join a motorcycle club, more or less like a recruit. Below the level of "prospect" is "hangaround." Hangarounds aren't even included in stuff like beer runs, they are considered to be unworthy of much consideration at all. I once saw a patch-holder decide to get rid of a bunch of hangarounds. (A patch-holder is a full member of a motorcycle club, someone who has completed his time as a prospect and has been "voted a top rocker", i.e. voted into the club and given the "top rocker" to his colors. The top rocker has the name of the club on it, like "Hells Angels", "Bandidos", Satan's Slaves" etc.) Anyway, the hangarounds were sitting around at this bike shop out behind a patch-holder's house, and one of the bros decided to "clear out the light weights." He came out of the shop with an M-1 carbine and fired about ten rounds into the ground, pow-pow-pow-pow-pow. ZOOM! All the hangarounds except one hauled ass running. The only guy that just sat there calmly drinking his beer got promoted to "prospect" at the next meeting, and the guy with the carbine sponsored him.
Anyway, Rufe used to call me "prospect," but I wasn't really a prospect, I was just younger than him. Actually, having someone around as young and strong as I was back then was a real advantage for Rufe. If anybody had tried to hurt him, I would have kicked their ass into next week. He would have never admitted that to me, of course. "What the fuck--are you asleep at the switch, or what? You're lucky I'm here to show you the ropes, or you'd be dog meat for these fucking streamliners, no shit. Listen up, prospect! I shit you not, these guys are assholes!" He was a cool old guy, and to hear him tell it, he took care of me, not the other way around. I figured I'd just humor him. I learned a lot from him, especially about how the railroads do business.
this is funny, I thought the hells Angels gang started in my neighborhood . I never thought they would be in texas or something
I was wondering..do you know if Dufy Littlejohn's book has been translated in french.

KaBar
04-09-2003, 06:53 AM
The Hell's Angels MC is concentrated mostly in the California-Nevada area and the New York area, with some penetration down into the Deep South.
The Bandidos MC was founded in Houston (the "Mother Chapter" is here in Houston) and they very aggressively moved north and east into Oklahoma, Louisiana, Kansas, Alabama, South Dakota and so on, trying to cut the U.S. "in half" to prevent the HA's from effectively controlling the central part of the U.S., in terms of 1%er motorcycle clubs. They also moved into the Washington State area and some parts of Oregon.
Both these organizations have affilliated clubs (The Bandidos have the Amigos MC, Honchos MC, Mongols MC, etc.) They have a strategic alliance with the Outlaws MC, long-time enemies of the Hell's Angels.
Not too long ago, there was a big fight between Hell's Angels and Mongols in a casino in Reno, NV. The rumor I heard was that these particular Mongols were trying to make their bones with the Bandidos, and they were sent to attack the HA's. The HA's won the fight, but lost several members trying to retreat back to California--supposedly there was a running gun battle on the highway. I don't know--it's just a rumor.
The HA's are in big trouble. They have been bullying smaller clubs and treating people like shit for years. They only have around 800 members, total. The Bandidos, on the other hand, while very ruthless about business, tend to let smaller clubs "affiliate", keep their colors (patches) and their pride, and become "allies" (subservient allies, of course) with the Bandidos. By doing this, the Bandidos have built a very large and powerful organization. The HA's have always been extremely tough, and very select, which translates as "small." The Bandidos have been building alliances and plotting on being #1 for a long time. Eventually, there's going to be a Big Showdown, and the HA's are going to be in some deep shit.

Dick Quickwood
04-09-2003, 11:14 AM
what do you know about F.T.R.A. ?
KaBar
04-09-2003, 05:59 PM
There is a lot of rumor and boogey-man bullshit perpetuated about the FTRA. They've been around quite a long time. Founded in Libby. Montana, in a bar, in 1988, they started out as a self-protection organization for hobos faced with aggression from gang bangers, local thuggy kids, redneck assholes and so on. Originally, the story goes, FTRA was made up mostly of "Vietnam veterans." This isn't very likely, but there might have been some Vietnam vets, anyway. Rather quickly, the organization began to attract ex-convicts, scam artists and so on. Like their philosophical brothers-in-arms, the 1%er motorcycle clubs, it's less about train riding and more about getting by without working. Basically, you'll almost never see an FTRA guy working day labor. Running drugs, yeah. Squeezing welfare payments out of three or four different counties (or ten, or twenty) yeah. Stealing shit, yeah. They "ride the circuit" and collect welfare benefits in places all over the country.
They do not have the clout and organization that a group like the Hell's Angels or Bandidos does. They do not stake out a particular town or area of a city and claim to be predominant, but they do ride certain rail lines and try to dominate them. They lack personal mobility (no cars, no motorcycles, etc.) They try to blend in with the tramp and "homeless" population, but at the same time, they wear clothing that makes them readily identifiable--"gang colors," if you will. A good example of FTRA behavior is someone who looks homeless, has a dog, carries a light pack and a sleeping bag, but is carrying a large sum of money, perhaps hundreds or even thousands of dollars, in cash. He will always be armed, either with a goon stick, a knife (or both) and often with a pistol. FTRA members travel in small groups, rarely less than two, sometimes as many as six or eight. Like 1%er bikers, they often share "ol' ladies" or have a "mamma" who sleeps with anybody from the organization. This is sort of a groupie situation--the FTRA provides drugs, alcohol and force protection, the girl provides sex.
http://www.ftra.org/TrampCam/BoxcarBertha.html
FTRA members share pretty much everything in common. There is no such thing as "private" property. In a sort of bizarre spin-off of the old Frisco circle, everyone who associates with them is required to pony up whatever resources are available all the time. A well-known story about them is that a "yuppie" hobo who wanted to ride the rails with the real McCoy hooked up with the FTRA. He smoked dope with them, got to be pals, and rode some trains. The FTRA doesn't dumpster-dive, they have plenty of money. He is sitting around the campfire, eating their steaks and drinking their whiskey, and they decide to do another beer run. Everybody just opens their pocket and throws down their money. The yuppie pulls out his wallet and like leans way back, so nobody can see what's in it. This is a gross insult to the FTRA guys. He's eating their steaks! Drinking their whiskey! So they just beat his ass right there and take all his money, his equipment, whatever they want. Fuck him. He ain't a bro--he's a sorry-ass cheapskate yuppie.
If you hang with the FTRA, you are riding the tiger.
NEVER disrespect a girl or woman travelling with FTRA members. It could very easily get you killed. There are very few women willing to ride with people like the FTRA. If you insult one, or harm her in any way, they will hurt you for real. This is a big ego booster to the girls. Keep your distance from their women, seriously.
They attack en masse. If you get into a fight with the FTRA it is "One on all, All on one." They will take on any number of attackers cheerfully, and think nothing of the entire group stomping the crap out of one single adversary.
Like the 1%er bikers, they have a "prospect" process. To join, you must prove you are worthy and dedicated. Often this requires that one commit a crime, so that the organization "has the goods" on you, and if you fail to do what is required, or if you inform, you will be facing them ratting you out for the crime. If one informs to the police, you are a marked man.
I have met several members and "ex-members" ("Once in, never out.") of the FTRA. They were nice guys, and generous. The problem arises if you are vulnerable to them. I carry a knife, a deadman and a pistol. It is a somewhat false sense of security, because if I had to defend myself, most likely the next stop would be jail. One-on-one, they are okay. If they are drinking or drugging and in a group, LEAVE and go somewhere else. If you are not a member or a prospect, you are a potential target. DO NOT ACCEPT FAVORS FROM THE FTRA. It makes you "obligated", in their eyes.
The "real" FTRA no longer exists. In the 90's, the heat got so bad that they took off their colors (they wear a bandana rolled "cowboy style" with a silver concho as colors) and went underground. Many of them were arrested and sent to prison after the Sidetrack Murders. However, there are a lot of "Sinner's Camp" hobos who have that bad ass 1%er attitude who are still riding trains. You'll know these guys when you see them. They are hard asses--hard drinking, hard-fighting, drug-using haters. Many of them act and talk like convicts. They look a lot like 1%bikers and most of them are racists, because of serving time in prison. This is not to say "all" of them, because not every FTRA member fits the above generalization, but many of them do.
The "unofficial" FTRA web site is http://www.ftra.org/welcome/hpl.
Use "ftra" and "ftra" as passwords.

fr8lover
04-09-2003, 06:12 PM
jaks is a weird cat, but ive read ftra.org and deadtrainbums from front to back. lots of interesting (mis)information to be had there...
it appears to be down now, however.

KaBar
04-09-2003, 06:17 PM
Eric made a lot of enemies over the years, and yeah, you're right, he is pretty wierd. Several people I know "broke in" with the FTRA, but no longer ride with them. They ought to know. I avoid them for the same reason I avoid the Hell's Angels and the Bandidos. If you hang around with them long enough, eventually something bad will happen.

fr8lover
04-09-2003, 06:36 PM
he was always nice to me back in the day when i had stupid questions to ask...ive never met ftra in person but have heard a lot of stories, whether true or not.
i think the "hopping solo and a guy shares a car with you then pushes you off" is one of the ones ive heard the most.

PUNKASSBITCH
04-09-2003, 11:34 PM
Hey Kabar, can i use your writings for school? Ill say where and who I got it from.

Dick Quickwood
04-10-2003, 07:05 AM
thanks
KaBar
04-10-2003, 01:37 PM
You can quote my stuff for school if you wish, so long as you agree that you will not use anything I wrote to make trainhoppers, hobos, tramps or graff writers look bad. People always seem to take anything written about hobos or trainhopping and twist it to make the entire thing look sinister and anti-social. This is far from true. Even the guys riding the colors for FTRA are not monsters. They just choose to live a lifestyle that uses a different set of rules than the rest of society. The One-Percenter bikers are the same way. They are very much obedient to the rules that they accept. It's just that outside of that subculture, these rules seem sinister and dangerous.
For instance, both 1%ers and guys in the FTRA place zero value on legal contracts and normal business agreements. I have seen $10,000 motorcycle sales conducted on nothing more than a handshake. YOUR WORD IS YOUR BOND. If you promise to purchase a motorcycle from a Bandido for $10,000, on the appointed day, if you don't show up with the money IN CASH, you had probably better be headed for a foreign country, because the penalty for failing to honor your word is considerably more severe than a lawsuit.
Among regular, normal trainhoppers this is also true, to a lesser degree. If you promise to do something, and fail to carry out what you agreed to do, or if you violate a trust of any kind, the result can be very unpleasant. The minimum you can expect is to be permenantly banned from camp, and your reputation ruined forever. I know of a tramp who allegedly stole from people who trusted him, and the coast-to-coast social vendetta against him has been ongoing for some time.
Someone who intended to misuse what I write on 12 oz. is unlikely to ask permission to do so. I trust you will do the right thing.

PUNKASSBITCH
04-11-2003, 01:16 AM
^^ thank you SO much, Id like to let you know that I myself would NEVER portray or give a bad image of an activity or lifestyle. I do graffiti, and it carries a load of negative images instead of the positive images, although it would be much better for the images to be neutral, but the world we live in is a zero-sum world. To add to that, Im a Muslim, which contribtes even more to me knowing how shitty it is when the media or whoever makes us look bad. Muslims are as American as apple pie, and to guarantee that I will not manipulate your words, the only editing I will do is the curse words, where Ill add a #!@** to replace them. Is there any specific name you would like me to use instead of KaBar? Is there anything you would like to be kept private about yourself? Anything at all you want ?

KaBar
04-11-2003, 04:56 AM
Obviously, people who use a psuedonym on the Internet do not want their actual name to become known to the world. There are plenty of young hackers on 12 oz. who could figure out people's real names, I suppose, and cause them grief. I'd prefer to keep the anonyminity of my handle. Other than that, I feel pretty sure you can tell the difference between information likely to be a problem and information unlikely to be a problem. Exercise good judgement, and be a stand-up guy, that's all.
KaBar

04-14-2003, 07:49 PM
I just heard from Texas Madman, who reports a total of 35 tramps and hobos arrived at the Amory Railroad Days festival in Armory, MS. He says it's the first time in eight years that it did not rain during the festival, that nobody got in trouble, and that a grand time was had by all.
He especially complimented the food, and says that the local cafe owners (one cafe, two owners) have "adopted" he hobos. Several tramps apparently worked at the cafe during the festival, providing extra hands to help deal with the increased business, and taking their pay in meals. The cafe also fed the assembled hobos at least one meal, down at Hobo Corner in Amory's Frisco park.

Tramps that attended Amory (many of these people are nationally known or even internationally known hobos):
Miss Charlotte
MAD Mary
Grandpa Dudley
Stretch and Burlington Dog
Texas Madman
Steamtrain Maury Graham
Wanda
Knotman
Namakogin Kid
Red Dust
Milwaukee Mike
Leo the Limper
Hobo SLC
Redbird Express (King of Hobos 2003)
Lady Nightingale (Queen of Hobos 2003)
Liberty Justice
Brender
Get Along Eileen
Be Gone Norm
Katy Flyer
Rock Island Red
Doodle Bug
Pearl from Indiana
Dickie Miller
Loco Larry
Redlight Kramer
John John Bellow
Ohio Tom
Collinwood Kid
Bojangles
Virginia Slim (this guy has the best accapella tenor I've ever heard--find the National Geographic video "Trains"--Slim is the last shot on the video, he sings "I've Been Everywhere.")
Hobo Spike
Oops
Emma
Lady Marie
This may not be a complete list. Tex, Stretch, Burlington, Emma and Opps are headed towards Memphis via freight train.
Man, I sure wish I could have gone. Unfortunately, my mother is in Intensive Care and I needed to stay here with her and my family.
Sounds like they had a good time, though.

damn vandle
04-15-2003, 02:20 AM
Originally posted by KaBar
I just heard from Texas Madman, who reports a total of 35 tramps and hobos arrived at the Amory Railroad Days festival in Armory, MS. He says it's the first time in eight years that it did not rain during the festival, that nobody got in trouble, and that a grand time was had by all.
He especially complimented the food, and says that the local cafe owners (one cafe, two owners) have "adopted" he hobos. Several tramps apparently worked at the cafe during the festival, providing extra hands to help deal with the increased business, and taking their pay in meals. The cafe also fed the assembled hobos at least one meal, down at Hobo Corner in Amory's Frisco park.
Tramps that attended Amory (many of these people are nationally known or even internationally known hobos):

Miss Charlotte
MAD Mary
Grandpa Dudley
Stretch and Burlington Dog
Texas Madman
Steamtrain Maury Graham
Wanda
Knotman
Namakogin Kid
Red Dust
Milwaukee Mike
Leo the Limper
Hobo SLC
Redbird Express (King of Hobos 2003)
Lady Nightingale (Queen of Hobos 2003)
Liberty Justice
Brender
Get Along Eileen
Be Gone Norm
Katy Flyer
Rock Island Red
Doodle Bug
Pearl from Indiana
Dickie Miller
Loco Larry
Redlight Kramer
John John Bellow
Ohio Tom
Collinwood Kid
Bojangles
Virginia Slim (this guy has the best accapella tenor I've ever heard--find the National Geographic video "Trains"--Slim is the last shot on the video, he sings "I've Been Everywhere.")
Hobo Spike
Oops
Emma
Lady Marie
This may not be a complete list. Tex, Stretch, Burlington, Emma and Opps are headed towards Memphis via freight train.
Man, I sure wish I could have gone. Unfortunately, my mother is in Intensive Care and I needed to stay here with her and my family.
Sounds like they had a good time, though.
Kabar, sorry to hear about your mom, best wishes.. Do you know where to find that N. Geographic video..

KaBar
04-15-2003, 07:33 AM
Try www.gandydancer.com (http://www.gandydancer.com). Go to "Other Producers from Pentrex" It's actual title is National Geographic's "Love Those Trains." It also has some brief shots of Steamtrain and other tramps a few years ago at Britt.
Trust me, this video is for sale at this site SOMEWHERE. It costs like $29.95 though. I received it as a gift. Gandy Dancer sells about 500 train videos, or something like that.

ReSoN
04-16-2003, 03:18 AM
i dunno what to say KaBar....much props, much respect, much love....by far the most intelligent, informative, and educational post ive ever read anywhere...this shit needs to stay on top.....p'zzz
bump it up...

damn vandle
04-18-2003, 06:27 PM
Originally posted by KaBar
Try www.gandydancer.com (http://www.gandydancer.com). Go to "Other Producers from Pentrex" It's actual title is National Geographic's "Love Those Trains." It also has some brief shots of Steamtrain and other tramps a few years ago at Britt.
Trust me, this video is for sale at this site SOMEWHERE. It costs like $29.95 though. I received it as a gift. Gandy Dancer sells about 500 train videos, or something like that.

THANKS!;)
KaBar
05-01-2003, 08:09 AM
Tex, Oops and Emma all arrived at Collinwood Kid's place in East Cleveland, Ohio earlier this week and are busy helping Collinwood clean the place up. (Collinwood is a notorious dumpster-diver of great renown and skill. He dumpster dives computers and stuff like that.) Collinwood has a large quantity of "perfectly good" kitchen ranges, washing machines, refrigerators, etc. stored in his driveway and back yard, all stuff he obtained dumpster diving. His enormous collection of valuable stuff keeps people busy categorizing it, moving it about, etc. So Tex, Oops and Emma are all up there squaring away Collinwood's treasures. (Why, I don't know. As soon as they clear a space, he goes out and "rescues" some more shit.)
stretch

05-15-2003, 12:46 PM
Hi there, We made it back to cleveland and things are fine. Tex is still here and having a DSL line on my pc is a dam nice treet with a bunch of new stuf now to play with i have been busy playing and quit hopping for awile.
havent heard from you in a wile so how's things or whats new???????
Burl says hi to

ctrl+alt+del
05-19-2003, 12:40 AM
Originally posted by KaBar
often the Spokane "Spokesman-Review," the Portland "Oregonian", or the San Francisco "Examiner," the Seattle "Times" or the "Post-Intelligencer." After you finish reading all the propaganda (LOL) you can get your revenge by using the newspaper for shitpaper.
Kabar when were you up in Spokane? quite a while ago im guessing? people dont stick around there. That newspaper, Spokesman-Review is on some illegal shit, but they grease palms all over. Fucking Cowles family.

KaBar
05-19-2003, 05:06 PM
It's been quite a while since I was in Spokane---about twenty years now, I guess. As you get older, you tend to move around less and less. Having a stable career has really put a dent in my travelling about. Good for one's bank account, bad for one's soul.

B_As_In_Bot
05-22-2003, 05:14 AM
Originally posted by Agent Uprise
Kabar- Thanks for the response. Concerning deadmans, Dont trains make all sorts of stops giving numerous chances for people to notice a big peice of wood in the door track?
A simple solution would be to paint your deadman aluminum? OR some other nonwood, dirty freight color..

B_As_In_Bot
05-22-2003, 11:04 PM
A Hobo Dictionary
by Matthew Power
from "Trainhopping: Living on Train Time, Dodging Railway Bulls, Riding Free for 3,600 Miles. A Modern-Day Hobo's Journey Across Canada"
part of elsa.photo.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Airedale: A tramp who always travels alone, from the breed of dog.
Bundle Stiff: A hobo who carries a bundle.
Bull: A railroad security guard who patrols the railyards. In the old days, they would normally just evict hobos. Nowadays they are more likely to escort hobos directly to jail.
Catch Out: To hop a freight train.
Flintstone Kids: The latest generation of hobos. More likely to have orange hair, skateboards, and fleece than scraggly beards and long wool coats. Also known as the nose ring nation.
Frisco Circle: When a circle of hobos throw money in a pile and use the money to buy as much communal booze as possible.
Full Timers: Tramps who ride full-time for fun, for work, or for their own personal reasons.
Hobo: From "Hoe Boy" after the itinerant 19th century farm laborers, who trainhopped with their belongings in a bundle tied to a hoe.
Jungle: A hobo camp.
Recriders: Tramps who take short recreational trips.
Stamp Tramps: Tramps who ride between multiple cities, collecting food stamps at each stop. New restrictive food stamp policies have greatly reduced the number of stamp tramps.
Streamlined: Travelling light with little to no baggage or gear. Streamliners are often mistrusted, since other tramps expect them to mooch.
Train Time: The clock tramps live by, characterized by train schedules rather than a 24-hour day.
One final point: Hobos versus tramps. Some say hobos originally traveled to work, and tramps traveled for the sake of travel. Others say a tramp is a hobo west of the Mississippi and a hobo is a tramp east of the Mississippi. Others use the terms interchangeably.
from here (http://elsa.photo.net/hobodictionary.html)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hobo Terminology
Adam and Eve on a raft - Two fried eggs on toast. "Wreck 'em" if they are scrambled. "With their eyes open," if not.
Adventure - The encountering of danger, exciting and deangerious undertaking
Alley - A clear track in a railroad yard.
Alligator bait - Fried or stewed liver. Too costly now for hobos.
American nomad - A hobo who has been across the nation many times.
Anchor - A pick. Companion tool of the shovel or banjo. See: Banjo.
Angel - A person who gives more than you expect. One who takes an interest without trying to reform you.
Angel food - A mission house sermon. A mission preaching about the Bread of Life.
Apple knockers - Apple pickers.
Babe - A woman.
Back door bumming - To seek food at the back door to limit embarrassment.
Backslider - A weak person.
Bad actor - A dangerous person.
Balloon - A bedroll. A roll of bedding carried on the back, a bindle.
Banjo - A short-handled shovel.
Batter - To beg.
Beanery - A railroad eating house. Beanery queen is a waitress.
Beggar -"Beg" is one of those words which isn't derived from anything; it has always meant exactly what it means. Any person who won't work, and who lives by asking complete strangers for aid, is either lazy, mentally ill, or a saint. Don't assume you can tell the difference.
Behind the eight ball - In a difficult position, in a tight spot.
Bicycle tramp - A tramp who travels by bicycle. Sometimes they put lawn mower motors on the bicyle so they don't always have to peddle. They carry their belongs on the bicycle.
Big house - Jail.
Big Rock Candy Mountains - Hobo's paradise, as described in song by Harry K. McClintock.
Big house - The state penitentiary.
Bim - A woman.
Bindle - A bedroll that contains all of the hobo's belongs.
Bindle stick - A walking stick, used by hobos, sometimes hand carved, and used to carry a bindle. The stick is also used to clear paths through dense brush or for protection. Oftentimes it is autographed as hobos meet one another during their travels.
Bitch - A tin-can lamp with a shirt-tail wick.
Black bottle - Deadly poison allegedly given hobos in hospitals. Many hobos believe this bottle exists. It was used to kill the sick and the poor. The last place a tramp would want to go when he got sick was a hosiptal. There the doctors and the nurses would force him to drink from a mysterious "black bottle" which would kill them.
Black hole -A tunnel.
Black snake - A solid train of loaded coal cars.
Blind baggage (1) - To ride the train out of sight, not to be seen.
Bo, boes - A slang term used to describe an experienced hobo. A term for a pal, "Hey, bo" Originally meant a natural exclamiation intended to surprise or frighten.
Bogyman or bogeyman - A goblin, bug bear, a hobgoblin. A real or imaginary object of dread. The bogeyman comes in the middle of the night with his sack and steals bad children out of their beds and they are never seen alive again. Mothers said this rhyme to scare bad children at night that ended, "The bogeyman will get you if you don't watch out."
Boneyard - Any graveyard. Also refers to a hospital, or to a medical college where they practice on the bodies of departed hobos.
Boob, boobs - A simpleton.
Book of rules - A rule book which governs all facets of railroad activity. Each railroad has its own book, which must conform to minimum Federal Railroad Administration safety standards.
Bootlegger - A train that runs over more than one railroad.
Boomer - A drifter who went from one railroad job to another, staying but a short time on each job or each road. This term dates back to pioneer days when men followed boom camps.
Boston bum - One of those superior fellows, a high brow poser. Many of them do come from Boston or thereabouts.
Bottle wagon - An iron coal-car.
Box - A boxcar.
Boxcar art - Hobo inscriptions of their monikers around handholds, and on inside walls of a boxcar.
Boxcar tourist - A hobo.
Bracelets - Handcuffs.
Brakeman - The person who tends brakes on a rail car and assists in the operation of a train.
Branch line - A secondary line of a railroad, not the main line.
Bread line - A line of persons waiting for food to be given out as a charity.
Bread wagon - A horse drawn bakery cart or wagon.
Broad or brod - A woman, generally young and oppoosite of bat or blister, which means an old woman.
Buggy - A caboose; rarely applied to other cars.
Bull - Special agent (railroad security person usually driving white American cars and trucks) in around railroad yard charged with security and with catching hoboes. A railroad policeman. Also called flatfoot or gumshoe, but the distinctive railroad terms are cinder dick and 'bo chaser
Bum - A non-migratory non-worker. A worthless or dissolute loafer who would rather beg than work for goods or services. Lowest in the "hobo hierarchy." It is a term of many meanings, but in its most authoritative uses it refers to the lowest of vagrants.
Bump gums - To talk about nothing worthwhile.
Bunkhouse - A hobo term for a refrigerator car's end or ice compartment, which when empty provided a safe place to ride the train.
Bunkie - A tent mate.
Busting a gut - Your gut is your stomach area. To bust a gut is to engage in very hard physical labor so hard that you ache all over, even in your gut.
Butts - Cigarettes. The stem of a cigar picked up on the street.
Buy a drink - To pour a drink.
Cab - The crew compartment of a locomotive.
Cabbage head - A person who has used so many drugs in a lifetime that physical recovery is impossible.
Cabin car - A caboose.
Caboose - The end of train, a non revenue car.
Cacklers - White collar workers.
Cajun hobo - A hobo from Louisiana. A hobo who rides boxcars but prefers to be bare foot and eat food with a knife.
Cake eater - The nice boy of the town. Not used much by hobos.
Calaboose - The police station or the town lock-up. The jail (from "calaboose," which derives from calabozo, the Spanish word for "jail").
Call boy - A messenger who ran messages from the depot to the train crew and back.
Candy - Candy kid is the fellow who gets the good breaks. Candy job is the pleasant job. Candy team is the favorite span of mules in the outfit.
Canned heat - The use of intoxicants to fend off cold weather riding on freight trains. Also called tokay blanket and hump.
Cannon - a six-shooter.
Catching or Caught the west bound - One who is dying or has died.
Catch out - Hop or jump on a freight train.
Cat house - A brothel, which is sometimes called a notch house.
Catter - A hobo who rides on platforms of cars, tenders of engines, and similar places.
Cat wagon - A brothel on wheels visiting the chaste villages of the middle west or following the harvest crews. .
Chow - Now a common word meaning food.
City bum - a tramp who hangs out only in the city and never leaves it.
Clown wagon - A caboose.
Coal heaver - A fireman, sometimes called stoker.
Code of the Road - It demands that each hobo or tramp hide his identity under a road name, a moniker. The code of the Road is the unwritten laws by which hobo life is governed by.
C.O.F.C. - T.O.F.C - Container On Flat Car - Trailer On Flat Car.
Coffin nail - A term for cigarettes.
Collar and shoulder style - Everything is put on the table and the hobo guest helps himself.
Con - A con is a tubercular person. The con is the conductor on a train. An ex-con is a former convict.
Con game - This refers to any kind of graft involving trickery.
Con man - A grafter or trickster. It may mean ex-convict.
Cradle - A gondola or other open-top car.
Creep joint - A whorehouse where the girls are pickpockets.
Crew Car - Another term for a caboose.
Crib - A caboose.
Crook, crooks - A thief.
Crowbar hotel - A jail. Also known as a blue bar hotel or pokey.
Dead head - Heading straight for home with out stopping or making any side trips.
Dead head (verb) To move a new crew ahead of their train by auto and another train.
Dead one - A drunken hobo. Also a hobo who has just spent all his money.
Dead picker - A yegg who robs a drunk or dead one. He kicks him first to see if he is dead to the world and then robs him.
Dead soldier - An empty whiskey bottle lying beside the road.
Departure yard - The freight yard from which a newly-assembled train leaves. Usually a special yard in a large railroad freight yard.
Derelict - A social outcast.
Dick - A policeman. An older term for a railroad bull.
Dingbat - An old hobo who mooches off of other hoboes.
Ditch a train - To get off a train.
Ditched - To be thrown off the train, to be caught without the money to pay the fare.
Dodger - A person who shirks his duties and evades his responsibilities neither for purposes of graft, nor out of fear, but simply out of a overwhelming distaste for labor.
Doghouse - A caboose or its cupola.
Doggin' it - Traveling by bus.
Double up - To travel in pairs, to move with a boy.
Doughnut Christians - Men who fake being saved only to get coffee and doughnuts sooner.
Drifter - One who travels in no certain direction or path of travel.
Drummer - A yard conductor.
Drunkard - A late Saturday-night passenger train.
Dry mission - A Mission which allows no one who has been drinking. Oftentimes, one must consent to a breath test to be admitted. If the test shows any alcohol whatsoever, the person is not admitted.
Dummies - A tramp who pretends to be mute.
Dump or joint - Hobo hangout or gathering place. It also applies to a restaurant or flophouse.
Dutch - As in "in dutch" - trouble.
Dutch act - To committed suicide.
Easy mark - A hobo sign or mark that identifies a person or place where you can get food, money, or a place to stay overnight.
Eat snowballs - To stay up North during the winter.
Economic argument - Soap-box talk about economics. Generally opposed to the religious argument called angel food.
End bunker - The compartment at each end of an obsolete ice refrigerator car where blocks of ice were placed to cool the perishable freight.
Engineer - The person or pilot who operates a train or locomotive.
Extra - A regular freight train which runs as an extra train when sufficient overload business stakes up.
Extra gang - A crew that works on the railroad track.
Eye doctor - A panhandler who can catch the eye of his client and hold it without quailing. Also a pederast.
Eye opener - An early morning drink, often begged from the bartender when he opens up in the morning.
Faded bogey - A negro acting as an informer.
Fagot or fag - A road kid with homosexual tendencies.
Fall guy - The goat. The fellow who gets caught. In the world of crime he is one who takes the rap without squealing.
Fink - A scab. One who takes a striker's job. Good hobos frown upon this practice.
Flag, flagman - A railroad worker who manually signals presence and movement of trains.
Flatfoot - A cop.
Flat busted - Completely broke; without any money.
Flicker - To faint or simulate fainting.
Flimflam - To swindle, hoax or to trick.
Flimflam man - A person who practices petty trickery or deception. They use nonsense and silly talk to con others out of their money or goods.
Flintstone Kids - The latest generation of hobos. More likely to have orange hair, skateboards, and fleece than scraggly beards and long wool coats. Also known as the nose ring nation.
Flip - To board a moving train. The word accurately suggests the motion used.
Flipped, flipping frights - Hoboes who jumped aboard without paying.
Flipping a rattler - To boarding a moving box-car.
Floating fraternity - Transients.
Fog - Steam.
Flop - To sleep or a place to sleep. To prone the body.
Flop house - A cheap lodging house or any hobo hotel.
Flunkey - Camp waiter. Always male. A woman is a hasher.
Fly-away - A deserter from the army or navy.
Foot board - The metal catwalk on locomotives and freight cars provided for walking, standing on and riding along with equipment.
F.R.E.D. - E.O.T. - Fucking Rear End Device, End Of Train device. A small blinking red light on the back of the last car of a train.
Freeloader - A hobo.
Free lance passenger - Hoboes or train riders.
Freight, freights - A freight train. .
Frisk or shakedown - To search. It usually means search by the police. But train crews also go through the hobos.
Fruit tramps - A migratory (itinerant) who usually follows seasonal harvests by freight train.
Frog or frog eater - A Frenchman. A Canadian Frenchman is a pea soup.
Frog - The static portion of a switch which allows the wheel tread of a railroad car to cross from one track to the next.
Galvinizer - A car inspector.
Gandy gumbo - A hobo dish.
Gentlemen of the road - Hoboes that show signs of having been once white-collar workers.
Gentry - The leading natives of a place, the socially elect.
Get into the world quick - A child possessed of Wanderlust takes the first chance they can get to jump on a freight train.
Get the bell (verb) - A familiar term for orders or signal to depart. Get the bell, let's get outta here.
Ghosts - A tramp who pretends to be tubercular.
Ghost story - A plausible tale told to the housewife.
Give her the grit - A locomotive to usse sand on the rails.
Give him the works - To be given a job by a social agency, or sent to the rock pile by the judge.
Glims - Spectacles, or a light.
Go broke - To arrive somewhere. Also known as to blow in.
Go with the birds - To go south for the winter.
Going by hand - To walk. Hiking to the next water tank.
Going on the farm - When a train goes on the sidetrack. Also a railroad term.
Gondola - A short-sided, open-topped car used to hold scrap or garbage.
Gonger - An opium pipe. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Good-dead - When applied to a criminal, much as the old frontiersman declared: "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Graveyard shift - Night work, usually in the small or late hours.
Graveyard stew - Hot milk and toast.
Grease balls - A low life who lives off of things left behind by others.
Grease the track - Place grease on both rails so the wheels of the locomotive with spin and slow down the train on an uphill grade thus giving the hoboes chance to hop the train.
Greasy spoon - A railroad eating house. Bill of fare is colloquially known as switch list, fork is hook, butter is grease pot, hotcakes are blind gaskets, and beans are torpedoes.
Geese - Hoboes who prowl the night, these Waandering Willie most often steal from clothes lines.
Grifter - A petty swindler or confidence man. They may be one who operates a dishonest game of chance at a carnival or circus. They often drive a vehicle a stolen, unregistered, without insurance, not inspected and without a drivers license. When they become established to one place they may become squatters, often illegally connecting to utilities and other services. They take advantage of other people and that has become second nature to them in everything they do.
Grinder, grinders - Your teeth.
Grips - The bags trainman bring their personal belongs in for over-the-road work. Often black in color.
Guard rail - An extra section of rail placed inside the rail opposite a switch frog which prevents wheel flanges from taking the wrong path at the frog point.
Gummy - A hanger-on. A bum who goes along with the crowd but never contributes. A sort of dead head.
Gump - A chicken or a piece of meat.
Gunnells or guts - The truss rods or trucks of the train where hobos ride.
Gunsel - A young boy.
Gypsy - A wandering dark-skinned Caucasian people believed to have migrated to Europe from India, and known to be fortunetellers, musicians, etc. Also called Romany. To live or wander like a gypsy. A person who lives on the road, constantly traveling.
Hack - A caboose.
Haint - A ghost.
Hand car - An old-fashioned railroad pushcart used to inspect track or travel over it by pumping up and down on a see-saw hand lever. The older pushcart was moved by pushing a long pole against the ground, much like a keel boat.
Hand out - A parcel of food given out by the housewife. A lump.
Happy Hooligan - The hero - antihero of a hobo comic strip of the dame name, popular at the turn of the century and drawn by Zim and Opper.
Harness bull - A policeman who wears a uniform.
Hash house - A railroad restaurant or lunch stand. A cheap restaurant.
Haywire - When everything is balled up. A haywire outfit is something that is all tied and patched together.
Head end - The front of the train. In front of or near the engine.
Header - A freight yard worker who aligns track for arriving and departing trains.
Head lamp - One or more high intensity white lights on the head end of a train, engine or locomotive.
Hearse - A caboose.
Hermit - A hobo that travels by himself or sticks to himself.
Hide and seek - A hobo game practiced by traveling hoboes, now you see them, now you don't.
High-ball - A signal to start moving
High diver - A yegg who picks pockets.
High iron - The mainline track, so named because mainline track is made of heavier poundage and train stands higher off the ties than on yard track or spur lines.
High jacker - Yegg who robs hobos with a gun or by brute strength.
Hijack - A robbery.
Hillbilly, hillbillies - A person living in the backwoods or mountains of the Southern United States.
Hitch - Prison term or army term. Same as bit.
Hitting the grit - To be forced off a fast moving train.
Hitting the road - Getting back to riding the trains.
Hobby Hobo - A part-time hobo. A person who engages in hobo-like behavior (hopping freight trains, spending the night in hobo jungles) while on vacation from their full-time job and life. Also called: Weekend hobo.
Hobo - A migratory (itinerant) usually unskilled worker. Most respected in the "hobo hierarchy." The hobo is "independent." Unlike tramps or bums, the hoboes are usually very resourceful, self reliant and appreciative people. They avoid long term work commitments, preferring to be free to follow the call of the open road when it comes.
Hobo, hoboes, hobos, hoboing - One who wanders randomly from place to place looking for temporary homes and jobs.
Hobo alarm clock - A hobo term for a remote controlled switch which when activated awakens a sleeping hobo and alerts him to the approach of a train.
Hobo apple - Hobo apple is not a hobo expression or a food, it is an apple with the core removed and filled with peanut butter.
Hobo belt - These are areas in which y

Hobo Terminology
Adam and Eve on a raft - Two fried eggs on toast. "Wreck 'em" if they are scrambled. "With their eyes open," if not.
Adventure - The encountering of danger, exciting and deangerious undertaking
Alley - A clear track in a railroad yard.
Alligator bait - Fried or stewed liver. Too costly now for hobos.
American nomad - A hobo who has been across the nation many times.
Anchor - A pick. Companion tool of the shovel or banjo. See: Banjo.
Angel - A person who gives more than you expect. One who takes an interest without trying to reform you.
Angel food - A mission house sermon. A mission preaching about the Bread of Life.
Apple knockers - Apple pickers.
Babe - A woman.
Back door bumming - To seek food at the back door to limit embarrassment.
Backslider - A weak person.
Bad actor - A dangerous person.
Balloon - A bedroll. A roll of bedding carried on the back, a bindle.
Banjo - A short-handled shovel.
Batter - To beg.
Beanery - A railroad eating house. Beanery queen is a waitress.
Beggar -"Beg" is one of those words which isn't derived from anything; it has always meant exactly what it means. Any person who won't work, and who lives by asking complete strangers for aid, is either lazy, mentally ill, or a saint. Don't assume you can tell the difference.
Behind the eight ball - In a difficult position, in a tight spot.
Bicycle tramp - A tramp who travels by bicycle. Sometimes they put lawn mower motors on the bicyle so they don't always have to peddle. They carry their belongs on the bicycle.
Big house - Jail.
Big Rock Candy Mountains - Hobo's paradise, as described in song by Harry K. McClintock.
Big house - The state penitentiary.
Bim - A woman.
Bindle - A bedroll that contains all of the hobo's belongs.
Bindle stick - A walking stick, used by hobos, sometimes hand carved, and used to carry a bindle. The stick is also used to clear paths through dense brush or for protection. Oftentimes it is autographed as hobos meet one another during their travels.
Bitch - A tin-can lamp with a shirt-tail wick.
Black bottle - Deadly poison allegedly given hobos in hospitals. Many hobos believe this bottle exists. It was used to kill the sick and the poor. The last place a tramp would want to go when he got sick was a hosiptal. There the doctors and the nurses would force him to drink from a mysterious "black bottle" which would kill them.
Black hole -A tunnel.
Black snake - A solid train of loaded coal cars.
Blind baggage (1) - To ride the train out of sight, not to be seen.
Bo, boes - A slang term used to describe an experienced hobo. A term for a pal, "Hey, bo" Originally meant a natural exclamiation intended to surprise or frighten.
Bogyman or bogeyman - A goblin, bug bear, a hobgoblin. A real or imaginary object of dread. The bogeyman comes in the middle of the night with his sack and steals bad children out of their beds and they are never seen alive again. Mothers said this rhyme to scare bad children at night that ended, "The bogeyman will get you if you don't watch out."
Boneyard - Any graveyard. Also refers to a hospital, or to a medical college where they practice on the bodies of departed hobos.
Boob, boobs - A simpleton.
Book of rules - A rule book which governs all facets of railroad activity. Each railroad has its own book, which must conform to minimum Federal Railroad Administration safety standards.
Bootlegger - A train that runs over more than one railroad.
Boomer - A drifter who went from one railroad job to another, staying but a short time on each job or each road. This term dates back to pioneer days when men followed boom camps.
Boston bum - One of those superior fellows, a high brow poser. Many of them do come from Boston or thereabouts.
Bottle wagon - An iron coal-car.
Box - A boxcar.
Boxcar art - Hobo inscriptions of their monikers around handholds, and on inside walls of a boxcar.
Boxcar tourist - A hobo.
Bracelets - Handcuffs.
Brakeman - The person who tends brakes on a rail car and assists in the operation of a train.
Branch line - A secondary line of a railroad, not the main line.
Bread line - A line of persons waiting for food to be given out as a charity.
Bread wagon - A horse drawn bakery cart or wagon.
Broad or brod - A woman, generally young and oppoosite of bat or blister, which means an old woman.
Buggy - A caboose; rarely applied to other cars.
Bull - Special agent (railroad security person usually driving white American cars and trucks) in around railroad yard charged with security and with catching hoboes. A railroad policeman. Also called flatfoot or gumshoe, but the distinctive railroad terms are cinder dick and 'bo chaser
Bum - A non-migratory non-worker. A worthless or dissolute loafer who would rather beg than work for goods or services. Lowest in the "hobo hierarchy." It is a term of many meanings, but in its most authoritative uses it refers to the lowest of vagrants.
Bump gums - To talk about nothing worthwhile.
Bunkhouse - A hobo term for a refrigerator car's end or ice compartment, which when empty provided a safe place to ride the train.
Bunkie - A tent mate.
Busting a gut - Your gut is your stomach area. To bust a gut is to engage in very hard physical labor so hard that you ache all over, even in your gut.
Butts - Cigarettes. The stem of a cigar picked up on the street.
Buy a drink - To pour a drink.
Cab - The crew compartment of a locomotive.
Cabbage head - A person who has used so many drugs in a lifetime that physical recovery is impossible.
Cabin car - A caboose.
Caboose - The end of train, a non revenue car.
Cacklers - White collar workers.
Cajun hobo - A hobo from Louisiana. A hobo who rides boxcars but prefers to be bare foot and eat food with a knife.
Cake eater - The nice boy of the town. Not used much by hobos.
Calaboose - The police station or the town lock-up. The jail (from "calaboose," which derives from calabozo, the Spanish word for "jail").
Call boy - A messenger who ran messages from the depot to the train crew and back.
Candy - Candy kid is the fellow who gets the good breaks. Candy job is the pleasant job. Candy team is the favorite span of mules in the outfit.
Canned heat - The use of intoxicants to fend off cold weather riding on freight trains. Also called tokay blanket and hump.
Cannon - a six-shooter.
Catching or Caught the west bound - One who is dying or has died.
Catch out - Hop or jump on a freight train.
Cat house - A brothel, which is sometimes called a notch house.
Catter - A hobo who rides on platforms of cars, tenders of engines, and similar places.
Cat wagon - A brothel on wheels visiting the chaste villages of the middle west or following the harvest crews. .
Chow - Now a common word meaning food.
City bum - a tramp who hangs out only in the city and never leaves it.
Clown wagon - A caboose.
Coal heaver - A fireman, sometimes called stoker.
Code of the Road - It demands that each hobo or tramp hide his identity under a road name, a moniker. The code of the Road is the unwritten laws by which hobo life is governed by.
C.O.F.C. - T.O.F.C - Container On Flat Car - Trailer On Flat Car.
Coffin nail - A term for cigarettes.
Collar and shoulder style - Everything is put on the table and the hobo guest helps himself.
Con - A con is a tubercular person. The con is the conductor on a train. An ex-con is a former convict.
Con game - This refers to any kind of graft involving trickery.
Con man - A grafter or trickster. It may mean ex-convict.
Cradle - A gondola or other open-top car.
Creep joint - A whorehouse where the girls are pickpockets.
Crew Car - Another term for a caboose.
Crib - A caboose.
Crook, crooks - A thief.
Crowbar hotel - A jail. Also known as a blue bar hotel or pokey.
Dead head - Heading straight for home with out stopping or making any side trips.
Dead head (verb) To move a new crew ahead of their train by auto and another train.
Dead one - A drunken hobo. Also a hobo who has just spent all his money.
Dead picker - A yegg who robs a drunk or dead one. He kicks him first to see if he is dead to the world and then robs him.
Dead soldier - An empty whiskey bottle lying beside the road.
Departure yard - The freight yard from which a newly-assembled train leaves. Usually a special yard in a large railroad freight yard.
Derelict - A social outcast.
Dick - A policeman. An older term for a railroad bull.
Dingbat - An old hobo who mooches off of other hoboes.
Ditch a train - To get off a train.
Ditched - To be thrown off the train, to be caught without the money to pay the fare.
Dodger - A person who shirks his duties and evades his responsibilities neither for purposes of graft, nor out of fear, but simply out of a overwhelming distaste for labor.
Doghouse - A caboose or its cupola.
Doggin' it - Traveling by bus.
Double up - To travel in pairs, to move with a boy.
Doughnut Christians - Men who fake being saved only to get coffee and doughnuts sooner.
Drifter - One who travels in no certain direction or path of travel.
Drummer - A yard conductor.
Drunkard - A late Saturday-night passenger train.
Dry mission - A Mission which allows no one who has been drinking. Oftentimes, one must consent to a breath test to be admitted. If the test shows any alcohol whatsoever, the person is not admitted.
Dummies - A tramp who pretends to be mute.
Dump or joint - Hobo hangout or gathering place. It also applies to a restaurant or flophouse.
Dutch - As in "in dutch" - trouble.
Dutch act - To committed suicide.
Easy mark - A hobo sign or mark that identifies a person or place where you can get food, money, or a place to stay overnight.
Eat snowballs - To stay up North during the winter.
Economic argument - Soap-box talk about economics. Generally opposed to the religious argument called angel food.
End bunker - The compartment at each end of an obsolete ice refrigerator car where blocks of ice were placed to cool the perishable freight.
Engineer - The person or pilot who operates a train or locomotive.
Extra - A regular freight train which runs as an extra train when sufficient overload business stakes up.
Extra gang - A crew that works on the railroad track.
Eye doctor - A panhandler who can catch the eye of his client and hold it without quailing. Also a pederast.
Eye opener - An early morning drink, often begged from the bartender when he opens up in the morning.
Faded bogey - A negro acting as an informer.
Fagot or fag - A road kid with homosexual tendencies.
Fall guy - The goat. The fellow who gets caught. In the world of crime he is one who takes the rap without squealing.
Fink - A scab. One who takes a striker's job. Good hobos frown upon this practice.
Flag, flagman - A railroad worker who manually signals presence and movement of trains.
Flatfoot - A cop.
Flat busted - Completely broke; without any money.
Flicker - To faint or simulate fainting.
Flimflam - To swindle, hoax or to trick.
Flimflam man - A person who practices petty trickery or deception. They use nonsense and silly talk to con others out of their money or goods.
Flintstone Kids - The latest generation of hobos. More likely to have orange hair, skateboards, and fleece than scraggly beards and long wool coats. Also known as the nose ring nation.
Flip - To board a moving train. The word accurately suggests the motion used.
Flipped, flipping frights - Hoboes who jumped aboard without paying.
Flipping a rattler - To boarding a moving box-car.
Floating fraternity - Transients.
Fog - Steam.
Flop - To sleep or a place to sleep. To prone the body.
Flop house - A cheap lodging house or any hobo hotel.
Flunkey - Camp waiter. Always male. A woman is a hasher.
Fly-away - A deserter from the army or navy.
Foot board - The metal catwalk on locomotives and freight cars provided for walking, standing on and riding along with equipment.
F.R.E.D. - E.O.T. - Fucking Rear End Device, End Of Train device. A small blinking red light on the back of the last car of a train.
Freeloader - A hobo.
Free lance passenger - Hoboes or train riders.
Freight, freights - A freight train. .
Frisk or shakedown - To search. It usually means search by the police. But train crews also go through the hobos.
Fruit tramps - A migratory (itinerant) who usually follows seasonal harvests by freight train.
Frog or frog eater - A Frenchman. A Canadian Frenchman is a pea soup.
Frog - The static portion of a switch which allows the wheel tread of a railroad car to cross from one track to the next.
Galvinizer - A car inspector.
Gandy gumbo - A hobo dish.
Gentlemen of the road - Hoboes that show signs of having been once white-collar workers.
Gentry - The leading natives of a place, the socially elect.
Get into the world quick - A child possessed of Wanderlust takes the first chance they can get to jump on a freight train.
Get the bell (verb) - A familiar term for orders or signal to depart. Get the bell, let's get outta here.
Ghosts - A tramp who pretends to be tubercular.
Ghost story - A plausible tale told to the housewife.
Give her the grit - A locomotive to usse sand on the rails.
Give him the works - To be given a job by a social agency, or sent to the rock pile by the judge.
Glims - Spectacles, or a light.
Go broke - To arrive somewhere. Also known as to blow in.
Go with the birds - To go south for the winter.
Going by hand - To walk. Hiking to the next water tank.
Going on the farm - When a train goes on the sidetrack. Also a railroad term.
Gondola - A short-sided, open-topped car used to hold scrap or garbage.
Gonger - An opium pipe. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Good-dead - When applied to a criminal, much as the old frontiersman declared: "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Graveyard shift - Night work, usually in the small or late hours.
Graveyard stew - Hot milk and toast.
Grease balls - A low life who lives off of things left behind by others.
Grease the track - Place grease on both rails so the wheels of the locomotive with spin and slow down the train on an uphill grade thus giving the hoboes chance to hop the train.
Greasy spoon - A railroad eating house. Bill of fare is colloquially known as switch list, fork is hook, butter is grease pot, hotcakes are blind gaskets, and beans are torpedoes.
Geese - Hoboes who prowl the night, these Waandering Willie most often steal from clothes lines.
Grifter - A petty swindler or confidence man. They may be one who operates a dishonest game of chance at a carnival or circus. They often drive a vehicle a stolen, unregistered, without insurance, not inspected and without a drivers license. When they become established to one place they may become squatters, often illegally connecting to utilities and other services. They take advantage of other people and that has become second nature to them in everything they do.
Grinder, grinders - Your teeth.
Grips - The bags trainman bring their personal belongs in for over-the-road work. Often black in color.
Guard rail - An extra section of rail placed inside the rail opposite a switch frog which prevents wheel flanges from taking the wrong path at the frog point.
Gummy - A hanger-on. A bum who goes along with the crowd but never contributes. A sort of dead head.
Gump - A chicken or a piece of meat.
Gunnells or guts - The truss rods or trucks of the train where hobos ride.
Gunsel - A young boy.
Gypsy - A wandering dark-skinned Caucasian people believed to have migrated to Europe from India, and known to be fortunetellers, musicians, etc. Also called Romany. To live or wander like a gypsy. A person who lives on the road, constantly traveling.
Hack - A caboose.ou tend to find hoboes, or where they hang out. Such as, along railroad likes, streams and waterways close to the railroad lines, etc.
Hobo bill of fare - Messages left often on water tanks telling newcomers information about the local area.
Hobo canteen - Made out of big gallon jugs, milk jugs and pop bottles used, but anything glass is an accident waiting to happen, and everything around a freightyard is metal.
Hobo clan - These are members of the fraternity who share the common situation on life, that of having a career of being a hobo. They are the Brethren and Sisters of the Road. .
Hobo cocktail - Hobo cocktail is not a hobo expression but is Black-American slang for a glass of water.
Hobo code or rules - These are a set of unspoken rules that govern hobo gatherings. One, all pots lets should be clean for the next user. Two, no hobo was to rob or steal from a fellow hobo inside of the camp. Three, avoid angering the town's people who are a source of odd jobs and handouts. Four, Thievery is to be avoided, or at least kept to a minimum. Only an occasional pie, vegetables gathered from the garden, fruit from the orchard, a clean shirt from the clothesline. Five, breaking in to a house or threatening local people is a serious offense amongst hoboes, and can be punishable by death. Etc, etc. Other rules may be share work in camp, like volunteering to get water, gather firewood, share food for communal meals, etc. See: The outside world.
Hobo culture - Fundamentally the story of a hobo's life. The hobo's life on the rails by riding the rails embodies for him a distinct culture, a way of life. Riding the rails was and is certainly a dirtier more dangerous, uncomfortable way of getting around than hitching, and it was this culture than kept it popular. The day of the hobo is gone, perhaps forever. The hobo was essentially a wanderer. A free spirited human, who put his personal freedom ahead of hs desire for worldly gain. He was neither greedy nor competitive. The real hobo is purely and simply a wanderer at heart and enjoys this way of life. To work a few days and get a few bucks in his pocket to pay his way, then move on, is a hobo's idea of living in style. In the 1920's someone said, "the hobo works and wanders, the tramp dreams and wanders, the bum drinks and wanders." The hobo was keen to work and earn his way, the tramps move around, but the bums staying put.
Hoboett - A female hobo.
Hobo graveyard - The track side burial site of a deceased wayfarer, usually at or near the site of his or her demise.
Hobo heart - People who share the same core beliefs and views that of the hobo or tramp. It is where your heart is, on the road or riding the rails. They all share the same share our stew and fellowship.
Hobohemia - The universe of the hobo.
Hobo identity - Part of American culture and mythology, which romanticized the frontier and rugged individualism, as well as technological developments such as the railroad. As hobo culture developed an enormous amount of literature began to be published about hoboes by self-proclaimed hoboes.
Hoboland - A term used to describe life or living in the world of the hobo.
Hobo language - Hobos drew the symbols of this new language with chalk on sidewalks, or carved them into trees, walls or doors to help their fellow travelers. See: Hobo signs.
Hobo lifestyle - The philosophy and personal experience with riding the rails. A free spirit traveler.
Hobo luck - When a hobo hits a new town, he believes that if he is turned down at the first
place he goes to, his luck will be poor in that town, and vice versa.
Hobo marks - Graffiti inscribed on train cars, buildings and railroad stuctures by hoboes placing their nicknames in chalk. In Germany this is now almost extinct. See: A-No.1 and J.B. King.
Hobo News - A newpaper started by James Eads How with articls on social and politica issues along with puns and jokes.
Hobo nickel - Originally carved nickels made out of wood, then later hoboes used actual US Minted nickels or 5 cent pieces.
Hobo night hawks - Police who disguise themselves as hoboes and search the trains at night for hoboes. The dead give-a-way is a lantern or flash light as they open boxcar doors searching for hoboes.
Hobo proof - A railroad line that offers a reward to any hobo who can successfully ride their hobo proof railroad.
Hobo Road - Hoboes that are currently on the road at the present time. Some hoboes have done it in the past, but the time line has moved on and they are no longer on the Hobo Road at the present time.
Hobo signs (1) - Beginning in the 1880's up until World War Two, hoboes placed markings on fences, posts, sidewalks, buildings, trestles, bridge abutments, and railroad line side equipment to aid them and others of their kind in finding help or steering them clear of trouble. Usually, these signs would be written in chalk or coal letting others know what they could expect in the area of the symbol. The classic American hobo of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries communicated through a basic system of markings, a code though which they gave information and warnings to their fellow Knights of the Road. Today hoboes communicate with cellular phones, and e-mail.
Hobo stew - A stew cooked in a large pot made of small pieces of meat, potatoes, onions, carrots or other vegetables and herbs found in the area. Also see Mulligan stew.
Hobo stove (1)- They are made out of discarded 5 gal. buckets that were used to carry railroad spikes. With a good knife and a pair of pliers, you make a row of openings around the bottom like a can opener would, and flip it upside down and cut out a small door. Then you can scratch out a little ditch and set this over it and build a fire inside. Gets hot enough to cook on and at night you can't see the fire over about 20 foot.
Hobo symbols - The symbols or signs were usually used one at a time. Each of these symbols
represents a particular direction or warning, such as "Beware of dangerous dog", "A kind lady lives here", "People here will give you food for work", "this is a safe place to camp", etc. While these crude symbols were almost humorous appearance, they served a deadly serious purpose. They helped travelers to find work, food, and safe shelter in a difficult, often dangerous world. See: Hobo signs.
Hobo tent - Most 'bo's got a tent or tarp. You can lose your equipment most any time out there, due either to misjudgement of a train, or of people you're around, so knowing how to make a tent or at least get a good ground cloth is good stuff to know.
Hobo ticket - To hop or ride a freight train that is the price of the ticket.
Hobo Times - A publication that was published by the National Hobo Association.
Hobo union - A group of hoboes that have been crippled and disfigured hopping freight trains. Some tramps who had lost limbs or fingers had such monikers as sticks, fingers, lefty, or mitts.
Hobos versus Tramps - Some say hobos originally traveled to work, and tramps traveled for the sake of travel. Others say a tramp is a hobo west of the Mississippi and a hobo is a tramp east of the Mississippi. Others use the terms interchangeably.
Hobo walking stick - A hobo's is afraid of a big dog, dogstory, the carry a staff, walking stick. Many were carved and made into hobo art.
Hog - A locomotive.
Hogger - A term for an engineer.
Hoghead or hogger - The engineer. This is also a railroad term.
Hold down - To ride a great distance across the country without getting off to hunt for food, etc.
Home guard - Local tramps who don't ride.
Honey dipping - Working as a shovel stiff in a sewer, or any kind of unpleasant shovel work.
Honor of old age - A recognition of the Patriarch as a leader.
Hooch - Liquor. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Hooker - A drink of strong liquor, as in "It took a stiff hooker of whiskey."
Hooks - Getting caught by the hands of John Law. As in, they will get their hooks in you if you go into that town.
Hookshop - A brothel.
Hooligan - A young hoodlum, a petty gangster.
Hoosier - The natives, generally simple fellows. Also called yaps, hicks or rubes.
Hoodwink - To trick or deceive.
Hopins - Potatoes and vegetables.
Hopper - Covered grain car, also called a grainier.
Hopping - Riding the rails.
Horse-style - Any unfriendly hostile town to hoboes. Their way of saying: hostile style.
Host - The railroad line on which a hobo is riding.
Hot box - An overheated journal box which is not detected in time that can cause fires and derailments.
Hot freight yard - A freight yard which employs one or more gung-ho bulls. Also see bull and gung-ho bull.
Hotel-de-Tramp - A "register" of tramp monikers on a railroad structure such as a water tank. A hobo or tramp must climb the water tank to register his moniker to be considered allowed to stay in the Hotel-de-Tramp. See: Name-de-road.
Hotbox - Overheated journal or bearing. Also called hub. This was a frequent cause of delay in the old days but is virtually nonexistent on trains that are completely equipped with ball-bearings. Trainmen are sometimes called hotbox detectors.
Hot squat - American tramp slang for the electric chair.
Hotshot - A train with high priority over other traffic. Fast train; frequently a freight made up of merchandise and perishables. Often called a manifest or redball run. A fast freight or passenger train.
Hot stuff - Stolen goods. Something that must be dropped.
Hotel de Gink - A charitable or a municipal lodging house. A series of residences where hoboes could eat, sleep, shave, and bath when times were tough. They were started by hobo Jeff Davis.
Hot train - Train with a high priority, usually heavily loaded with goods going to market. Other trains must often pull over at sidings to allow hot trains to pass.
Hot yard - Rail yard actively patrolled by unfriendly bulls.
House dog - A fellow who goes about hunting jobs, cleaning windows, beating carpets, etc.
Hump - Low hill in a switching yard used for sorting cars by gravity. In the hole - Waiting at a rail siding, usually for a train with higher priority to pass.
Hunkydory - Everything is fine.
Hut - a brakeman's shelter just back of the coal bunkers on the tender tank of engines operating through a tunnel. May also refer to caboose, locomotive cab, switchman's shanty, or crossing watchman's shelter.
Ice (verb) - To place blocks of ice into the end or ice bunker of an old reefer car.
Ice-boxes - A refrigerated box
Idler - A lazy person.
In heat - For a female animal (in this case, a dog), to be in heat is to be in a state of sexual excitement when she will accept mating from a male.
In hot water -To be in hot water is to be in trouble.
In the clear - A train is in the clear when it has passed over a switch and frog so far that another train can pass without damage.
In the hole - a train on a siding.
In the hole, into the hole - A term for a train which is standing on a siding waiting for another train to pass, conduct business or repair an equipment failure. A train is in the hole.
Itineracy - Traveling, journeys. Following a planned route of travel. A detailed or record account of a journey.
In transit - Riding the trains. In the summer the entire tramp fraternity may be said to be "in transit."
I-Wobble-Wobble - The I.W.W. whose nickname is "wobbles." I go after "slave wages." They take the lowest, most miserable labor that industrialism produces.
Jack roll - To rob.
Jack roller - A thief.
Jack Wanderlust - The evil spirit of unrest.that makes boys copy the ways of the hobo.
Jail bait - A girl below the legal age of consent for sex; an underage girl who tempts a man to sexual intimacy which is punishable by imprisonment
Jail bird - A fellow who brags about his vag record.
Jailhouse spuds - Waffled potatoes.
Jam nuts - Doughnuts.
Java - Coffee.
Jazz - Sexual intercourse.
Jigger - A strong solution of lye (paint acid) used by hoboes on sores.
Jerry gang - See gandy dancer.
Jerusalem Slim - Slang name for Christian god-man.
Jiggers - A common name given to tramps that others should "watch out!" for.
Jimtown - Jamestown, New York.
Jocker - An experienced hobo, usually in a kind of master-apprentice relationship with a breshun.
John Family - A term is sometimes applied to the farmers, sometimes to the police and again to the yeggs.
John Law - A name for the police or the legal system.
Joint - The point in bolted-rail track or joint end where two rails meet and are bolted together. Joints cause the railroad's clickity-clack.
Joint rail - A hobo term for bolted rail track.
Jolt - A jail sentence.
Journal box - The point of contact between freight car tracks and axles where internal lubricants reduce friction heat and provide for a smooth ride. A source for grease used in hobo first aid.
Jugs - Banks.
Jungle - Hobo's camp site. A hobo's summer home.
Jungle buzzard - A bum who loafs about the jungle begging from the hobos. .
Jungle-out - To wait or sleep in a jungle., I was jungled out when the border patrol rousted me.
Jungle up - Many wanderers (hoboes and tramps) would settle for the night in groups. These areas would be known as hobo jungles. To jungle-up is to camp out for the evening in the company of other like companions of the road.
Junker or junky - A fellow who uses drugs, called junk.
Junkie - A drug user. A heroin addict.
Jumping a train car - Meaning to never go home again, like the life of a wander or a rover.
Kangaroo court - A mock court held in jail for the purpose of forcing new prisoners to divide their money. A thief was stripped of all his clothing except his underwear and shoes. If the theif was on a train, he was told to "jump."
Keister - A suit case. Not often carried by hobos.
Kick - A pocket in the trousers.
Kick it apart - To lay out the details. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Kicks - Shoes. Also called slides.
Kid simple - A nickname for a silly, stupid, foolish young kid with no experience of the road.
Kid tramp - Another name for a young kid on the Road.
Killing time - Having nothing to do or no place to go.
King of the Hoboes - An unofficial title awarded by fellow hoboes to a hobo on the road.
King of the Road - A title given to celebrate the hobo experience on the open road, one who is best schooled and educated in the lifestyle of the hobo. The National Hobo Convention awards the title each year and crowns a new King of the Road. In the golden age of the hobo (1880 until World War 1) it was an honor given by an unofficial vote of the hoboes on the road, to someone who survived, the most experienced and respected hobo of them all. "King of the Road," is also the title of a song by Roger Miller's greastest hit. "Third boxcar midnight train, destination Bangor, Maine. Old worn out suit and shoes, I don't pay no union dues. I smoke old stogies I have found, short but not too big around. I'm a man of means by no means, king of the road."
Knight - A soldier of the "Road."
Knights of the Road or Knights of the Rail - Another name for a hobo.
Knock about - See: Bum.
Knowledge box - Country school house where hobos sometimes sleep.
Lamb - A boy tramp or road kid. Boy companion of the wolf.
Lambs- An inexperienced young men or road kids.
Lambing - To herd sheep, a job avoided by respectablehobos.
Layabout - A person who is an idler.
Leather poke - A wallet.
Lee of a reefer - The ice-box in a refrigerator car.
Library - A cupola of caboose. Trainman occupying it was sometimes known as a librarian.
Library birds - Down and outers who loaf or roost in libraries.
Lighthouse - Stingy person. A procurer for a house of sin. Also one who is placed to watch for the bulls.
Limpy - A cripple. If he has a wooden leg he is peg.
Little Red Card - The membership card of the I.W.W. union. See Wobblies.
Little red wagon - A dump wagon.
Little school - A reformatory or house of correction.
Live off the fat of the land - The fat of the land is an expression that refers to having the best of everything. A place where the land is so "fat" you will need nothing else to be happy. A place where you can survive and prosper with out having to earn it, you just take what you need.
Lizzie tramps - The hitch-hikers and again to wandering families traveling in automobiles.
Loafer - From the German word for "land-runner," one who wanders around the countryside." Loaf, as a verb, is a back-formation from "loafer," and ought to be used to described someone who
travels around aimlessly.
Local - A trains that moves freight and materials on a short line.
Long haul trains - A long distance train, usually a minimum of 500 miles.
Looloo - A sexy woman.
Louse - A fellow who will steal the shoes of a hobo who befriends him.
Louse cage - a caboose.
Lowball - An old signal positioning of a ball on a mast. When the ball dropped down the mast this signified sow down or stop. Also see highball.
Lusher - A drunkard.
Lump - Food received at the back door; a handout.
Main guy - Same as captain. Refers to the person in charge.
Main stem - The chief hobo street in town.
Man-catcher - The shark's assistant who urges a job on the hobo - usually to fill a shipment of men.
Manifest - What the train is carrying. Fast freight carrying fruit or cattle.
Mark - A mark is a person or place good for food, clothes or money, but not advice.
Master of the Road - A hobo or tramp who knows the ways of the Road. He is an insider.
Milk wagon - A horse drawin milk cart or wagon. They drip water from melting ice.
Mission stiff - Tramp who stays in a mission or homeless shelter most of the year. Man who gets "saved" for food and a flop. A "retired" hobo or tramp who "gives up the road" for various reasons. Often, one will be forced to become a "stiff" due to health or age, but for some, this is the first step toward self-sufficiency and these persons become a vital part of society.
Moll - A woman who pals with hobos. This term is not used much by the hobos themselves.
Mooch - To beg, usually at back doors, or to steal.
Moocher - One who steals or takes without paying.
Mooching - A low form of begging.
Moper - A bum who is even lower than a moocher.
Mouthpiece - A lawyer.
Mud - Strong coffee mixed with weak milk.
Mug - A person's face.
Mulligan stew - Stew made from the combined contributions of everyone who wants some. A group of hoboes gathered around the jungle fire can keep a pot of stew perpetually refreshed by each contributing one thing- a scrap of bacon, a half-biscuit, a withered carrot stolen from someone's garden. No matter how small or mean the contributions are, as long as they are freely given the stew will be rich, warming, and nutritious, and the pot will stay full until everyone who contributes has had his fill.
Munie - A term for a municipal lodging house.
Mushfaker - A go-about itinerant repair man. He may solder pots or mend umbrellas. Sometimes hobos follow the art.
Nail - To hop a train.
Nailed - To successfully have hopped a train.
Newcomer - A hobo who has only recently arrived.
Newspaper beds - Sleeping on a bed and covered with newpapers.
Nickel note - A five-dollar bill.
Night walkers - These are people who police believed do not belong to the area and have no means of supporting themselves. They were often whipped and banished from town or sent to a workhouse
Nose bag - A lunch handed out in a paper sack.
Number 10 gunboat can - A number 10 can used for brewing coffee, cooking, urinating of defecating in.
Nuttery - A hospital for the insane. Also a nut factory.
O. B. U. - One Big Union. The ideal of the soap boxers.
Obeys - Post offices.
Ocean tramp - A type of tramp that travel from place to place by ocean travel. Often they get jobs working on commercial vessels, working as part of the crew. When they land in port they shortly get the urge to travel once again. It may not be for the love of salt air on their faces because often they have hard working jobs below deck. Perhaps being on land makes them feel connected or tied down and they may simply love the feeling of open water below their feet.
Odd fellows - A fraternal symbol meaning three doughnuts and coffee.
Often just "bull"- A security agent hired by the rail companies to keep the yards clear of tramps and hobo's.
Off-shift - A locomotive which is not in service.
Oilcan train - A train made up of mainly or exclusively of tank cars.
Old timers - These are experienced hoboes, who have been on the Road, and know the ways of the road.
Organ grinder - A profitable begging device, a barrel organ, that uses a trained monkey.
Old airedale - An old hobo who's spent his whole life on the road. Airedales seldom ride the trains at that age, instead walking wherever they go.
One-eyed bandit - A term for a boxcar with one door open and the other one shut.
On the hummer - Being on the bum but not down and out.
On the bum - Living the life of a vagrant.
On the fly - Getting on or off a freight train which has slowed down but not stopped. Also called "on the run."
On the road - Pertaining to a lifestyle whose adherents are on an extended trip or have no permanent home.
On the uppers - Being on the bum and nearly down and out.
Open-air navigator - A hobo riding freight on top.
Open Road - The system of railroad rails that can take you any where you have a mind to go or travel. As in the call of the "Open Road."
Opposing train - A train which approaches your train in the opposite direction.
Oscar - To walk away. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Ossified - To get arrested.
Outside world, The - Any one not living in the world of Trampdom. It has its rules and regulations or code of ethics involves relations with the outside world. See: Hobo code or rules.
Overland - A long distance train or a train used for traveling long distances.
Over the road - Any track outside of the yard limits.
Packing the mustard - Carrying the hod.
Padding the hoof - Going by foot. A practice good hobos avoid.
Paddy-sticks - Usually sledgehammer handles carried by shacks.
Palooka - A roving boxer who lives in the past.
Pan, panning - To beg on the street, some times with a J. B. Stetson felt hat.
Pariahs of Society - A social outcast.
Panhandle - To beg on the street.
Paul Bunyan - A chronic, but none the less interesting, liar.
Pay station - A social welfare agency that gives out money. Very rare.
Pay streak - To have a job that pays well.
Pearl diver - A dishwasher.
Peanut farm - A workhouse where the inmates crack stones.
Pea soup - A french Canadian or Canuck. Often a lumber jack.
Peddler or bob tail - A short local freight train.
Pedicant - A young haughty or nasty male bitch.
Peg - A one legged person.
Peg house - A place where, if the hobo wishes, he may meet Angelina.
Pennsylvania salve - Apple butter.
Petticoat hobo - A female hobo.
Peoria - A thin soup. Generally potato water with salt.
The philosophy of tramping - Is a Ttramp's code of ethics.
Phoney man - A person who peddles cheap jewelry.
Picture frame - The gallows. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Pie card - One who hangs around and lives on a remittance man or some other person with money.
Pie in the sky - One's reward in the hereafter. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Piggyback - A flat train car that holds trucks or containers.
Pig's vest with buttons - Sow belly, or any fat bacon.
Pig train - A piggyback train, one composed of flat cars carrying truck trailers.
Piker - A hobo or tramp who walks.
Pile driver or Java - Coffee, but good strong coffee.
Pill peddler - The camp doctor. The label may fit any M. D.
Pin-money - An allowance of money or money to be able to pay for minor incidental expenses.
Pisshouse - A jail.
P. K. - The principal keeper of the little school.
Pimp stick - A cigarette. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Pinched - To be jailed.
Pin puller - A brakeman or switchman.
Playing the spoons - Some hoboes have learned how to read a man's fortune in the rhythm of a pair of spoons. These spoon men are usually old Airedales who have left off riding the crates... they stay by the fires in the camps and jungles, tapping out the future against their knee in exchange for a half-can of beans or a strip of jerky.
Pogey - The workhouse. Sometimes the poor farm.
Points - The movable portion of a switch which allows the flanged wheel tread of a railroad car to cross from one track to the next.
Poison - A woman who is poison is one who can only mean trouble, especially to a man. Also can be your favorite drink.
Poke - A leather wallet. Also a gin mill.
Poorhouses - A public run establishment maintainedas a dwelling for paupers.
Poor roads of travel - These were the turnpikes of America after the Civil War. It was easier to walk the railroad tracks, and then these train men discovered it was easier to ride the train than walk the tracks.
Possum belly - To ride on top of a passenger train.
Possum drunk - Playing drunk to obtain information.
Potatoes and with it - A western jungle dish.
Potter's Field - A burial ground for the destitute ans the unknown in unmarked graves.
Pound your ear - To sleep in a bed.
Private varnish - A privately-owned beautifully appointed passenger car which can be leased or rented to individuals or companies.
Prize Tramps - These are hoboes and tramps who have learned the stock and trade of the Road.
Prone the body - To lie down and rest.
Proper tramp - One who follows the code of the Road.
Punk - A road kid. Often used in derision.
Punk and Gut - Bread and cheese.
Punk and plaster route - Traveling among the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Pusher - The straw boss. One in charge of the job.
Pushes - A gang.
Pussyfooter - A railroad policeman.
Put the boots to - To have sexual intercourse. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Queer - Crooked, criminal. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Raggedly man - A person who wears torn or worn clothing into rags. Wearing worn, frayed, or shabby garments. A person of rough or uneven character or aspect.
Ragman, rag picker - One who gathers and sells rags, and other junk for a living. The rag man would go through the neighborhoods in his horse drawn wagon, singing, "Rags! Rags!, Got any rags today?.........."
Railroad bull - A railroad policeman. See Bull.
Railroad cop - A railrad policeman. See Bull.
Railroad dick - A railroad policeman. See Bull.
Railroad or road flare - Road signal torches or lights. Engineers will even give them to you. Made of phospherous They'll start wet wood on campfire fire in the rain. They will keep man or beast out of stricking distance for about 10 minutes. They are hot enough a drop of it will go clear thru whatever it lands on. They can be used to bring water to a boil for coffee or soup, and they make a good firestarter
Rail rider - A person, most generally a hobo, who rides freight trains, usually illegally. Some know the engineers and are able to ride in the engine com-partment rather than in a box care or grainer.
Railroaded - Haven ridden or used to make reference to when some one rides a train.
Railroad fever - A malady for tramps call the victims of which there is no remedy. They are unable to settle down anywhere, and they must be constantly riding the trains. Only death ends their roaming of hopping the freight trains. A sickness that even A-No.1 had that he could never cure himself of but wanted to prevent others especially young kids. The only cure or rest was death.
Railroading - Not a railroad workers term but it means to take up riding the trains by hobos.
Railroad spike - Not a term but the actual object carried by many hoboes, to keep the railroad yardman from closing the door on them, which could result in him freezing to death or suffocating, as some freight cars were pushed into the rail yard and out of use for weeks at a time. Hoboes some times painted the tips or heads a color so they could identify as theirs.
Rail tramp - See: Tramp.
Ramble - To ramble (a Middle English for "roam") means to wander for pleasure, without a fixed destination.
Rambler - A through freight train.
Rank cats - The lowest of the genus bum.
Rat crusher- A box-car burglar. See "eight-wheeler". Probably from the "rattler" or fast freight train in which the "rat crusher" finds his loot. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Rattler - A fast train, same as cannonball. In the West a box-car. A train.
Rattlers - A hobo who ride freight trains.
Rattle the hocks off her - to drive a freight train at high speeds causing the freight cars to shake, rattle and to roll.
Rat workers - They are box car burglers.
Razor back - A circus roustabout. Also an Arkansas hog.
Reading the rails - By hunkering down and putting your hand on a rail that's still warm from a train's passage, you can sometimes divine something about the train that just passed, or about a specific person on it, or about the places the rails eventually lead to.
Red card - I.W.W. membership card. See Wobbly.
Red cross - Morphine. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Red lead - Ketchup. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Redline - To condemn or scrap an old freight car.
Reefer - A refrigerated box car. Like many another railroad term it also belongs to the hobo's lingo.
Regional railroad - A smaller than a Class 1 line haul railroad which serves a specific region of the country.
Ride the cushions - To ride in a passenger train.
Ride the bumpers - Riding a freight car by straddling its coupler with one's legs.
Ridin' 'em high - Traveling on tops of boxcars.
Riding the cushions - Riding de luxe in a passenger train.
Riding the deck - Riding any railroad car on the roof. Not safe.
Ridin' the rods - An old-time hobo practice, now virtually obsolete. The hobo would place a board across truss rods under a car and ride on it. This was very dangerous even in pleasant weather, and the possibility was ever present that you might doze, get careless, become too cramped, or lose your nerve-and roll under the wheels.
Riding the blinds -To ride a train by swinging onto the vestibule at the front end of the baggage car, usually just behind the engine tender. This practice was deceptively dangerous; if the train "slacked off" while you were trying to squeeze through to the vestibule, the cars would come together and crush you in an instant.
Riding the rods - To ride a train by lying on a board set across the truss rods underneath, or sometimes just hanging on for dear life. Not as common by the 1930's, since train cars were no longer built with truss rods.
River rat - Someone who spends their life around the rivers and waterways. They would rather travel from place to place using inland waterways and rivers for travel. Also some one who lives in shacks, house boats, etc. along the rivers and waterways.
The Road - Living the life of a hobo.
Road bums - Another name for hoboes.
Road burn - A modern term, a state of mind one slips into after being "on the road" too long.
Road dog - Someone who hops trains. Someone who calls the road home, such as a hobo.
Road-kid - Young person who belongs to a gang.
Road kill - A dead animal found on the road. A dead animals in general.
Road news - This is information about what is happening on the Road. This is spread from the campfire, word of mouth, and by information left in hobo signs and monikers.
Roadsters - A name for hoboes or tramps (young and old) who travel the road.
Road wisdom - Having enough knowledge to survive on the Road.
Robbing the mail - Snatching food and milk delivered at the doorstep early in the morning.
Rock pile - A place, town or county lockup that puts prisons to work on the rock pile.
Rod - The metal struts underneath the floor of old freight cars, etc., which provided for structural integrity.
Rods - The underside structure of a freight car.
Roll - To roll means to rob a sleeping drunk.
Rolling a train - A hobo canvassing a train for prospective freight cars to ride, for a crew, inspecting a passing train for equipment or cargo problems
Roll out - To bed down for the night - by rolling out one's blanket or sleeping bag.
Roofers - A hobo who lay stretched out full length upon the metal roof of a passenger coach.
Roof walks - Wooden catwalks down the center of old boxcar roofs, used by 19th century brakeman to run from boxcar to boxcar in set and release hand brakes.
Romany rye - A person not a gypsy but who associated with gypsies, speaks their language.
Round house - A round building with a turntable in the center for housing and switching locomotives.
Roughneck - A freight brakeman.
Rubber hobo - A hobo that travels across the country in a rubber tired automobile, usually an older vehicle.
Rubber tramp - A tramp who owns a car, usually rusted out and undependable. They spend a lot of energy begging for gas money, but also provide transportation to other cities to bums, hobos and tramps for a fee. In a sense, they become a nationwide "taxi" service for transients.
Rustling the bums - Searching a freight train for hobos. In bygone days it was common practice for trainmen to collect money from freight-riding 'bos, often at the rate of a dollar a division.
Sagebrush philosopher - A gabby fellow from the West.
Sallies - Salvation Army hotels and industrial workshops.
Sap - The policeman's persuader. To get sapped means to be clubbed by the bulls.
Saps - A blackjack used by railroad bulls to beat hoboes.
Saw-by - When two freight trains meet on a single track mainline and one too long for the siding has to go into the hole, the shorter train passes the near tend of the longer train which is clear on the siding. While the shorter train approaches the far siding the longer train snakes through the siding and clears that end for the shorter train.
Scalawag - A worthless person or scamp.
Scamp - A rogue, or a good-for-nothing.
Scenery bums - These are hoboes who had money, so they avoided begging, they did not stay around long amd so they got off the road well before the fridged winter.
Scrape the mug - To shave. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Scrape the pavement - To get a shave. Also to get tossed out of a building.
Scrappy - Aggressive; fond of fighting and arguing.
Screw your nut - To get wise to yourself.
Scoffing - To eat. To scoff regularly means to miss no meals.
Sea food - A sailor.
Second hand - An over-the-road railroad track repair worker.
Sell it to me - Trying to make me believe.
Set-down - To eat with your feet under the table. The reverse of the handout.
Sewer hogs - Ditch diggers.
Shack - A brakeman, occupant of caboose. Shacks master is a conductor. A railroad term.
Shacks - The brakemen.
Shackles - Soup. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Shakedown - The same as frisk.
Shanty - A hastily built shack or cabin, a ramshackle dwelling.
Shark - A man who sells jobs to the hobos.
Sheets - Newspapers for a bed.
Shiner - A brakeman's or switchman's lantern.
Shop master - A railroad employee who oversees the work of shop workers. Also see shop worker.
Shop worker- A "non-railroad" freight yard worker who builds, rebuilds or repairs rolling stock, such a machinist, electricians, sheet metal workers, boiler workers, blacksmiths, painters, pipe fitters, and their apprentices.
Shoo fly - A railroad detour, when a track is built around some obstacle. Also means to avoid passing through a town if the police are hostile.
Short line railroad - A very small railroad with track from 1 to 150 miles in total length. Many are owned by a mine or manufacturing company.
Shuttle bum - A hobo that uses a transportation system to get from one point to another. May have originally applied to an out of work, itinerant textile worker.
Side-door Pullman - A box-car, a closed car. A boxcar used by hobos in stealing rides. Hobo's home en route.
Sitdown - An invitation to the kitchen table.
Slum - A derisive term for an uninviting stew or slumgullion.
Smell from the barrel, bottle or bag - To have a drink.
Smoke - A strong liquor. Denatured alcohol.
Smoky hole - A tunnel.
Snag - This is anything (metal straps, loads, wood or wire, etc.) hanging off the sides of a freight car which could hit and injure someone walking or standing nearby. A brakeman's and hobo's headache.
Snake - A railroad switchman. Hobo and railroad term for switchman. A snake is more friendly than a shack to the hobos.
Snipes - Other people's cigarette butts
Soapboxers - One who always has a story to tell.
Song and dance - To give the madam at the backdoor an interesting and entertaining argument.
Spotter - A late 19th century and early 20th century railroad employed bull whose job it was to infiltrate railroad unionization efforts and identify the perpetrators for blackballing. Also see bull.
Stake - Earned money or wages.
Stamp collectors - Tramps who travel from town to town collecting food stamps along a circuit.
Sterno - A dangerous alcoholic drink made by heating sterno can.
Sterno drunk - A transient who drinks steno, cheap wine, shoe polish or anything else he can get his hands on. Also see stern stove.
Stiff - A tramp.
Stir - A state prison. The big house or big school.
Stool pigeon - An informer, a rat, one who betrays to the police. See bull and spotter.
Straight and narrow - The way to eternal life and salvation. A term often used by A-No.1. Also to lead a clean life and stay off the tracks.
Stock pen - A yard office.
Stogy - An inexpensive cigar.
Summer hobo - Not really a hobo term, usually a college student that is homeward bound for vacation.
Surfing - Riding on the tops of rail cars while they are moving
Swamper - The person who cleans out the bar-room.
Sweet back - A hobo sheik who is only sampling hobo life.
Switch - A section of railroad track which allows a train to change tracks. A danger to anyone walking along the track in a line or freight yard which catches a foot by wedging or movement of remote switch tracking when a train suddenly comes along.
Switchman - A freight yard worker who assists in assembling of trains and alignments of tracks as ordered.
Switch stand - A manual (hand-thrown) or automatic (power-thrown) mechanism located at the points end of a switch. This mechanism throws switches from one track to another by means of the operating rod.
Tally - Meaning, "I understand," or "Count me in on it."
Tamp up - To assault or beat.
The big hook - A giant railroad crane used to clean up railroad wrecks.
The biscuits hang high - There's a scarcity of food handouts in a locality.
Thin ones - Small coins; dimes, nickels and pennies.
Ticket - A board board about a foot or a foot and a half long, with a groove cut in it. The groove would fit down over the rod, and made a seat for riding the rods.
Tin cans - Used by hoboes as cookware and as drinking cups. Tin cans they use for fruits, you
know, the kind that are coated on the inside. They're safe to cook out of, without fear of poisoning, and about 3 in different sizes can make up a whole cookin outfit.
Tin horn - A petty sport hanging around the main stem. He is sometimes called a rustler.
Tin roof - A free drink. So-called because it is "on the house."
Tip the office - To warn a fellow hobo by giving some signal.
Toadskins - Paper money.
Toppings - The dessert. Something toothsome to touch off a meal.
Town clown - The village constable. The town policeman.
Train-hoppers - People who ride trains without paying.
Train-hopper's kit - Such things include ear plugs, goggles, gloves, cardboard, a board, etc.
Trainman - Any member of an over-the-road train crew. See engine man.
Train time - The clock tramps live by, characterized by train schedules rather than a 24-hour day.
Tramp - A migratory non-worker.
Tramp art - Art work made by itinerants and hoboes. Generally made out of wood and is carved making use of simple tools, such as a pocketknife. hoboes making pieces in exchange for room or a meal became the romantic myth for tramp art.
Tramp essentials - They are: water is one of them, because if you're out it's the hardest thing to find. Every self-respecting tramp should carry a can opener, a knife, a spoon, tobacco, something to start a fire with. Candles are used to keep warm on wintertime trains. There's an amazing amount of heat cast by one candle, if you huddle in blankets around it.
Tramp traveler - One whose main occupation is to travel, a tramp.
Transient - The word "transient" is basically a work used to describe individuals who do not fit into other categories. When one gets to know a bit more about the individual, it can be determined what kind of transient he might be.
Trapeze artist - A hobo who rides the gunnells or rods.
Traveler - These are persons who are very similar to a hobo or tramp, but do not relate to being a hobo or tramp. They are usually antiestablishment much like the "hippies" of the 1950's and 1960's.
Traveler or traveller - A person who travels.
Turkey - A bundle, a suitcase or a canvas bag.
Turned down - Refused a mean or handout.
Twist a dream - To roll a cigarette.
Two-bit - Two-bit is American and Candian slang for worth next to nothing; cheap
Umbrella mushrooms - The itinerant umbrella fixers who travel around as hoboes or tramps.
Uncle Sam - A railway Post Office clerk.
Undercarriage - That portion of a freight car underneath the floor or chassis.
Uneducated - The act of confessing something you should not or did not do, having no smarts.
V - Five dollars. Source: American Tramp and Underworld Slang.
Vag or vag 'em - To be jailed or fanned out of town for being a vag.
Vagabond - One who wanders from place to place without any visible means of support. A tramp who wanders aimless.
Vagrant - A person without a settled home, vagabond or tramp. Many be one who wanders about or just has no place to go.
Vagrant (3)- From the Latin for "wander," vagrant should be used as a romantic adjective for "undecided."
Vampires of the road - These are gangs that often stick to one railroad line. They rob from hoboes. They wear black shirts and slouched hats.
Wander, wander, wandering - To move or travel ab
KaBar

05-23-2003, 05:18 PM
Sort of looks like the terminology section of a modern-day book on hobos. Truth be told, I've only heard a fraction of those words actually used by the tramps I know, but it's still interesting. A lot of them date from the pre-World War II period, and the last part of the Great Depression, I think.
I enjoy knowing things like this ^^^, but somehow or another, it causes a sort of resentment from other people. I've never quite figured it out.

B_As_In_Bot
05-24-2003, 05:07 AM
Have you ever had to defend your life as a tramp? Maybe a tramp vs. tramp situation. Or tramp vs. random city slicker situation? Have you ever witnessed a killing? Any close calls with the law? Ever been in the pen for tamping? Sure youve been chased...

If youve already answered these questions..dont feel obligated to repeat yourself. I spent a few days reading this thread over and now Im really curious about these things.
Another question: After all the 9-11 junk happening, do you see the state cracking down on the culture? If they really didnt want the tramps and hobos around dont you think they would make every car out there inaccessable? Or worse yet rig them all with sensor alarms..
Where do you see tramping 10 years from now?
thefarm

05-29-2003, 01:52 AM
this fall myself and a friend are planning to leave from boston or newhampshire out west via freight train. neither of us have ever hopped but have researched the subject as much as we could thru the internet. we have the basic rules of the rails but have no idea what route to take. does any one have any info on what trains go where. what yards are chill etc. coming from this part of new england?
i must sound like a retard but i haven't ran into any hobos or tramps to get this information first hand.
i know this region might not be your area of expertise but could you direct me twords someone who could help me?
the farm......
Dick Quickwood

05-29-2003, 05:53 AM
you might want to go before it gets cold
KaBar
05-29-2003, 07:42 AM

Sorry it took so long to answer your questions---I laid out a couple of days due to problems here locally---my mother is very ill.

Yes, I have had to defend myself a couple of times while tramping. Actual physical attacks are rarer than someone trying to rip you off or hoodwink you in some way. Sorry to say, there are a lot of people out there who have absolutely no compunction about lying, stealing, cheating, etc. From their point of view, it's a "me first" world. They intend to get their needs met, and if it is at your expense, tough shit. They lack the necessary world view and sense of honor (I guess--what else can one call it?) that says "I take care of my own self, I make my own living, I don't need to rip off other people, or steal, or lie, or be dishonest." Many times, this takes the form of somebody becoming your "buddy", and then whatever you have, becomes whatever we have. Until you run out of money, or booze, or whatever. Then suddenly your good buddy is no longer such a pal, and moves on to fresh pickings. Basically, he mooches off you until you run out of money or food or whatever.

A lot of tramps have adopted the idea that it's "One for All, All for One." So they actually feel entitled to whatever you have. If they have nothing, but you have $200, they honestly think you should give them half. Of course, when they have money (and sometimes they do) they are more than willing to give you one of their last two bucks. If you feel that this is a fair deal, by all means, join right in.

But you'll find that if you resist this magnanimous share-whatever-you-got deal, and they suspect you have money, they will get pretty damn pissed off and think that you are a liar and a cheat and by God, they ought to just kick your candy ass and TAKE THEIR SHARE of your money, you cheap-ass, stingy pussy.

Another real problem is the "Go ahead and leave your gear here, nobody will bother it" routine. Yeah, right. YOUR GEAR GOES WHEREVER YOU GO. Don't ever let anybody try to talk you into leaving it anywhere. The classic line (tramps joke about it) is "Hey, new guy, cool scanner. Let me see that for a minute." Not only no, but fuck, no. Nobody needs to even know you own a scanner. It's NONE OF THEIR FUCKING BUSINESS. And be ready to back it up.

If you are a member of a genuine crew, and you guys are equal partners, and know each other, maybe that's different. In an equal-partners crew, when Billy Bob shows up (again) without any money, or any cigarettes, or whatever, you can take his ass to task. "You mooching fucker! Don't you ever come out here to catch out with us again unless you have your own goddamned cigarettes! Do you hear me?"

No, I have never seen any genuine hard-ass violence on the rails. I saw a streamliner get thumped once, but it didn't amount to much. It was really pretty pathetic. I've seen the usual run of fist fights. I have run across people who had been robbed, and also raped. I've met people who had an old, healing stab wound from a drunken fight over a girl. And a very well-known tramp, Frog, lost his leg after it was broken in a fight with a bunch of punk kids and it never healed right. Those kids would be wise, if they knew about it, to disappear. But they don't, so they are probably hanging out right in the same area, completely unaware that payback might be coming.
There are a lot of assholes out riding the rails. And there are also a lot of decent people out there too. You can't be a candy ass and not get taken advantage of. You got to stand up, and set limits and boundaries, and not be afraid to say "No thanks," and mean it.
Trainhopping is going to shit. Things are more technologicall than ever. In ten years, freight trains may look like Amtrak. No place for people to hop, and the engineer will be a fucking robot, guided by computers and GPS. It's a sorry ass state of affairs.

KaBar
05-29-2003, 08:08 AM
Did you know that "The Farm" is a famous hippie commune in Tennesee? It's been there about forty years. Now days, the commune members are like groovy members of the Board of Directors, and the hippie commune actually has employees that were hired from the local community. So much for communism, eh? LOL. They farm organic crops and shit like that.
Okay. You need to READ THE WHOLE THREAD, but I'll make it easier for you. You can get a railroad atlas from Desk Map Systems, Inc., 3636 Executive Center Drive, Suite 150, Austin, TX 78731, or try 512-346-9330 or FAX 512-346-9332 or www.deskmap.com (http://www.deskmap.com).
It's called the "Professional Railroad Atlas of North America, 2nd Edition." And it costs like $74.95 + shipping and handling.
The First Edition is a little less cool, but it will definately do the job, for only (reduced price now) of $25 or so. I bought the 1st Edition and then got the 2nd Edition later.

You definately need to read Duffy Littlejohn's "Hopping Freight Trains in America." dlittlejohnZRP@zianet.com $18.80 from Zephyr Rhoades Press, P.O. Box 1999, Silver City, New Mexico 88062-1999, or call him at 505-534-1888 or FAX at 505-534-2888.
The last document that would really come in handy would be a copy of the samizdat, underground-printed "Crew Change Guide." To get a CCG, you gotta know somebody. They go for around $10-$15 because they are hand-xeroxed. It is basically a report of trainhoppers first-hand on-the-ground intelligence about rail yards, junctions, crew change locations, bus routes to get there, costs, local landmarks and businesses and so forth. It's sort of like a military intelligence report, only for hobos. Before a TU63 tramp will give or sell you a CCG, they must know you are completely trustworthy, or at least pretty much so. It's a matter of honor--it is never, ever, ever published on the internet. It is passed from hand-to-hand, and only to people who can be trusted. So of course, everybody wants one, LOL.
Either you are are stand-up guy---a "straight-up tramp", or you're not. If you are, you take this shit to heart. If you're not, well---you're not. Simple.
thefarm
05-30-2003, 01:12 AM

kabar
thank you for all the info. you seem to be a wealth of information. it's nice to see someone like you on this forum. i am going to look into all the stuff you listed and am going to try and make it thru the rest of this thread tonight.
once again thank you
the farm
KaBar
06-01-2003, 10:09 PM

One thing I don't think I've mentioned before on here is the Crew Change Guide. There is a book, a home-made, hand-xerox'ed book, called the Crew Change Guide, that is published once or twice a year by a select few tramps. I understand it is actually copywrited, but it seems to me that would be hard to enforce. I think they copywrited it to prevent a particular individual from publishing it (as he apparently threatened to do) for money. He apparently wanted to use a communally-produced CCG as a base, and edit it some, and then publish it under his own name in order to produce a source of personal revenue. This really pissed off a number of tramps in TU63, and this guy is on their shit list bigtime. They have discovered a couple of places where he jungles up and found personal notes and evidence he was trying to put this plan into action, and took steps to prevent it.

The CCG is produced by tramps, for tramps. It is not intended to be published to the general public. It is not intended to be published on the Internet. In fact, each time I have seen a copy, the guy giving it to me made me swear that I would protect it, that I would not reproduce it for sale and that I would not put it on the Internet.
As you guys know, tramps hold legal contracts in low regard. Legal contracts are pretty much worthless in the hobo world. However---if you give somebody your hand on a deal, you goddamned better well honor your word. Since I swore I would not publish it on the net, I can't give you an actual example. But I can give you an idea of what it is like.
They use abbreviations, like "SBD" is southbound, and "BTN" is between, and BLVD is boulevard, etc. PT/N or PT/S is "positioned to the north" or "positioned to the south." "GEO SBD" is "geographically south bound," which means that a train leaving the yard "WBD" might initially be "GEO SBD."
Here's an imaginary sample:

"LOS ANGELES (BNSF) TANGIERS YARD: On SE side of LA, stretching into Vernon/City of Commerce. YD is pt/s of E. 45th St. From INT E. Washington BLVD & Altlantic BLVD (a #116 Bus will get you here from the Metro Light Rail station at Pico Navarro St. coming from DT,) go S. on Atlantic BLVD about 3 BL to RRO (railroad overpass). E throat of YD is back towards W. (towards DT) under the I-522 overpass. Some trains reduce speed here as they approach the signal bridge 0.5 mi E. of you here. Long Beach bound trains do not reduce speed, and are rolling too fast to catch. If you cross the high iron (main line) BEWARE of the security camera visable on a high pole SE of the I-522 overpass. It is observing tracks that feed the HP container cargo SDTRK headed to Port of Long Beach. Stay off the gravel road next to this SDTRK. There is easy access on both N. and S. ends of the yard, but E. and W. sides are well fenced, with concertina barbed wire around the HP hot cargo yard. Trains generally S&S (stop & stand) about 0.25 mi W of signal bridge. It's an easy catch at night, be very cautious in daylight. Rumor has it that the bulls in this YD employ NVE (night vision equipment) but it is so well-lighted that this is probably not true."

Obviously, if you live in LA, this^ is a complete fantasy. I just wrote it to give you an idea of what the CCG is like, so for for pete's sake, don't write me back bitching that you can't find this mythical Tangiers Yard, and that I'm obvious a nark, or a fraud or whatever. IT'S ONLY AN EXAMPLE, OK?
If by some chance, you ever come into possession of a CCG, you are honor bound to protect it's contents. If you don't want it, you may give it away, but only to another genuine tramp, and only if you first elicit from him a promise "upon his honor" that he will not compromise the CCG. YOU MAY NOT SELL IT and you MAY NOT PUBLISH IT ON THE INTERNET. Like I said above^^^ there's different kinds of people riding the rails. Some of them are decent people with a strong sense of honor and self-worth. Some are not. BE A STRAIGHT-UP TRAMP.
Sometimes CCG's are obtainable at tramp gatherings. It's sort of a "you gotta know somebody" deal. They generally cost between $10 to $15, to cover the cost of xeroxing them.

vchj
06-05-2003, 05:35 PM

Whoa! Kabar Im off to Libby Montana Here in a few weeks ! The owner of my mill jus bought a bunch of presses, and dryers and shit from there, are there still FTRA there? Im going to be there for like three weeks and man Im a fucking bro, and this sounds like a Mecca for them. I dont want any trouble.
You said something about them being Racist maybe? Well I cant imagine much else in Libby Montana, but Im Mexican, Got a bald head and covered in TaTs.
Im Pretty respectful and paitent with people, but I got a BAD bAD BAD! problem, I like to write on shit! Could I possibly get into shit with them there?

vchj
06-05-2003, 05:44 PM
Its strange they have been around that long And Iv never heard of them.

KaBar
06-08-2003, 06:56 PM
It's been a long, long time since I set foot in Libby, MT. All I can say is that Libby was the birthplace of the FTRA. I doubt seriously that there is much of an FTRA presence there on an on-going basis.
The Late 80's and the 90's were the heyday of the FTRA, although they do still exist, it has been quite a while since I ran into an FTRA rider. The police pressure up on the Hi-Line and the investigations into the so-called "Sidetrack Murders" for which Robert "Sidetrack" Silveria (a self-described leader in the FTRA) was charged, tried and convicted; and the investigation and arrest of Dog Man Tony really drove the FTRA underground to a great extent.

There was a time when members of the FTRA were required by their code to wear their colors (a bandana rolled cowboy style around the neck, and closed with a silver concho) but these days I don't see anybody wearing these colors. Back in the day, the O.G.'s from the "original" FTRA, up on the BN Hi-Line, wore black bandanas. The cops even called them "The Black Bandanas," or "black bandana hobos" before the existance of FTRA came to light.

With the heat on upon the Hi-Line, they began moving west and south. The blue-bandana-FTRA began riding east from San Francisco on the old Frisco Route, the "central corridor."

The red-bandana-FTRA rode the west coast and the Sunset Route, east towards Texas and the deep South.
After Sidetrack was captured, the cops went nuts arresting anybody and everybody who looked the slightest bit capable of being a so-called "railroad killer." A lot of them went to prison for stuff like trafficking in narcotics or being a felon in possession of a firearm.

That's when the Old FTRA took off their colors. Many of them retired and became homeguards. The police hassle is their OWNED DAMNED FAULT. Tramps rode the Hi-Line unmolested by the cops for years ands years. Montana was almost a haven for tramps back in the 70's and 80's. It wasn't until FTRA became a problem that the cops went crazy arresting tramps.
Some of the well-known tramps today are "Ex-FTRA". (This is a contradiction in terms. There's no such thing as "ex" FTRA. The rule is "Once in, never out." No matter where they go, or how high they may rise in society, their old buddies in FTRA consider them "still obligated." This is a standard mafia deal, almost all gangs and gang-like organizations have this provisio.)

There is allegedly a "new" FTRA. I don't know much about them, other than that the members are supposed to be much younger. The O.G's are in their fifties now. I doubt that you have anything to fear from them. It's the younger guys, in their twenties and thirties that I would be cautious of.
This thing about the FTRA being racist is only partially true. I know a few WELL-KNOWN tramps who have good friends who are black tramps, and the white guys are (or were) FTRA. It's not so much race as culture. Inside prison, there's a race war going on, and the color of your skin is your uniform. A lot of ex-convicts have a very racist view of the world. A lot of FTRA guys are ex-convicts. It's more of a coincidence rather than an organizational principle. I have met several FTRA guys in the last couple of years. They didn't seem to be any more or less racist than any other uneducated white guy. About the same, I'd say. Which is to say, prejudiced, but not actively murderous towards minorities. I don't think they would seek out minority people to be friends with, but if they met someone who was black that they got along with, their attitude would be "No, I don't like niggers. But Tyrone is different. He's okay, he's not like the rest of them." (It's a paradox, but one with which many Southern black people are familiar.) Mind you, I'm certainly not excusing racist behavior, but you asked me if I thought you'd have trouble with them. I doubt that you would.
Probably won't even see any. A bigger fear, from my viewpoint, considering the police attitude in Montana, would be getting arrested for being in a train yard. If you get caught on a train, it's an automatic 90 days in County. Or so I've been told. Check it out, and give us a report why don't you?
iloveboxcars

06-22-2003, 01:41 AM
bump, because i can read it over and over and over again and never get tired of it.
we love you kabar, we love you.

Kyuzo
06-23-2003, 07:06 AM
Hmmm, having never given much thought to trainhoppers, I always figured that was a dying way of life, but the way kabar tells it, it's so sophisticated and deep. I mean, the ccg itself is interesting, and then he throws out like twenty names in a way that would make someone go, "Hey, I heard of those guys."
I mean, it just made me think. Thanks for the enlightenment Kabar:king:
Tonic

06-27-2003, 04:40 PM
Hobos r the shit but bums are way better there was one bum who helped us wit a cop problem
russianwrote
07-10-2003, 09:54 PM
for reading:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/TheRoad/
AlwaysBombin
07-27-2003, 05:36 AM
I just read this whole thread front to back....BUMP

KaBar2
08-15-2003, 06:20 AM
I met two railriding girls in their early 20's up at Britt this year. I seems like every year there are a few more. This year I met a female trainhopper named Jenny, who rode in ALONE across the Hi-Line, from Portland up to Seattle, then from Seattle across the Hi-Line to Minneapolis, and then down from Minneapolis to Mason City, Iowa, then hitched west to Britt on Highway 18. She hooked up with Tanner City Kid and De-rail, but took off for Trampfest with a heavy-drinking, old-time rider named Oops, who has a zillion miles under his belt, but is relatively young. She had a great time dancing around all the riders from Staples (the tough guys from Boxcar Boys Ranch and some guys who look a lot like hard-core FTRA to me), but finally wound up crashing with Tanner and De-rail.

The other chick was a carnie who bailed out on the carnival at Britt. They hadn't been paid (because the carnival boss hadn't been paid by the city yet) and almost all the carnies were broke and pissed off, sleeping in sleeping bags rolled out under equipment and shit like that, waiting to be paid on Monday. This chick Chrissie was about 20, not bad looking, but she got into a big argument with her boyfriend (also a carnie) and came over to the hobo jungle to get away from his stupid ass and look for somebody to hook up with to ride out.
She was in a world of shit--no money, no food, her pay was delayed waiting for the carnival to get paid, her asshole ex-boyfriend would not give her back her sleeping bag or any of her clothes, so she just said "Fuck it," and abandoned all her stuff in the bunkhouse trailer where he was staying.

Once she came clean to us about what was going on, all the guys pitched in a few bucks. We had her fixed up with a gallon milk bottle for water, lots of extra/leftover chow from the Jungle, a sweatshirt (it got cold at night) and a couple of mission give-away blankets for a bindle. I made her a gunboat, we scrounged through all the Jungle gear (the jungle at Britt has a storage shed that has tons of old crappy pots and pans, silverware, etc.) and within a couple of hours she had clean clothes, a bindle, hot food cooking, another set of clothes from the give-away table and she was set up with a default plan if she could not get through to her family. Eventually her sister accepted a collect phone call and they came and got her.

I felt kind of sorry for her. Her own family treated her like shit, her sister called her all kinds of names and shit. They had several young boys with them (Chrissie's nephews) who ran all over the place freaking out, like little kids do. The sister shouted at those kids from the second they got out of the van until they left, and they never paid her one bit of heed. Chrissie came over to us carrying all her shit (all the stuff we gave her) and thanked us, shaking everybody's hand. I thought she was really sad to leave the jungle, to tell you the truth.
A couple of hours later, her ex-boyfriend showed up (a guy who told us his name was "Dollar Bill.") He was fucked up and belligerant on peppermint schnapps, and started getting all weepy when we told him she rolled up and left with her family. Then he started bad-mouthing her and saying "Fuck that bitch, she was no good anyway. Don't you think so?" The guy had no standing with us--he was a bully and a blowhard. Finally one of the smallest tramps there told him he needed to drag up and go back wherever he came from. The tramp then nicknamed old "Dollar Bill" with a new name---"Penny Arcade." Bill was a jackass.

We all kind of hoped Chrissie would hang around. She was completely safe from Bill as long as the jungle was intact, because the bros would have gladly put a boot in his ass if he got froggy with Chrissie. One of the long-time riders, Grain Car George, was all set to take her back to Montana with him, but she went with her sister. George works as a roofer in Montana, and owns fifteen acres there. He's a rock and roll drummer.
Every year there are a few new girls. It's kind of cool.
im not witty

08-15-2003, 06:44 AM
fascinating. i read HOBO by eddie joe cotton, and honestly he didnt ever have me half as entranced as you do every time i hear a new story from you. even when im plum drunk as i am now i can still read a long kabar post.
maskedvandal

08-19-2003, 10:08 AM
god damn god damn.........
iced_tea
08-24-2003, 06:00 AM
damn kabar that was some of the most interesting information i have read in awhile. i always thought about what'd be like to just hop on a train and let it take you. holy crap there is alot more to it then that. but you definetly got me thinking for the future. i got a question though. if i ever went and did this i would most definetly bring a dog, for companionship and protection. by any chance do u know how hard it would be to keep it alive? what i mean is do u go long times without food or water, or is it hard for a dog to get on and off trains? or any info u know about havin a dog while out hoppin would be much appreciated. thank you for some great reading.
Southern kid

08-24-2003, 07:32 AM
Having a dog isn't a bad idea. I have a good partner in crime with my pup. She's kind of become the writers dog because I take her with me anytime I go anywhere outdoors. I've had encounters with people and workers who didn't say shit because of the dog. I want to take to the rails someday and you better believe she's coming with me. Keeping it alive (that sounds harsh, man.) wouldn't be too difficult but you got to remember that it's just like a child or person. It needs as much water if not more than you, which means extra luggage. The dog would get on and off the train with you if you trained it. I'd think it best to "upload" it yourself though. If you're gonna get in a box, put her up in the box and get in yourself. I wouldn't suggest hopping a moving train if you've got your companion with you. If you're a good dog owner then you would know your dogs needs and you'd be in tune with what was going on. Good dogs have good owners. They go hand in hand. I wouldnt get a dog and then hop on the rails. Bad idea. All that would do is cause frustration. I wouldn't get a dog just because you wanted to take it on the rails either. So...the answer to your question is simple: You're going to have to provide for the dog. Meaning, you're gonna lug the water (if you get a breed that can carry things, that's a plus...let her carry some weight. Working dogs are instinctively bred to work whether they get to or not). Food is another story. You can't just give it anything you find. Dog food is cheap but when it comes down to it, carrying it isn't practical. Canned food is cheap, so if you had some spare change, for one meal for the two of you would be around a buck. I realize for real hoboes that's a lot of money but if you're just testing the rails for the fun it then you should have that. Anyway, this is going on and on for no reason. If you own a dog then you know what it'd take to keep it healthy. Watch out for parasites and things. Don't ever let your dog eat anything that smells foul. Parasites and worms lurk in the most strangest places without you knowing it and sooner than you think you'd be smelling the effects. Healthy dog farts already stink...word.
iced_tea

08-24-2003, 05:54 PM
thanks for the info. i have a dog now, but i just didnt know much about takin care of it like when out in the woods like from tics and shit cuz i live nowhere near any of that stuff, i just gotta keep him from traffic here. and if u had a bigger workin dog wouldnt it have to eat alot more? i just want to know the most i can about the risk my buddy would face before id take him into it. thank you southern kid for all the info. much appreciated.
Southern kid

08-24-2003, 06:46 PM
Dogs came from wolves, which are wild animals, so despite popular belief, they hold up okay in such conditions. They actually thrive. Dogs weren't meant to be locked away in small apartments off of 83rd and Lincoln...we just domesicated them and that's how it is now. Tics and things will need to be searched for because they can make your dog very sick. You will know if your dog gets them (for the most part, but it's not a bad idea to check) if it's biting and gnawing at it's skin a lot. If it's going for the deep tissue while gnawing then you know something's up and you should scope it out. The best way to break your dog in would be to travel the woods a little bit. Get him used to being around trains. My dog hops in the boxes if there's an open door nearby. It's kind of funny when I call for her and she jumps out of a car a few links down. Of course if you had a bigger working dog it is going to eat more. (there are medium grade dogs that do just as well with such things as protection and working) However, let me ask you this, would you rather have a poodle or a german shepard to protect you and keep you company? Caring for your dog is a simple matter of always being on the lookout and knowing what's best. Your dog trusts you, or should, to the fullest extent of the word. I my dog and I didn't get along we wouldn't go the places we do. Risks involve things too such as getting stabbed, stolen or shot. The same things you have to worry about are problems for your dog too. Never drink stagnant water even if boiled. KaBar taught me some about this. Man I could sit here for days talking about stuff but Kabar has taken pride in educating a lot on these boards. There is lots of good information. Just remember that anything you read about personal safety goes for your dog. He can't read, he can't critically think. Dog's only generalize. Monkey see monkey do is true in this scenario. Let me know if you come with any other questions that I might be able to help on. Kabar also knows a lot about dogs. To my knowledge, if it's right, he had two or three German Shepards in his lifetime. He will probably drop some really good information in here when he spots this.
No problem man...just trying to help.

Southern kid
08-24-2003, 06:49 PM
Another thing I just thought of....and you should be using these already. Go to Wal-Mart or any herbal store and pick up some Amino Fatty Acid pills. Might be Omega...I forget, I just know what the bottle looks like. They strengthen your dogs coat and give it those fatty acids it lacks because of our modern day food treatments. It will make your dog's coat kind of oily and sheen but after using it for a few months you'll notice a much healthier and overall cleaner coat. I would DEFINTELY take these on the road with me. I would also have some Parsley spice. This works wonders for your dogs breath and dogs love it. I can give mine just parsley and when she's done she looks at me because she want's more. Not all dogs are that way. Just slip two or three pills a day into it's food and you're set. It has other up-sides too but I forget what they are. The main one is the coat stays healthier and doesn't shed as much. Good deal. They're cheap too...$2.68 I believe for 250 tablets. Good shit.

KaBar2
08-25-2003, 05:33 AM
A whole lot of people who trainhop take dogs with them. Mostly they are just mutts that the tramps find and adopt. Some very famous tramps travel with dogs. New York Slim (a really huge black guy) travels with a very small dog, small enough to carry in one hand. (Edit 3/02/04: Stretch told me the other day that this dog's name is "Stewpot." LOL. Don't know if it's true or not, but it sounds legit, considering Slim's reputation. He's a really nice guy. Just real big.)
Stretch, who has posted on this thread a few times, and has 18 years on the rails, has travelled with a couple of dogs. His present canine companion, Burlington, looks to me to be a mix-breed elk hound/Akita or some cold-weather dog like that. Burl was born on a moving freight train, out of Stretch's previous bitch, Chessie, who is retired from the rails now and is a home guard. . .er, home-dog. Stretch has Burl fitted with both a body harness (NOT a collar) and dual pack bags. Burl hauls his own food and water, and sometimes some of Stretch's stuff when the food in the pack-bags gets low. (The pack bags must be weight-balanced so Burl can carry them--one on each side.)

Contrary to what the dog food industry tells you, dogs can eat pretty much whatever people eat, but obviously a steady diet of sugar, chocolate and shit like that is harmful to dogs. Burl does drink beer, but his limit is one every couple of days. Stretch, too. One CASE, in Stretch's diet, LOL. Water is definately a necessity for all animals, including dogs. Burl carries a one-liter Coke bottle full of water in each saddlebag.
Stretch can hoist Burl up into boxcars, up onto grainer porches and even up into empty gondola cars, using his body harness. Burl can jump into a slow-moving boxcar, but Stretch only hits STANDING cars when he's hopping with Burl. It's too dangerous to the dog to hit moving trains. Burl is down for it, but Stretch ain't. Burl is a brave-ass dog, he'll hit any train Stretch tells him to hit, but it's not safe. Stretch is too worried that Burl might slip and get run over, so he won't hop moving trains with Burl. Only "standing" trains, and usually at night, for security reasons. (If Stretch gets arrested, Burl will get sent to the Pound.) Cops have threatened to shoot Burl before, because he was so aggressive in trying to protect Stretch.

Boxcars are terribly noisy. People can wear earplugs, but most dogs don't tolerate them well. Burl doesn't like boxcars, because they are too noisy, but he loves grainers and grainer porches.

Dogs are the camp guard/ gear guard/ alarm system par exellance. Anybody comes into Stretch's jungle, Burl goes wild, barking, snarling and lunging on his leash. (Stretch keeps Burl leashed up all the time they are in camp--a railroad environment is too dangerous to let your dog run free. Stretch worked on a horse ranch last year and got a big, thick horse lead that he uses for Burl's leash. It has a brass snap hook on one end and a mountaineering carabiner on the other, allowing Stretch to put Burl on a safety line any time and just about any place.)

Dogs naturally defend their owners. This is great, unless the bad guys are railroad bulls or city cops. Stretch wanted to hop down to Corpus Christi when he came down to visit me, but he heard that the cops in San Antonio would shoot any hobo dogs that got aggressive, so he said "Fuck it--I ain't going anywhere where the bulls would shoot a dog. What kind of person would shoot an innocent dog? Man. That's crazy."

Be aware. Hopping freights is not without dangers, and it's hazardous to dogs too. But if you are REALLY CAREFUL, you could do it without you or the dog getting hurt. IF YOU GET BUSTED AND GET JAIL TIME, your dog may go to the Pound and get put to sleep. Stretch told me "If I get busted, no problem, just leave me in jail to do my time. But, please, come get Burl out and take care of him, and I will pay you back every last cent, I swear."

And if you run out of money and food, just go dumpster-diving. The dog can eat pretty much anything, even if it's a little bit "ripe," but people can't, so be careful about eating stuff from nasty dumpsters or you'll get the runs. We all ate stuff up at Britt that Collinwood Kid dumpster-dived in Cleveland and brought with him to Britt (vegetables, meat, bread--including about fifty pounds of COOKIES, still in the package) and nobody got sick. Just cook it real well--hot fire, cook it long. Stretch and Texas Mad Man had more dumpster-dived chow than we could eat, down here in Houston before Amory. They were eating good. Burl never missed a meal.
Southern kid

08-25-2003, 08:13 AM
Told ya. ;)
iced_tea
08-26-2003, 12:37 AM
wow! thanks alot both kabar and southern kid. i never expected such a good response. and im gonna check out those pills for the coats. that was a nice point you made southern about dogs not meant to be all locked up in apartments.
Southern kid

08-26-2003, 07:55 PM
Thanks. Dogs weren't meant to be locked up in apartments but they can be. They can adapt to almost anything and rather more quickly than we can in some cases. I was also going to point out that those "coat pills" keep away rashes and dry skin, would be a nasty and real problem on the rails. That was my whole point of posting that and I totally left it out.
iced_tea

08-26-2003, 09:14 PM
your mind is going to fast for your fingers to keep up :lol: :lol:
Dick Quickwood

09-09-2003, 03:02 PM
i caught a FTRA tag in my town today, ill post the flick here when it gets developed
Southern kid

09-10-2003, 07:49 AM
I'm curious as to what Kabar has to say about jungling in the big city.

KaBar2
09-10-2003, 06:51 PM
It kind of depends on what city you're in. Bigger, more urban cities, like Chicago or Detroit have lots of places good for a jungle, but most of the areas close to rail lines inside of Chicago where trains slow down or stop are pretty industrialized, which usually means bulls or city cops will eventually be around.
Houston, even though it is a big, industrial city (petrochemicals) has a lot of woods and undeveloped areas where someone bought a chunk of commercial property and isn't maintaining it. It's next to a rail line, or near a junction or a small yard, and it's all overgrown with trees and bushes. My jungle is actually close to railroad property, and there is a prime location nearby that is actually in the railroad wye, but it's hidden in a grove of trash trees. The area will eventually develop, and be ruined as a jungle location, but I guess that's just life. There is a nearby taco stand (about 250 yards away) that has a water faucet in the back, right near the tracks. We get water there, at night. We are very careful to not make any disturbance, leave any trace or do any damage at or near the water faucet. We do not dive the dumpster there at all. The idea is to PROTECT THE WATER SOURCE. The next nearest easily available water source is across a four-lane highway.
I think that for a jungle to be really valuable it has to be located in an area where nobody cares that you are there. Either a crappy, demolished area, like a torn-down factory or abandoned building; or a remote area, pretty far from any residences, schools, businesses, etc. If there are buildings too close by, it will annoy people if you build fires, camp out, etc. If it's too easy to see your camp, it will attract curious kids (which will piss off their parents), and maybe attract homeguards and druggies. The idea is to site it somewhere where nobody cares about you being there. Then you will be free to relax at your liesure, drink a beer, bench trains and just gewnerally chill out. If you intend to use it as a base of operations to hop, it should be within walking distance of a good catch out. My jungle is not really sited at a good catch out. Trains do stop there, but a genuinely good catch out is one where they stop on a regular, predictable basis--near a yard, or near a signal that halts trains waiting to go up on the high iron.
brown towel

09-10-2003, 09:22 PM
I love catching out.
KaBar2
10-04-2003, 06:43 AM
Bump bump

causinpanic
10-12-2003, 11:39 AM
what could be a better name for a thread? bump.
jenoz

10-13-2003, 06:29 PM
know of a good spot to hop from nyc to florida? i prefer a line with not too many long tunels. i dont want to suffocate
WhOZE

10-13-2003, 07:08 PM
Hobos are people too:D
beestur.

10-19-2003, 07:56 PM
dope thread man great imput, and yeah you should write a fucking book on this shit.
stretch

10-26-2003, 02:14 PM
Hi kabar, still checking into the idea of comming south this fall and due to my winter gear/tent ect took a ride in my van without me knowing about it, i might half to be after thanksgiving before burl and i come south. I'll keep in touch.:eek:
FR8HOUND

10-26-2003, 02:20 PM
Hey Stretch...how ya been...hope all is well with you, and Burl..This is that Fr8hound guy, you know, the one Burl gets the beef jerky from;) ...drop me a line when you can, missed Pennsburg...be safe..
vchj
10-26-2003, 04:45 PM

After reading alot of these posts, from educated homeless/houseless folk, I jus wanna slap every local bum around hear, filthy drunk garbage everyware in all there camps, Mad agressive, always fucked up on something wheather its Beer/huffing/ Smoking Raid/Cheese/
These cats make people scared of them. Im an Ex-gang banger, so the pump no fear here, but DAMN, I wish they would jus clean up after themselvs, and have more self respect, because that will reflect......Dont look at me with them fucked up hazzy stares, thinking I owe you something Ya know.......Does that make any sense?

KaBar2
10-27-2003, 06:31 PM

Yeah, unfortunately it does make sense. I've seen a lot of "homeless" people who are addicted to something, I've seen a lot who were mentally ill with schizophrenia or bipolar illness or profound depression who refuse treatment and choose instead to be sick and wander the streets acting angrily and aggressively.
I'm not making excuses for them--they are the victims of disease, mostly, but although the illness isn't their fault, controlling their behavior is DEFINATELY their responsibility. The world doesn't owe them a damned thing. I got no problem with dumpster-diving, I got no problem with "canning" or re-cycling found items--these are legitimate survival activities and should not be against any laws. I do think that people who dive dumpsters have an obligation to put the stuff they remove that they don't want BACK INTO THE DUMPSTER.
But there is a certain "Fuck the World" attitude that goes along with being mentally ill, especially with bipolar or profound depression. It leads people to think they can go through life drunk, stoned, fucked up on all kinds of substances, pissing in public, leaving garbage everywhere, accosting strangers and demanding money, never bathing, never taking responsibility for oneself---it's totally inappropriate.
I have no patience for people who shit where they eat. I believe (as you know, if you read this thread ^^^) in keeping a Clean Camp. I believe in living life with dignity, with respect for oneself and respect for the rest of the world. I DO NOT believe in taking a bunch of shit from irresponsible, aggressive, low-self-esteem losers. Many of them belong in psychiatric hospitals, but unfortunately, the most medical or psychiatric care they are going to recieve is in jail, unless they do something profoundly crazy and aggressive.

BEING POOR HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BEING AN ASSHOLE. I've been poor plenty. I did not rip people off to make my life easier. I NEVER demanded money from people, or robbed anybody or stole anything out of cars--stuff like that. Never.
I am opposed to panhandling. Although I have friends that fly a sign once in a while to raise money, they also work when they can. If they borrow money, they feel obligated to repay it. I think flying a sign lacks dignity, but that's a personal decision. I prefer not to do that, I'd rather work. I recognize that not everybody feels the way I do. I can't say I've never panhandled--I have, a few times, years ago. It made me feel bad about myself. I didn't like it. But if I was hungry, broke and had no prospects, I might do it again. I prefer to work, or to have some sort of business though.
Tramping is a lifestyle choice. A lot of guys I know who ride trains actually have a regular job, a home, girlfriend or a wife, etc. I also know a few guys who don't have any permenant address, they basically just stay with different people--a month here, a couple of weeks there. It's almost impossible to ride much if you have a regular 40-hours-a-week job. The guys that do have a regular job who ride usually do it during lay-offs or during their vacation, or something like that. Maybe like a construction worker who rides trains during the winter wet-weather season. But they are good guys, they are decent guys who just choose an unusual lifestyle. They don't shit where they eat. And they don't go around fucking with everybody.
fatbastard
11-01-2003, 07:39 PM
Originally posted by KaBar2

I think flying a sign lacks dignity
flying a sign lacks dignity but searching in the dumpsters for food is ok?
i'm also wondering what the penalty is for train riding, i know its treated as an offence, has anyone you know been caught

KaBar2
11-03-2003, 07:06 PM
When I lived in San Francisco, I used to see these homeless schizophrenics all the time, digging in trash cans looking for food. Office workers would take their lunches out to these little parks down on Market Street, and sit out in the sun on nice days, and eat lunch. Of course, being good citizens and all, they would put the remains of their lunch, and it's paper bag, Coke can, etc. in the nearest trash can. A little while later, here comes Herb the Homeless Guy, who grubs around in the garbage, eating bread crusts and drinking somebody else's last swallow of Coke. I was always repulsed by these characters--it's a short fall from working-temp-as-a-janitor to living under a bridge.

I think the difference is the desparate nature of their trash-can-digging. For me, dumpster-diving is an option. A choice. I worked when I could, I panhandled a few times when I was broke, I dumpster-dived behind supermarkets for vegetables, or behind fast-food places for edible food off the serving line (they can only hold pizza, burgers, chicken, etc. for a limited amount of time on the line before it must be thrown out,) but I never felt like I was reduced to the same desparate straits as those poor San Francisco schizophrenics. Any time I decided to do so, I could have pitched the whole trainhopping scene and gone and gotten a job. I just didn't choose to do that.

That difference is no small difference. It's what divides consensual sex from rape, employment from slavery and concubinage from marriage. It's what separates a volunteer soldier from a draftee, taxes from armed robbery and involuntary manslaughter from murder. Free will---it makes a lot of difference.

"Flying a sign" is just a more acceptable euphemism for begging. I preferred to make my own way in the world. I preferred trainhopping to hitchhiking, because hitchhiking involves begging for a ride. In a wierd sort of way, the hitchhiker becomes beholden to the driver--you "owe" him something, if only nothing more than being a barely-willing audience to his life story, opinions and philosophies.

If you hop a train, you usually aren't asking. You are taking a ride without permission, actually, which is why it is illegal.

Different states have different laws about it, but in general, catching out is misdemeanor tresspassing, punishable by a fine of $500 or less---more or less like a serious traffic ticket. If they really wanted to jack you up, they could charge you with "theft of transportation," and if you damaged railroad equipment, maybe "interfereing with railroad operations," which is a felony. And you could be jailed of course--some states require mandatory jail time for a second or third tresspassing offense. And yes, I have several friends and acquaintences who have been arrested, jailed and fined for tresspassing on railroad property. Stretch and Texas Mad Man got fined $500 apiece in New York state a couple of years ago. Collinwood had to go bail them out and pay the fine--they paid him back a little at a time.

fatbastard
11-06-2003, 02:05 PM
i can kind of see your point from one angle..its a personal decision, i hope i'm never in a situation where i do either...
another question. i'm dont know a lot about this whole tramp hobo scene so say these guys hop a freight to another state, what do they do when they get to that state? whats the common goal with this?
and also is it just as easy as getting on a freight once you know where its going and just waiting for it move?
pardon my lack of knowledge.

KaBar2
11-06-2003, 07:57 PM
Just like with everything else, there are varying degrees of "hobo-ness." There are the teenaged kids (or even younger--I was about twelve) who hop a train for a short joyride. There are the college boys who decide on a lark to hop one during spring break. There are the Deadheads and the punk rocker anarchists who hop one to get from city-to-city to attend concerts or to go to hippie gatherings. There are the alcoholics and druggies who are so down-and-out that riding trains is kind of like an alternate Greyhound. There are the illegal aliens who ride up from Mexico looking for work. There are the ex-convict 1%er members of outfits like the FTRA and the Wrecking Crew, who ride in malevolent tribalistic groups. And there are the guys from TU63, who are more-or-less harmless tramps who attend the National Hobo Convention at Britt, Iowa, and make the rounds of "hobo gatherings" around the country. (Just recently there was the Hobo Halloween gathering in Salem, Massachusetts.)
It's a lifestyle choice. Why do people become bikers? Why do people become surf bums? Why to people become Deadheads? Why do people decide to follow the rodeo circuit? It ain't for the money. I guess it's just a scene that is inspiring.
There's something else, too. There is a certain body of knowledge that is pretty esoteric and almost arcane about learning to get from one place to another on freight trains. Most tramps know a great deal about the railroad and trains in general. They know the names of all the parts of the track, the switches, the junctions, etc. They understand the railroad signals, and can tell by looking at the signal lights what is about to happen. They know many of the rules and regulations that various railroads have promulgated. They know where the crew changes occur, how often it's likely to happen, how long it will take. By listening to a railroad radio scanner, they can tell you what trains are lleaving, where they are going, and whether or not they will break up or "work" during transit.
They know the manufacturers and model designations of the units. They can recognize what engines are likely to be "road power," and which ones are likely to be "locals" or "goats."
All this stuff tends to give them a feeling of self respect and competance. Like someone who takes pride in knowing every detail about the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, true trainhoppers study and memorize the body of knowledge that pertains to their chosen "vocation." And they publish, too. I have seen several versions or volumes of the Crew Change Guide, which is basically a "how-to" manual for traversing the U.S. and Canada on freight trains. It is a "samizdat" publication, xeroxed and passed from hand-to-hand, from one trusted bro to another. It is NEVER sold, and it is NEVER published on the Internet. To receive a copy, you must raise your hand and swear to safeguard it. When I was asked to do that, I thought to myself "Yeah, right--like that would stop me if I wanted to sell it." But you know what? I feel very obligated, and the more I think about it, the more resolute I become to not violate that trust.
I rode trains in my youth, 24-7. I don't ride much these days. But when I do, it reminds me of why I did it to start with, and makes me want to go back to The Life.

DELnation
11-06-2003, 09:57 PM
nice post.did you now kabal that hopping is not dying here in canada.id never do it but ive got a couple of friends who travel around the country in late spring,summer and early autumn.a lot of kids grabs trains here just to go to school or friends house.hopping and streaking is officially not dying down here.
peace.
imported_nelACKson
11-13-2003, 06:23 AM
a buddy of mine had a copy of a copy of a copy etc of "new york slim's guide to north american crew change points". that shit was amazing. it gave directions to the layup and schedules for the small town im from. its truly an amazing piece of documentation. its very important that its kept fairly secretive though. it bothers me that at the time i was carrying it, i had never been told to "protect it" and was not instructed to until a year later.

KaBar2
11-13-2003, 09:09 AM
Most of the time, people that are actually hopping who are carrying a copy of the CCG are carrying a "copy of a copy." In other words, they don't carry their original, they carry a working copy, so if they get arrested or soaked in a rainstorm, etc., their CCG won't be lost. It is, of course, bad news for a copy of the CCG to get "captured," but much of the information contained within it remains the same year after year.

old*824
11-13-2003, 09:21 AM
after being around active railyards daily.....i gotta say....
what up Kabar..OG...triple OG....OG.
ok....im drunk.
edit....iwas to lazy to spell triple.
26SidedCube
11-16-2003, 09:05 AM
Goddamn KaBar....
village elder. :king:
Beethoven
11-17-2003, 09:28 PM
that Hobo Terminology on page 9 was amazing.

imported_nelACKson
11-20-2003, 05:01 AM
the hobo lifestyle is one of the most beautiful things about america and i love talking to hobos and tramps about their trips what their plans are but it seems that the majority of people ive met who are hopping trains are morons. Im fortunate to be in contact with a true hobo. this dude never steals or begs for money, hes just a homeless guy who loves to travel and works for what he has. as of today he's the only "traveler" ive met like that.
The reason i bring this up is because last night a dirty dude with a backpack came into to the restraunt i work at and i helped him out with a little change so he could get something to eat. i asked him what he was doing in town and he said he'd come from up north on freight trains so we started talking and i tried to help him out with good places for him and his friends to sleep and good spots to catch out. anyhow, as the night progressed he sat in a booth and got drunker and a little beligerent toward a girl i work with. then he asked if i knew where he could get heroin and when i told him that i didnt (and the girl i was working with told him he was going to die) he said "fuck you" and left.
....anyhow, thats just one of about 4 or 5 stories i have of running into morons who ride trains. it bothers me.

KaBar2
11-21-2003, 07:39 AM
Of course there are plenty of idiots riding trains, as well as some good people. It's not all hearts and flowers--there are some really fucked up individuals out there, people who generally try to get their needs met at everybody else's expense and who have no sense of honor, no sense of personal responsibility, and no dignity. Because they do not have these things in themselves, they see absolutely no reason to extend an honorable, responsible or dignified attitude or behavior towards anybody else.
If you read the stack, you'll see where I mentioned all this way back at the start of the thread (I think).
It's a good idea to develop some street smarts about these types of people. You certainly cannot assume that because someone hops trains that he is an okay person. But, you also should not assume that he is a scumbag, either. It's not always easy to tell who is fucked up from who is not. Unfortunately, the fucked up predator types do their best to seem innoccuous. I try to be friendly to everyone, but at the first sign of treachery, I'm either leaving with all my shit, or kicking somebody's ass into next week.

ctRECK
11-24-2003, 02:22 AM
danm, whenever i am bored (no offense) i come to this thread because it is always so interesting because i know absoloutely nothing about this, i wasnt even aware that this was going on and it is always cool to listen to what kabar has to say, but the thing i have been thinking the whole time i read this thread is, dont you run into some really dangerouse people (not just potentially but i mean the person tries to kill you and shit) does anyone have any stories about that? how about kabar? i love the fact of how this is kept so underground and how the whole thig is so conected, how you either have to be on 12oz or be hoping trains to find out about this stuff. this is a good thread bump
hold the cup
12-01-2003, 05:26 AM
kabar for president, bump

meateater
12-01-2003, 11:57 AM
gday KaBar
cheers for all this info i find this all VERY interesting.
but i still, have much more reading to catch up on ive only got
through to the end of page 3 i think.
this may have already have been asked but as i say im only up to page 3.
here is the question:
you here saying that you have a family now and that you own your own property and that you still accasionaly hop trains,
what does your family think about this when u accasionaly hop.
KaBar2
12-03-2003, 04:03 AM
When I was just a kid, age 16, my mother agreed to let me go to California with some older friends of mine, to surf. We drove out there in a 1961 Chevy panel truck, owned by one of the other guys. She made me promise to return for school in September, and gave me $100, which was a lot of money in 1967. To put it in perspective, my first real job, in 1969, paid $1.60 an hour.
She wasn't happy about me hopping trains, or hitch-hiking, either, but I was going to go, and she couldn't talk me out of it, so she just accepted it. Her way of trying to control it was to cut a deal with me. I travelled all over when I was a teenager, but I always came back for school in September.
Most of the time when I was catching out, I didn't have a "steady" girlfriend. I'd meet girls when we were travelling, and "hole up" for a couple of days, or a week, or two weeks, and then something would happen--we'd get into an argument, or she would try to convince me to stop riding trains, or try to get me a job at her Dad's business or something like that, and I'd take off. They always seemed to want to change me, and I was young and immature, and I didn't want to stop bumming around yet.
My first wife was a Houston girl (a "north side" redneck girl) that I met in a hippie commune. She took off with me, and we hitch-hiked and rode trains for quite a while, and eventually returned to Houston and settled down. After a while, we got married, but it was an unhappy relationship. We divorced, I went into the Marines, and married again. That girl was later murdered by her landlady's ex-convict son. He's in prison.
My present wife isn't too happy with the idea of me riding trains, but she has accepted it. She wasn't too happy with the idea of me riding with a motorcycle club, either, but the bikers we met turned out to be some of the best friends we ever had.
I'm really what's called a "rec rider" now, or a "yuppie hobo," because I have a job and a home and responsibilities, but I still am attracted to tramp life. I no longer just catch out and "go," without any concern about where I'm headed or when I'll be back. These days, I ride for fun, and I have to carefully plan my catching out so I can be back home to work. The rest of my family is pretty much dead set opposed to me riding trains, but I'm too old to get grounded, LOL.
meateater
12-03-2003, 07:55 AM
shit hey!
mad'' cheers for the feedback!
well you may of heard this before but
man, i would consider on writeing a book
its sounds to me that you have many many interesting things to
say and tell people about your life so far so why not write abook
i know that id be keen to read it,
and i have never brought a book or letalone read any.
plus u would be getting paid for it! n who knows u could become
quite famous.
....also where would you travel to and from like all around the u.s.a?
and did u ever come across any danger in your travels.

ctRECK
12-08-2003, 03:10 AM
i second that, write a book kabar! that would be great, i would buy it for sure

ASN
12-08-2003, 04:46 PM
Originally posted by nelACKson
a buddy of mine had a copy of a copy of a copy etc of "new york slim's guide to north american crew change points". that shit was amazing. it gave directions to the layup and schedules for the small town im from. its truly an amazing piece of documentation. its very important that its kept fairly secretive though. it bothers me that at the time i was carrying it, i had never been told to "protect it" and was not instructed to until a year later.
Does it have directions for just your city, or other places too?

ASN
12-09-2003, 12:32 AM
And if you dont feel like spewing the info to whoever wants to read this, shoot me and email at mmc1512@aol.com
any other books like that would be appreciated

KaBar2
12-10-2003, 07:26 AM
I heard from Preacher Steve and Half Track that Shotgun Wills died a few days ago. He went east to visit with his family for the holidays, and passed away while there. I guess that's better than dying in a sleeping bag in some hobo jungle.
As regards this CCG from New York Slim---You guys do what you need to do, but the RULE and CUSTOM says "Never put a CCG on the internet," and "Never give or sell a CCG to anyone that you do not PERSONALLY KNOW, and can be sure is trustworthy and who will protect it." The rule is "Either he raises his right hand and swears to protect it, or you don't give it to him." Do not take a casual, cynical, "don't-give-a-fuck" attitude about riding trains, tramp life and the CCG. A long time ago, Bob Dylan wrote a song that contained the line "To live outside the Law, you must be honest." This is absolutely true. The only penalty that exists for being careless with a CCG is that the information will be rendered useless if it falls into the possession of the authorities, both to you, and everybody else. KEEP A CLEAN CAMP. Take care of business. Don't shit where you eat.

ASN
12-14-2003, 10:19 PM
Yea i figured it wasnt soemthing people would put info on the internet, thanks anyways though.

KaBar2
12-25-2003, 03:50 PM
Hope you guys all have a good Christmas, those of you that celebrate Christmas, and a happy holiday if you celebrate something else. Holidays are both a bad time for people on the road, because they are usually far from home and family (sometimes deliberately so) and wind up celebrating Christmas in the jungle with a bottle of brandy, or eating turkey and all that in some mission or some "feed the homeless" program. If you see a tramp flying a sign at Christmas, give him a buck.
It's a good time, economically, because all the citizens that ignore tramps and bums the rest of the year are motivated to give them a buck or two during Christmas, so the coldest part of the year often finds the hobo community with a few dollars to carry them to spring.
My tramp buddies are holed up in East Cleveland at Collinwood Kid's house. Hope they're having a very Merry. You guys too

.
KaBar2
01-11-2004, 07:27 PM
My buddy Stretch is over in Mississippi working for Loco Larry scraping his house, in preparation for re-painting. Larry has a good job and he hires tramps to do work for him as a way of supporting the hobo community. Since it doesn't get too cold in Mississippi in the winter, people travel down to the South during the winter and one of their stops is Loco Larry's place, in Amory, Mississippi.
Once Stretch is done there, he's heading to Houston, so I guess I'll have some more Stretch-and-Burlington stories to tell!
Winter riding is pretty harsh. Northern tramps usually carry a whole lot of gear--called a "Montana bindle." Enough stuff to survive in freezing cold Montana winters.

EasoeDSF
01-13-2004, 04:08 AM
good day to you Kabar...went to the library today and picked up the video Ridin' Free. Great documentary except the dramatization part where a man in a suit leaves his car at a crossing and catches out. Other than that I did enjoy it. Took place '91 had the Hobo Day in Britt the king and queen was Minneapolis Jewel and Ohio Ned. I recommend this video to anyone interested in hopping trains.;)

KaBar2
01-14-2004, 08:26 AM
There are some very good "amateur" independent videos about trainhopping out there. Two of the absolute best I've found are "Free Ride," shot on VHS-c by runaway 17-year-old David Murphy, a number of years ago (not sure exactly what year--might have been 2000) and "A Personal Documentary" shot on Hi-8 (I think) by David Eberhardt, who at that time was in his mid-20s.
Both these films are excellent, and, given the difficult conditions under which they were shot, very well done.
Murphy apparently ran away from home and took a video camera with him. My only complaint is that he fell in love with a young female trainhopper, and a large amount of the film is him focusing the camera on her with scenery rolling by trackside behind her, but it was still pretty damned good. A lot of the shots are "aftershots", like he goes to an anarchist festival, but for some reason doesn't shoot any footage of the festival itself, but just shoots tape of somebody elses' still shots, with the still photographer's voice-over to explain what the audience is looking at. Kind of odd. I mean, if you go to an anarchist festival and the cops beat people up, then what you want is TAPE of it, LOL. Still pretty good.
Eberhardt has some great footage of interviews with tramps, including a great interview with New York Red as he is passing through a rail yard in Houston, the VERY SAME rail yard where he was arrested "bundling marijuana on the freight train" several years before. (Edit:3/05/04--Stretch and I walked the tracks in the near/north Downtown area, and this video was shot as Eberhardt and Red were rolling throughHouston's Hardy Yards and the westbound throat that crosses over Buffalo Bayou.)
"So Red, have you ever been arrested?"
"Oh, yeah."
What for?"
"Bundling marijuana on the freight train."
"Where at?"
"Right here in this yard."
"No shit. How long did you get?"
"Five years--served two and a half and got out for good behavior."
"So I guess you love Texas, huh?"
"Oh, yeaah--it's a state I dearly love."
No idea where you could get copies. Stretch made me a copy of a bunch of Collinwood Kid's collection of trainhopping videos, but it's clear that it's a copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy and the quality is getting worse each time it gets duplicated.
KaBar2
01-26-2004, 06:27 AM
Got a call Friday that Stretch and Burlington had arrived in the Houston area and were up in Humble (a town just north of Houston.) I drove up there where he was supposed to be, and drove all over Hell's Half Acre looking for them. No Stretch. I couldn't find him and I ran out of time and had to go to work.
When he called, he told me he was near FM 1960 and Interstate-45. "Oops!" Turns out he was at FM 1960 and Interstate-59, about five miles to the east. He left me a voice mail, correcting the error, and told me they were camped out behind a closed Dairy Queen. I went up there when I got off work and picked them up about 0230 in the morning, and took them to the jungle.
Saturday, we spent the day re-building the hooch. Some idiot had stayed in the jungle and tore the hooch down and scattered the stuff all over the place, left all the newspaper out to get soaked in the rain, drank up the water and never re-filled the jugs, etc. Dumbass.
It took us a couple of hours to re-build the hooch. Then we went dumpster-diving and found a great pallet--very long, about 6 feet long--and scrounged six plastic 5-gallon buckets that are the same height, and built Stretch a bunk. We set the pallet on the buckets. The ground is a little soggy, so they sank into the soft earth a little, making it even more stable. This way, even if it rains hard enough to flood the jungle, Stretch and his stuff won't get wet.
Today we just kicked back and enjoyed the day. It stopped raining, the sun came out and there was a good breeze, so the jungle is drying up fast. We walked down to the beer store, bought a couple of cold beverages, and cooked up macaroni-and-Ramen-and-chicken-mushroom-soup for lunch. It was a really laid-back, relaxing day. No stress, no hassle, no "schedule." Wish I could spend all my time like that.
test pattern

01-26-2004, 12:56 PM
so do i
test pattern
01-26-2004, 12:56 PM
so do i
KaBar2
01-30-2004, 06:24 PM
Stretch was sitting in the jungle with Burl drinking a beer and the Union Pacific 3895 "Challenger" steam locomotive rolled through the wye, en route downtown to the Super Bowl festivities. She was pulling a few old vintage passenger cars loaded with big shots going to the Super Bowl.
This weekend promises to be one big ass party in Houston. The downtown area has been transformed by the new rail line (Metro-car collision #10 happened a few days ago--it's like "YO, WAKE THE FUCK UP THERE'S A FUCKING TRAIN RUNNING ON FANNIN STREET YOU CLUELESS IDIOTS!") and all the new restaurants and bars. Thousands of football fans are in town for the SB, the joint is jumpin'.
Y'all come.

ODS-1
02-13-2004, 01:19 AM
Originally posted by scallawag
the reason why most of them are as fucked up as they are is because of liver poisoning...it takes about half a tallboy to fuck these homeless people up because their liver is so bad, the alcohol takes a completely different effect, thus the stumbling arund, limp arms/legs, talking to themselves, etc...therefore just as you should blame the system, you should blame alcohol as well. As much as it sucks for bums and homeless peeps, beware.
You don't want to get poked by some hepatitus knife that he poked himself with the night before.
micro

02-14-2004, 11:49 PM
large companies dont give a rats ass about us. to them we are NOT artists...we ARE street scum. i could care less if they lose money because of the paint i rack or what i write on their walls or trains or whatever it is im working with. them losing money gets me the paint i need to get people to realize that what we do IS art. writing has become my life. i have become addicted to it. people sometimes steal to support their addictions. i support MY addiction and OUR culture.
EasoeDSF

02-18-2004, 09:09 PM
Good point.....wrong topic.:confused:
KaBar2
02-19-2004, 09:40 AM
You can try to justify stealing all you want. I don't agree, and I don't really care whether the person getting robbed is rich or poor. Basically, if you rip somebody off for their property without compensating them for what you took you are wrong. Wal-Mart is a giant bloodsucking corporation. I dislike them and their policies, especially their attitude about full-time employment (or rather, the lack thereof) and the low wages they pay, and their lack of benefits.
However, the way for me to deal with them is to refuse to work for them and to not shop there. Stealing from some corporation like Wal-Mart is almost certain to land you in prison eventually. An acquaintence I knew years ago was busted shoplifting record albums (this was a long time ago) and got FIVE YEARS in the penitentiary--one for each record he stole. (And this was not in Texas, it was in Michigan.) No way in this world is racking shit worth five years of my life.
You want to steal? Be my guest. But if someone tries to steal from me, he better hope to Christ I don't catch him. I don't have much, but it BELONGS TO ME, and anybody that tries to rip me off for it had best be ready for a serious ass fight.

SterOne
02-19-2004, 12:48 PM
Originally posted by ASER1NE
HOLY SHIT KABAR YOU GOT HELLA GOOD IDEAS/POINTS , YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK OR SOMETHINGS THANX FOR THE INFO...
scaro
02-19-2004, 08:00 PM
h
HaRMFuL
02-22-2004, 08:00 AM
bums, hobos..stealing... hhhmm
DCH(deschutes county hobo)who always writes Bend Over OR. has hella ups!
HaRMFuL
02-22-2004, 08:01 AM
http://harmfulart.org
wordvirus
02-24-2004, 08:23 PM
bump
hatetown
02-25-2004, 02:22 AM
u from houston kabar? what u write as?

KaBar2
02-25-2004, 08:01 AM
I don't really "write." I streak railcars if I'm bored--"KaBar." I am more an aficianado of grafitti than a practitioner. I accept that it takes a certain degree of talent to be a good writer, and realistically, my shit is weak. No reason to fuck up perfectly good railcars with poorly executed hollows--I admire the work, but refrain, these days.
wordvirus

02-25-2004, 01:26 PM
One thing, though this opinion comes without any "experiance" is that it seems like people are no longer "brought up" in sub cultures today. You had Rufe, helping you learn that "this ain't no hobby" and other such things, from the basics of hopping to the culture prevading the tramp lifestyle. Writers used to be taught the game from an older more experianced artist, shown the ropes so to speak. It seems like people are getting harder to trust everyday, as if capitalism and its poison has really enetered the hearts of most people leading to a lot of "all for me at the cost of all of you" mentalities out there. Do you see this more now then in the past? Certainly feels like the train culture is slowly decaying due to increased security. Would you have stayed a tramp if you were not catching out? I feel like wondering, eyes wide open, all that comes with it is so beneficial to life.

KaBar2
02-25-2004, 08:06 PM
I'm sitting here about to leave for work, rocking the shit out of Jug Fusion on my computer CD drive, in a nice warm house, after having had a nice shower and putting on nice clean clothes.
When I was tramping, I never had any of this sort of stuff. The physical discomforts of living on the road weren't as bad as the emotional detachment from "regular" society and (worst of all) no girlfriend. I eventually joined a commune (Abraxas Collective, in Houston) and while living there, I met a young woman on the run from an abusive, redneck, KKK-sympathizing husband, and she and I left out straight for California. That solved the no-girlfriend problem, at least for a while. She and I married, then divorced, and I enlisted in the Marines, in 1976.
The tramp culture is being continuously marginalized as "regular" citizens find themselves with more and more options. Virtually everyone owns a car in the U.S., or has access to one. Those who have no car can take the Greyhound pretty cheaply. In fact, a very high-milage tramp (and a great rock drummer) that I know, Grain Car George, has stopped riding trains pretty much altogether, and rides the Greyhound wherever he goes now. He does roofing in Helena, and pretty much lives a straight lifestyle.
Fifty years ago, it was not unusual for regular citizens to have a relative or acquaintance who rode trains in the Great Depression. There WERE no cars for the genuine down-and-out workers. It was catch out, or walk. Most of those people have passed away now, and the number of people who have ever ridden a train or had to go on the bum is smaller and smaller. Pardoxically, the number of full-time, 24-7 tramps is probably as big as it ever was, but today "regular" citizens see their destitution as being a result of their own poor choices--dope, booze, choosing an "alternative" non-productive lifestyle. A guy flying a sign on a freeway on-ramp who lives to drink or smoke dope is not going to get much sympathy from people driving by his spot. There are always a few generous souls, but there are also about a million scam artists who just panhandle because it's easier than working. I never give a buck to a panhandler unless he has a full set of road gear. Streamliners don't get anything from me.
Genuinely displaced workers usually are caught by the Unemployment Benefits safety net. Most middle-class people cannot imagine being so careless as to allow oneself to fall through the cracks. I've tried to talk to Stretch about saving for the future--he basically told me to forget it, he's not willing. Whatever--it's his life, you know?
People are responsible for themselves. I came in off the road because in order to have a spouse, one must be able to support oneself and another person. Tramps cannot do that, their time is spent surviving and having adventures, not creating surplus wealth that they can count on in hard times. The day I went mainstream, I had like eight dollars in my pocket, and I just said "Enough is enough. I gotta get a job and a real place to live." I was 32, and recently discharged from the Marines. I got a job as a union janitor in San Francisco the very first day. It paid $9.24 an hour. So the very first hour on my new job, I doubled my net worth.
macksimum

02-27-2004, 09:21 AM
damn. this is by far the greatest thing ive read on this board. i hopped once. made it about 12 hours before we got caught by a railcop. my absolute dream is to become a 'seasoned' hopper, or tramp (ive never heard that term before...i like it). sleeping outside, dumpstering goods and generally making good with what society discrads is a beautiful and truly freeing life. i cant wait to hear more of your stories and knowledge. thanks so much.

KaBar2
03-02-2004, 07:56 AM
Well, as much as I like to write about tramping, I worry that I'm going to put a spin on it that glamorizes it too much. Riding freight trains is fun, of course, otherwise people like me and you wouldn't be attracted to it, but if you don't know what you're doing, it can be dangerous as hell.
I have set myself up here for a fall, by acting like a know-it-all about riding trains. Yes, I know quite a bit, but nobody knows everything, and most of my experience is pretty outdated. Some of the routes I rode thirty years ago don't even exist any more. The rules are a great deal different than they were. We rode out in the open a lot back then, carelessly exposing ourselves to the view of people at grade crossings and on highways. Cell phones didn't exist then, so the risk of somebody turning you in was small. Not so, today.
TODAY, more than ever, the philosophy that Rufe taught me is valid. The idea is to "lowline"--get into the yard, on the train and ride it, get off the train, and never be seen. "Leave no trace, Do no damage, Make no disturbance." Other than streaking a few railcars, we tried to not be seen in any yard where we did not know for certain that the rail workers were friendly. We did not use railroad radio scanners, which are common now, and certainly did not use handheld HAM radios, which are becoming almost as common as scanners. (Tramps use the HH HAM radios to monitor RR radio transmissions, not to talk, at least, not on the same frequencies that the RR uses.)
With the knowledge on this thread, a copy of a good RR atlas and a CCG, you could cross the U.S. and Canada tomorrow.
Another subject dear to my heart is tramp life. Stretch is camped out down at my favorite jungle in a hooch we built out of dumpster-dived 2x4's, political signs and a few plastic RR plastic tarps and air bag liners. We hauled about 25 or 30 5-gallon buckets of gravel from where it was spilled on the RR ballast by gravel trains, to get rid of the mudhole that used to be in front of the hooch and the fire pit.
Stretch got a little under-the-table job at a local ice house, sweeping up and emptying trash cans. I kick in some food and beer money once in a while, but he's pretty much living on his own. He rides the Houston METRO rapid transit like the experienced pro he is (he has memorized all the lines and the schedules, pretty much) and uses the computer at the downtown Houston Library to keep up with friends who are riding in other parts of the country. I'm going to try and scrounge up a bicycle for him, next time he hits Houston.
For a hobo/tramp like Stretch, dumpster diving is a fine art. He goes "shopping" when he needs something. Need batteries? Radio Shack. Office supplies? OfficeMax. Camping gear? Academy and REI. He gets a lot of stuff as giveaways by generous people on the corner while flying a sign, too. Dog food for Burlington is a perennial favorite, along with toiletries, canned food, etc.
This sort of life is only possible as long as it's only a few people trying to live it. Back in the '60s, with thousands of hippie kids trying to panhandle, you could starve to death looking for "spare change." and a lot of people were really offended by kids hitting them up for money.
You're welcome to come down and live in our hooch if you want to, LOL. Stretch is going to Mississippi in a couple of weeks, and the hooch will be vacant. It's a tough life, for certain. Stretch might take you on as a prospect, if you're really serious about learning to hop--especially if you offer to pay him to instruct you. I never paid Rufe anything, but I did buy the bulk of the groceries, and all the tobacco and booze. Rufe had Food Stamps, but very little cash--you can't buy tobacco or alcohol with Food Stamps.
Road knowledge is extremely valuable, if you are riding trains. You cannot buy experience, but if you have a mentor until you get your sea legs, you'll be a LOT safer.

KaBar2
03-08-2004, 08:06 AM
Stretch and Burl rode out on the KCS from Beaumont on Saturday, headed for Mississippi. We spent the night at the jungle Friday night, getting rid of trash, sorting through stuff, fixing the roof on the hooch so it wouldn't leak after Stretch removed his tarp and rolled it up over his bindle. Saturday morning I loaded up a bucket of tools we had in the jungle, we made the rounds saying goodbye, saw the guys at the beer store where Stretch had a job, went down to Bellaire Junction and said goodbye to John and Linda and the tramps down there in the Bellaire JCT jungle, then pulled stakes to Beaumont. Stretch caught out shortly before dark on the KCS, and I headed back to Houston. Spring is here, trees are budding out, it's beginning to get hot at night--time to go north.
Stretch talked to a guy from SBC down near the jungle who says that within six weeks to two months that SBC will be laying a new fiber-optic cable right next to the RR right-of-way. This is bad news, because Union Pacific watches the work crews like hawks, and that means we are going to have UP officials right square in the middle of the jungle. Damn. They'll probably have the hooch torn down and sic the UP bulls on the jungle. Something tells me that at the first sign of the SBC fiber-optic crew it would be an excellent idea to not show up at the jungle for a month or so.
wordvirus

03-21-2004, 09:12 PM
bump
Extra Sense
03-27-2004, 12:58 AM
what does your wife think of all this? not to be rude, but it seems like it would strike her as a bit odd when her husband goes dumpster diving, hangs out with homeless bums/tramps, and sleeps in a hobo camp.
sorry if this came off as rude, this thread is full of really intriguing knowledge, i am not knocking you because you are obviously an extremely intelligent person.

KaBar2
03-28-2004, 12:57 AM
My wife is kind of an eccentric too. She was a hippie chick back in the '60s, then got a job as a commercial seamstress building fire-proof race suits for drag racers in California. She also built drag chutes, custom crash harnesses for female drivers, and custom suits for both male and female nationally-ranked racers.
She raced motorcycles in the California desert, and twice rode in the Barstow-to-Vegas motocross race (didn't place either time, but she finished) and was a founding member of the Southern California Independent Driver's Association (SCIDA,) which sanctioned Volkswagen powered desert racers and dune buggy racing.
When I met her, I was in the Marines. She was a scuba diver, and I was still surfing. So I took up diving too, and she took up body surfing and bellyboarding. We lived a block from the beach near Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, CA., and in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.
When we were dating, she lost her job as a Household Finance loan office manager. She was very bummed out. Trying to be comforting, I said "Honey, look at this as an opportunity. If you could do anything for a living, what would it be?" And she said "I've always wanted to be a merchant seaman in the Merchant Marine." (Yeah, right , I was thinking.) "Well, if that's what you want, sweetheart, you go right down there and sign up."
She went down and got a Z-Card from the Coast Guard, then joined the National Maritime Union AFL-CIO, and started hounding the NMU business agent for a job. She went to the NMU union hall in San Pedro every day for SEVEN MONTHS. She baked cookies for the staff. She played dominoes with all the old guys. She dogged all the shipping companies so much that the secretaries all knew her by her first name.
Finally one of the old guys got sick a couple of hours before his tanker was going to sail and she was in the union hall, so she got shipped out as a second cook. (She kept her seabag packed all the time, in the back of her pick-up camper.) She was running gasoline up to Alaska and crude oil back to Martinez, CA., on board the second-largest oil tanker in the world, the "Atigun Pass." Then the cook (who only had one leg--the other was a prosthesis--true story) got so drunk during a bad storm that they had to tie him in his bunk for safety, and the captain asked my wife if she could somehow get sandwiches or something together to feed the crew (thirty men.) The seas were so bad that it was impossible to cook (the kettles slid right off the galley stove) but she drafted the two Puerto Rican scullery hands, and they made sandwiches and managed to make coffee.
When the storm was over, the captain had the cook medevacked by chopper, and promoted my wife to Chief Cook right on the spot. The union raised hell, but the company backed the captain. The rest of the time she was shipping out, she shipped as a Chief Cook.
When I started riding Harleys, she rode with me. When I joined a club, she became friends with the girlfriends and wives of the other members. When I got hurt pretty bad in a motorcycle wreck, and I was en route to the hospital, she rode my damaged scooter home, locked it up, then followed me to the hospital, because she knew I would be worried about the scoot being left on the street and not chained up.
She's an excellent shot with a pistol, and once shot skeet on the men's team at her gun club. She started hunting deer at age 13 with her father in Washington State. She got her first whitetail at age thirteen, using her mother's .30-30 Winchester lever-action rifle.
Her favorite rifle today is a Ruger .243 with a 3x9 scope.
She once rode her Honda CB750 from Southern California to Washington State to visit her parents, then to Montana, down through the high desert states and returned through Arizona and Nevada. By herself.
That's pretty much covers why she doesn't worry much about me riding trains, I guess.

Gunm
03-28-2004, 04:31 AM
Kabar, I wanted your advice on a tramp related subject.
There's an area near where i live that is perfect for painting frieghts but there are several jungle encampments. I wanted to know what might be a good way of determining whether they might be hostile towards writers or not and if so, what would be the best course of action in the event of a negative encounter?

KaBar2
03-28-2004, 06:57 AM
First of all, I'd kind of like to know what the surrounding area is like. Are we talking dead-ass urban ghetto or rural lay-ups or what? Do you live in/near the area? Are the jungles populated all the time with the same people? Or are there different people there every time?
The reason I ask is that here in Houston we have numerous "homeless camps" and some of them have been there for years. Some of them are well-known to be havens for drug users (heroin, meth, etc.) and sometimes they will be all-homosexual, or all-heterosexual, or all-black or all-white. If it's an all-white hetero camp, they will be pretty hostile to black males. Keep in mind, in the homeless world, whites are usually in the minority, and they get pushed around in the usually black neighborhoods where they live. I have heard some unbelieveably racist statements from white people who were clearly clinging to the absolute last splinter of the bottom rung of the ladder. Not all, of course, but if a black writer were to stumble into one of these camps, he would probably be told to "move around" (i.e. "leave".)
Of course, this same thing is also true, to a lesser degree, in all-black camps. I have been told to "keep yo' cracka ass away from our 'hood" more than once. But the hostility, while palpable, was of a different degree.
I have also come upon a camp full of drug addicts, many of whom obviously had AIDS. These sorts of groups are fairly dangerous in the daytime, but seriously dangerous at night. The heroin addicts who are so deteriorated that they can no longer successfully turn tricks or steal to get dope money resort to more direct forms of crime.
The AVERAGE hobo jungle has none of these hazards. Alcohol is the drug of choice. The tramps I rode with and are friends with are pretty much open-minded when it comes to race, and an odd sort of "don't-ask, don't-tell" situation exists with the gay tramps. As long as gay tramps don't make any overt sexual advances, they are generally tolerated well. But there are definately some sexually aggressive jockers riding the rails, whether they are ex-cons, or just mean-ass butthole bandits or what, I can't say. When I was younger (20) I had older tramps indicate a big, strong tramp and say "Don't ever get on a train with him--he tries to rape the young guys." If you're on a train with a rapo, there's no place to go. You either fight and win, or get fucked. A rolling boxcar at night has a lot of the same characteristics of being in a cell. I must admit, though, while I heard a few lurid stories to this effect, nobody ever tried this with me.
The only thing about grafitti that tramps would be concerned about would be if you heated up the yard or the jungle. As long as you don't get arrested, and don't attract too much attention from the bulls, they wouldn't care. In fact, a lot of the younger tramps write grafitti too. (That's kind of how I got attracted to 12 Oz. to start with.)
Etiquette exists everywhere, and it does in hobo jungles too.
First of all, the jungle is where these guys live. It's their space, just like your living room or your bedroom is your space, so don't enter it without permission. I always stop well out from the edges of the camp and call out "Hel-LO the camp! Can I come in?" Usually people just wave you on in and don't care, but if they don't want company, they will definately tell you to beat it. 90% of the time, you'll be welcome, especially if you have alcohol or cigarettes to share. Or even just rolling tobacco.
If anybody asks you if you want in on the Frisco, they are talking about raising money for alcohol, usually. Some of the old timers still throw down on a genuine frisco circle for a meal, but it's rarer now than it was in 1970, and it was very rare even then. If you hang out with tramps, you'll soon find out that many of them are generous to a fault. If they have two bucks, they'll give you one. And the flip side is true also. If you have money, they expect you to shoulder the majority of the economic burden. They live in a world where saving for the future is practically unknown. To them, obtaining a twelve-pack of beer or a few 40's is a necessity like paying the rent or the light bill. If you want to be their friend, don't be cheap. You have money. They need it.
Up the stack is a story I heard a few times about the FTRA. If the jungle is an FTRA jungle, tread very lightly. If there are very many guys there, or if they are drinking or getting high, LEAVE. Just say "I gotta go," and do it. If there are any women around an FTRA jungle, STAY AWAY FROM THEM. The FTRA will seriously hurt anybody who messes with their women. If you absolutely must speak to one (like she asks you a question and you don't want to be rude) be polite, and don't get cute. NEVER insult a woman travelling with the FTRA, unless you just want to be in a fight for your life. The FTRA travels armed all the time, either with sticks, or knives, or both, and sometimes with pistols. If anybody tells you to move on, or if anybody gives you an old fashioned kitchen match, GET YOUR ASS OUT OF THEIR CAMP IMMEDIATELY.
Tramps see a passing train sort of like a handy way to get rid of stuff. If they have a bag of garbage or a shitter bucket, and a train is passing by, they'll just toss the bag or bucket into an open boxcar. Adios, trash sack.
Most of the tramps I ever met were just decent, okay guys who drank too much. They're mostly alcoholics to one degree or another. But you got to figure, if they weren't a little screwed up, they wouldn't be living as tramps. You know?
Never take a piss or a shit anywhere near camp. If you have to piss, take your gear with you, and do it well away from camp. If you know the tramps pretty well, your gear is probably safe, but keep all money and valuables ON YOUR PERSON, along with your knife. Never flash your money. "Keep your money in your shoe, and your knife in your pocket." That means don't tempt people to rob you, and don't go around provoking people or brandishing a weapon.
Tramps have a lot of free time, and they often use that time to read, or practice a musical instrument, or carve stuff, or do needlework. I've met a few tramps that knitted stuff. Texas Mad Man does beautiful needlework. He has an entire quilt made of old blue jean material that he stitched by hand, in the National Hobo Museum. He has made many shirts and coats over the years. Tanner City Kid carves intricate items out of wood--things like a ball in a cage, or a chain of links with a carved wooden anchor on the end.
If there is nobody in a camp, but their stuff is still there, don't go in. Going into someone's camp while they are not there is a serious breach of etiquette. NEVER touch anybody's pack or bedroll unless they direct you to do so.
Most tramps do not shake hands. There's no place to wash, everybody's hands are dirty, and quite frankly, you have no way to know what they've been doing. If you extend your hand to them, they will often shake it, but they don't like it. Just tip your hat a little, or give a little mock salute instead--"Glad ta meetcha. My name's KaBar."
Mind your own business. If they want you to know something about themselves, they'll tell you. Otherwise, asking questions is considered nosy and rude. "What, are you writin' a book?"
Keep your eyes and ears open, and your mouth shut. This questions thing cuts both ways, but I have been grilled pretty hard a few times. Once, this guy said "Shit, you ain't no tramp! You're wearing a wedding ring! Tramps ain't got no family!" Another time a guy was convinced I was a cop because I was wearing a Marine Corps military watch with military time on it (1300, 1400, etc.). They were right--it was suspicious to them.
Gunm

03-28-2004, 07:11 AM
KaBAR...
I don't want to be too specific about the spot.
But the area where the jungles are is about 200 feet from where i want to paint. There's a stretch of road obscured by a line of tree running along it on one side of the tracks and an open field with fencing on the other side. The tramps make camp along that fence. Bunch of lean tos and little huts made of pallets and tarps. There's a bunch of bikes and other random things lying around the camps. I have more than a few escape options available in the event I am rolled on by cop, bull or other.
Does the FTRA have any distinguishing markings or patches that indicate such? The reason i ask is that it sounds like i should just avoid them altogether.
Oh, have you ever met, The Rambler? I dig that guys tramp tag.

KaBar2
03-28-2004, 07:55 AM
Okay, I hear you about the spot. Your description tells me what I want to know anyway.
This camp does not sound like the FTRA at all. They may come through there, stay a little while and move on, but actual FTRA jungles are usually in remote places where there aren't many people, but close to a junction or a crew change so they can easily catch out.
I covered the FTRA in earlier posts up the stack. These days, I don't think many of them wear any sort of colors, but in years past, the group up on the Hi-Line wore black bandanas, rolled up cowboy style, with real silver conchos closing at the neck. Those were the O.G.'s. When they moved down into the West Coast, they started wearing different colored bandanas. The FTRA group that rode the central line (the old Frisco Line) east from San Francisco wore blue bandanas closed with cheap conchos, and were called the Goon Squad, or Goonie Squad (a "goon bag" is one of those silver mylar bags that come inside of wine boxes.) The Southern California group (the Wrecking Crew) wore red bandanas with cheap conchos. They rode the old SP line east across the desert and through Texas and into the Deep South, all the way to Florida. All the FTRA guys I've met were "red bandana Wrecking Crew" guys. Nice guys, but pretty ruthless, sort of like the Hell's Angels MC or the Bandidos MC. One on one, they're easy going. Five or six FTRA's together, add alcohol, you are at serious risk to be present. Years of misbehavior and attention from law enforcement resulted in the FTRA "taking off their colors." But trust me, they are still connected.

Gunm
03-28-2004, 06:44 PM
Kabar,
many thanks for your advice and wisdom. As i've said before, you are one knowledgable person and 12oz is lucky to have your experience to guide the rest of us

DANKMAN
04-10-2004, 08:50 AM
damn good post kabar, lots of good info, thanks for spreading the knowledge

InDY_500
04-10-2004, 06:59 PM
Originally posted by ODS-1
As much as it sucks for bums and homeless peeps, beware.
You don't want to get poked by some hepatitus knife that he poked himself with the night before.
so true good sir....thats a big no no....

305soul
04-11-2004, 02:37 AM
KaBar i was reading the first few posts where you talked about property ownership,and how stealing is bad.i was just wondering if this is something that you have accumalated thoughts through many of your years alive?
I am a young teenager and i steal books to read to learn, you know
because like many people of my age i am a unemployed.Did you ever
resort to stealing when you were younger?

KaBar2
04-11-2004, 09:29 AM
I am against stealing for a number of reasons, but the biggest one is that it makes me feel ashamed. It's foolishness for me to try to scold you for stealing, but the truth is that it's a fairly big risk for very little benefit.
We justify things to ourselves that we know are wrong in an attempt to "make it okay," but taking something from somebody else that doesn't belong to you isn't ever going to be okay. Being in the wrong harms the way you feel about yourself. Even though you may be overtly saying "Hey, I ripped off this thing, I got over, I didn't have to pay, I'm so clever they won't ever catch me," secretly, inside every thief is thinking "What's wrong with me that I can't get what I need by earning it like everybody else does?" Or, even worse, they are thinking "I'm such a loser that I won't ever be able to have the things I want unless I steal them or take them by force. I can't compete on the same level playing field with everybody else." People with really low self esteem often steal to "get back" at a society that they see as mean, cruel, and rejecting. Kleptomaniacs (people who steal even when they don't need the things they steal) have a mental illness that is related to obsessive-compulsive-disorder (OCD.) And it often responds to the same meds that are used to treat OCD.
And things like books--dude, what is the Public Library for? If you cannot afford to buy the books you need, then borrow them from the Library. If you are talking school books, or college textbooks, I'm not sure what to tell you. The price of college textbooks is a big rip-off, IMHO, but they are the intellectual property of the person that wrote them. Of course, publishers and colleges jack you up for the price of them in order to pay big bucks to the professors that wrote them. One may attend college without buying the latest textbooks (buy last year's book--whatever) because the information doesn't change all that much, but life is a lot easier if you just buy the right book.
I am not saying "Look at me, I'm so perfect---I never stole anything." That's not true. But the things I did steal, I did not keep, and they brought me very little satisfaction in life. Worst of all, the times when somebody stole from me were very painful and I felt extremely angry and violated. No doubt, that is what the thief intended, so I try not to give him the satisfaction, but the truth is, being stolen from hurts bigtime. I've never made any secret of how I feel about it on here. I don't have much, but what I do have, I earned fair and square, and it BELONGS TO ME. Anybody tries to rip me off for it had better be ready for a serious ass fight, that's all. And since I hate being stolen from, I do not steal from others. It's wrong, and it hurts my pride to steal or to beg. I refrain from both as much as is possible. Life is too short to waste one second of it in jail. Just be honest. You'll like yourself a lot more.

305soul
04-11-2004, 04:08 PM
HAHA this is funny...i never thought about the Library.:lol:
Alright ol timer.peace

1HalfOfMe
04-13-2004, 01:21 AM
alright kabar, hats off to you. i read this whole thread, although it did take me a couple of days, and it was great. i had some questions but now i have forgotten them. ill come back when i rember, but dont stop posting. and if u did think about writing a book, a autobiography is a better idea than a freight book. your life story would be much more interesting and original than a freight hopping guide. see
duffy littlejohn's freight train hoppin in america --great book.
can you make a list of videos and movies that you cant thjink up off the top of your head. ++edit-i know you have listed books and movies but an organized list woiudl be great++thanks kabar

KaBar2
04-13-2004, 08:27 AM
Are you asking for a list of videos and books about trainhopping? Or my favorites, or what?
One of my biggest favorites is a video called "Riding the Rails." It's about young, teenaged trainhoppers during the Great Depression, and what happened to them later.
Go down to the library and look up "hobos," "trainhopping," "tramps," and so forth.

*KILL STEEL*
04-14-2004, 12:45 AM
hey i noticed you said at the beg. something about Montana. you live in montana? or paint there? im curious to no and im not a pig, i just visit there alot and was wondering becuase i took a trip to a bridge today saw a bunch of scawls by train bums or whatever which remineded me of this thread. email me if u dont want to repost any thing, motoxxx933@expn.com i also saw one scrawl by someguy going from Baltimore to montana!

1HalfOfMe
04-14-2004, 06:40 AM
yea i guess just a orgainized list. it would be good just so people (me) can write it down and save for later.
i just bought two books on amazon. hobo and i for got the other one.
great tool everyone. they have railroad atlas' but not a a very cheaper price. 75 for the updated one

KaBar2
04-14-2004, 09:51 AM
But I used to ride in Montana a lot, and I really like the state. I like Idaho and Washington State a lot too. There's just not much work up there.
Here's some book and video titles.
"Hopping Freight Trains In America", by Duffy Littlejohn ($18.80)

Zephyr Rhoades Press
P.O. Box 1999
Silver City, New Mexico 88062-1999
(505)-534-2888
dlittlejohnZRP@zianet.com

THIS IS THE NEW TRAINHOPPER'S SAFETY BIBLE.
"The Milk and Honey Route" 1931 Hopping in the Great Depression.
Vanguard Press, NY
"A Freighthopper's Guide to North America" by Daniel Leen 1992 (out of print--you might find a copy from a rare books place)
"Done and Been" by Gypsy Moon ($9.00)
Indiana University Press
"Rolling Nowhere" by Ted Conover. Pretty grim, but not inaccurate.
"Northern Pacific University" (poetry) by Buzz Potter
"The New Collected Works of Prose and Poetry of Iowa Blackie"
by Iowa Blackie, General Delivery, New Hampton, Iowa 50659
Any copies of "The Hobo Times" magazine that you can find. Buzz Potter published it until his death.
Indiana University Press

1HalfOfMe
04-14-2004, 11:36 PM
thanks kabar
here are some ill add:
hobo by Ted Conover---amazon.com
Rolling Nowhere : Riding the Rails with America's Hoboes
by Ted Conover --amazon.com
Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America
Kenneth L. Kusmer --amazon. this one is more of a history
Hobo : A Young Man's Thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America by Eddy Joe Cotton--amazon.com
here is a summary of what Hopping Freight Trains In America", by Duffy Littlejohn like kabar said, its great. "Hopping freights is not only dangerous, it's illegal," Littlejohn says, but he loves the adventurousness of it and the startling view of the country it gives. He tells you what sort of clothing is best (dark, and wear gloves), why it's easier to hop a freight in rural areas than in cities, why it's hard to find a train on Sundays and Mondays, how to know where you're going (try Rand McNally's Handy Railroad Atlas of the United States), and why railroad workers (except bulls and managers) are, in general, friendly to riders. He describes hobo jungles. He gives an insider's view of unions and characterizes various companies regarding their attitudes toward free rides (many of them look the other way, Littlejohn says, because riders are often migrant workers; the produce they harvest may end up as freight). Littlejohn gives a colorful history of railroads and how they affected cities--for instance, the "wrong side of the tracks" originally referred to where immigrants settled after the railyards were established. Finally, Littlejohn suggests where you can hop a freight in every state and most Canadian provinces, with some asides for certain cities. (In New Orleans, "get ready for some long bridge walks.")
amazon.com of course....my new favorite shopping site

KaBar2
04-15-2004, 07:01 AM
Wed, 14 April 2004 12:05:21 -0700(PDT)
Subject: Hi
To: Kabar
Hey there, back in Amory after taking John John for a quick run up to Cleveland (OH) and back to kill time. We got in early Tue morning around 3AM but spent the weekend in Fulton, KY. We have been wet and cold now for 3 days and the sun has finally come out, and will stay out till Sun or Mon. Big crowd here (Amory Railroad Days) so far, EVEN ROAD HOG!!!! Train Doc (publisher of the CCG), just about everyone that came to Britt is here, but a few didn't make it. Tanner City Kid and Derail are MIA still, and Texas Mad Man and Collinwood Kid are still in route. John John and I set a new (personal) hopping record--Cleveland, Ohio to Fulton, Kentucky in NINETEEN HOURS!
Memphis is just the next Division, 5 or 6 hours where we had to walk 14 miles in the rain to the BNSF yard to catch a drag to Amory because of new cameras installed in the IC/CN Yard.
That same evening, walked another 4 or 5 miles in the rain, hunting down a 10PM train that wasn't made up where it has always been for the last six years. For some reason they built it in the Intermodal Yard! (YES, A JUNK TRAIN IN THE IM YARD!) But we found it anyway. Then, looking at the train, I realized it didn't have any AGR boxcars on it, which had me concerned, but it did have lots of running reefer cars.
She stopped on the north side of the Tom Bigbee River, about a mile and a half from the Yard, so we bailed off, in case it shot straight on through Amory, to Birmingham, in the rain. We had never bothered to look at the very last car in the string, because of the rain. We popped a a plug door boxcar and then shut the door most of the way shut until we got out of the Yard, then opened it up all the way. We walked 145 cars, both sides, but this was not the usual train. Must have been because it was Easter.
Anyway, sure as shit, the very last car was an AGR boxcar! LOL!
We saw it on the bridge as we waited for the train to cross so we could walk the bridge and cross the Tom Bigbee. And it terminated in Amory, too!
Well, my boots are still wet, and probably will be for a couple more days, even nout in the sun. We made it, though. Other than the rain, we had a very good trip to Cleveland and back.
Later, for now.
Stretch and Burl
Stretch and Burlington Dog K-9****
Grand Duke of the Hobos

1HalfOfMe
04-18-2004, 03:06 AM
kabar..are you seeing or your friends seeing increased security in spots that are usually safe for you. stretch said somthing about the new cameras, is this becoming a common thing.

Æ°
04-18-2004, 08:28 AM
Somehwere on the first page of this your said you knocked a dog out using your 'deadman'. What is a deadman?
Edit: Do you know of any online sources for railroad maps?
und busboy
04-19-2004, 06:20 AM
Watch out for the homeless, tramps, and bumbs. Theyll bite you in the ass when your not looking.
KaBar2
04-20-2004, 07:49 AM

The installation of closed-circuit video surveillance cameras is becoming very common in the bigger yards. You have to look very carefully all over the place to spot them. Oftentimes they will be mounted very high, up on a halogen light pole, up on the eaves of a roof, on telephone poles and places like that.
This is becoming quite a problem. As Stretch said in his email to me, they had to walk 14 miles in the rain because there was no way to get around the security cameras in the IC/CN yard. These cameras are turning up all over the place. One security employee at a bank of screens can monitor ten or fifteen locations. If they see anything suspicious, they displatch the bull.
A "deadman" is a short piece of 2x4 (maybe 26" or 28" long) that is used to block the door track of a revenue boxcar to keep it from sliding shut from slack action. I carry one in the tie-tie straps on my bindle. I can whip that baby into action in no time, LOL.

1HalfOfMe
04-21-2004, 06:51 AM
damn that really sucks aobut the video cameras...technology is ruining everything.
kabar, even though i dont know you at all, i highly recomend the book Rolling Nowhere : Riding the Rails with America's Hoboes

by Ted Conover --amazon.com
iv read the first 70 pages, in two days. its a story about a regular college educated guy who decides he wants to learn about the tramp scene. his adventures are very interesting and he works the lingo into the book also. great for beginers to learn and good book (so far)
cop it if you can

1HalfOfMe
04-21-2004, 06:55 AM
oh and do you know how to find out what the line is where we stay. people have threads in trainspotting, line # xx- the crimson jihad how does john freighthead find this out.

KaBar2
04-21-2004, 08:56 AM
I'm not 100% sure of what you're asking about, so I'll use the scattergun approach and hope that I answer your question.
First of all, every city and larger towns usually have more than one railroad company operating within the city. If the city is big enough to need a city map, usually the name of the railroad or it's initials will appear alongside the map symbol for the rail line. Older maps may have outdated information (for instance, my city map of Houston lists the "AT&SF" (Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe) as the owner of several tracks in Houston. Burlington Northern bought up Santa Fe a number of years ago, and this line is now called the BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe). The Santa Fe yard in South Park (New South Yards) is now a BNSF Yard.
So checking a city map is a place to start. In fact, get a new city map, a hi-liter and some clear vinyl packing tape. Hi-lite ALL the rail lines in your city. Make indications as to where stuff is (yards, lay-ups, major junctions, rail yards, etc.) and then tape all the folds carefully with the vinyl packing tape. I have a map I did this to that has lasted years and years.
Look up your local model railroad shop in the Yellow Pages and check them out to see what kind of information they might have. My local model railroad shop gave me one of the most valuable maps I own, for free. It has many of the local subdivisions named.
If you can find a signals switching shack or a switch marker post, or a siding marker near a main switch signal, there will be switch marker signs near the switch which usually has the name of the railroad on them somewhere. So do junction shacks.
If you've got the money, look up the stack ^^^for the address of DeskMap, and buy their "Professional Railroad Atlas." Volume I or II. Vol.II is better, but it costs about $75 compared to $24 for Volume I. They make actual railroad maps, too. These have different railroads marked in different colored inks.
Best of all would be to find a train crewman or MoW (maintenance of way) worker who can teach you all about it.
nesy

04-21-2004, 08:17 PM
hey u want to here some shit. one time i painted in this really wierd yard. I was visiting my uncle up in dokota. and I whent to this yard. I line my shit up and this lady with a lite finds me. she snuck up on me. any way she was a train yard work and before I knew it I was getting head and paintin at the same time. she said graffiti turned her on. then she drove me out of the yard and we did our thing in the truck. sounds bizarre cause I barley believe it every time I think about it but its true

NOTTS1
04-27-2004, 09:25 AM
Originally posted by nesy
hey u want to here some shit. one time i painted in this really wierd yard. I was visiting my uncle up in dokota. and I whent to this yard. I line my shit up and this lady with a lite finds me. she snuck up on me. any way she was a train yard work and before I knew it I was getting head and paintin at the same time. she said graffiti turned her on. then she drove me out of the yard and we did our thing in the truck. sounds bizarre cause I barley believe it every time I think about it but its true
i dont no wheter to believe that :rolleyes: :rolleyes: ..........
newmark

05-12-2004, 05:41 AM
for kabar
Where i rake flicks, rural suburbs, there was a small camp with a tent and a tarp. But I walk the tracks recently and it appears the rail co came in and leveled it. It was behind some trees, but now is just trash scattered everywhere, like a bulldozer ran into the woods hunting for them. Anyways, my question is somewhat like lens's, I was wondering that if they were still there, and I wanted to meet them, could I offer them like a can of food or something, or would this seem rude? Right on the other side of them is a small river, they are in some thick woods, or were, and then tracks then backyards of houses.

dirkdiggler
06-08-2004, 02:48 AM
kabar-
i have read the bulk of your threads and it has been very informative..you gotta love the free flow of info on the internet..no where else would you be able to get that kind of info with out experince first hand. for all that i thank you.
mas
06-13-2004, 07:39 PM
Kabar, could you mail me please? I was wondering if you'd like to publish your experiences as a book.
stretch

06-24-2004, 08:22 AM
Hi Kabar, been a wile since i've been on the site and just thought i'd check in. Let me know if your still thinking about grabing a train to britt cause i might be able to meet you halfway or something
later for now
stretch and burlington dog K_9

KaBar2
07-07-2004, 07:48 AM
To those of you who tried to contact me---my apologies. My computer blew a power supply and I was "bucks down" for over a month. I am, however, back online.
Stretch---I heard from Queen Mama Jo in KCMO, she and Hobo Santa said it's cool if I park my truck at their place during Britt, so I can drive up there, leave the truck, and we could catch out from one of the yards along the river. EMAIL ME, I've never gone north out of KC before, only west.

dear sas
07-09-2004, 07:21 AM
YOURE BACK!!! good to see it too.
iv been wondering where you went. you have any stories about being left high and dry anywhere?? or getting stuck in very bad tempitures?

KaBar2
07-09-2004, 07:51 AM
Thanks for the welcome home. It's good to be back online, for certain. I missed being able to easily post on 12 oz.
As for stories about getting stuck someplace, I've been stuck a bunch of places, over the years. Up in sparsely populated areas where stores and civilized towns are few and far between, if you get sidetracked you better hope you brought enough food and water to keep you going until they come back to pick up the string.
In fact, it's a very good idea for a trainhopper to be thinking strategically all the time. What day is it? How does that affect the flow of rail traffic? Any holidays coming up? What does the labor relations situation look like? You definately don't want to be stranded by a strike, and if the railroad was crazy enough to try to operate with scabs, you definately don't want to cross a striker's picket line---you need those rail workers' good will. Pissing them off by hopping with a scab crew is DEFINATELY A BAD IDEA. Truth be told, though, I never heard of this occurring except way back in the day. Modern railroads work hand-in-glove with the railroad unions. Like the UAW and auto manufacturers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE) and the United Transportation Union (UTU) are very enmeshed with the various railroads. The romantic class-struggle model of unionism is way outdated. Modern union members are often more conservative than their employers.
Getting stuck somewhere is just part of it. It's one of the main reasons so few homeguards can catch out. There's too big a risk of winding up 800 miles from home, sidetracked at 0200 on a Sunday morning. You'd need a very understanding boss in that instance.
One of the worst I ever experienced for getting set off happened when I first started hopping. It took us eleven days to beat our way from Chicago to Butte, MT. During that whole time we did not see a single other train to catch other than the string of empties we were shagging. It SUCKED. We got stuck in every cow-chip backwater. Luckily we had some money and could buy meals along the way, because we ran out of food. Back then, tramps would give each other food, tobacco, water, etc. Today, that is a lot less likely. Be like a Boy Scout: "Always Prepared."

**DatDude**
07-12-2004, 08:27 PM
i go to the local trainyard daily and i notice a shit load of bums and homeless people, belive it or not their actually pretty chill and the last time i was their i chatted with one of them his name was landi. He told me he was into graffiti and he was tryin to be an artist if he could afford the paint, of course i asked what his name would be if he did, he plainly said, BUM. i then felt sorry for him gave him 2 cans of krylon, a german fat cap and a new york thin, let me tell you, i never seen any one so happy in my entire life. the funniest part about it was he said "the only thing that could make this better is a 40 of Old English." i never seen him since, but every day i go there with my camera in hopes of finding landi or should i say BUM.
:king: DAT DUDE :king:

KaBar2
07-13-2004, 07:27 AM
The problem with most "homeless" people (as opposed to tramps or hobos) is that they have apparently endless unmet needs. You get into the habit of giving somebody money every day, or food every day, or especially alcohol or drugs every day, and they are going to very quickly become "entitled," as well as dependent.
People who live independently, and make their own way (one way or another) do not become dependent upon others. If you get in the habit of giving stuff to a particular homeless person, he's going to become dependent and he's probably going to blame you. You're getting something out of the deal, too-- you're getting to be "The Benefactor." That instantly becomes a power relationship (can't help but be--you got the stuff and he needs it.) I do give a buck or two to homeless guys flying a sign down on the big intersection at U.S. 59 and Bissonnet, but not unless the guy has a full set of gear---ruck, bindle, sleeping bag, water jug, tarp, something. I don't give streamliners anything. Most likely they are just ripping off the good will of the people that give them money and they've got a car parked around the corner, a nice house and a big, fat bank account.
In order to keep some shred of self respect, these guys think and act (among themselves) as if the people that give them money are suckers and the spanging is just a sort of carnie rip-off. They like to think of themselves as "getting over." It might be true, to a degree; but from my perspective, it lacks dignity and requires a co-dependent benefactor. But whatever. I hope the guy used the paint to bomb and didn't just huff it.

**DatDude**
07-14-2004, 12:20 AM
Yeah i get what your saying. i mean like i said i go back there all the time lookin for him but he has bannished. and plus i know a guy that i gave like a buck or two down town, everytime i see him he doesn't say any thing but he implies that i did it once i have to do it again. shit i was just being nice, i straight asked the dude what he was gonna use it for, "a hooker, or beer" is what he said "what ever comes first"
other then that i mean i see them EVERYDAY maybe i should talk to them, hell a new friend wont hurt any one right?
dummyrun

07-16-2004, 01:06 PM
Grenwich London, 2001, walking tracks, just hear this fucking tramp wanking in the bush making grunting noises and shit, he scared us cos we thought we were alone, until we saw his grubby self... dodgy fucker!..

**DatDude**
07-18-2004, 09:59 PM
ma man was fucking a dog? soooooooooooooooooooooooo grose

KaBar2
08-25-2004, 09:46 PM
Not too long ago, before I went up to Britt for the National Hobo Convention, I started looking on eBay for "original equipment manufacturer" railroad maps. I bought five for $3.00 apiece. I got two Union Pacific maps, a Norfolk Southern, a Canadian National and a Conrail. I'm still looking, because I really could use a Kansas City Southern map, and a Burlington Northern Santa Fe and a few others.
Having a variety of maps, especially OEM railroad maps and aftermarket railroad atlases allows you to do what is called "map recconnaisance." You figure out where you are, where you want to be, and then try to figure out how to get there from here. As much as is practical, you want to be familiar with the terrain around where you need to catch out. You should know street names, local landmarks and so on. For this sort of thing, it's hard to beat the Crew Change Guide.
Many riders keep detailed journals and notes about where they've been, the lay of the land, important geographical features, street & place names, local businesses, what the scheduling of the particular railroad is like where they are trying to catch out. Lots of guys "on the inside" send this information to the tramp who complies the Crew Change Guide every year. Often times, if you are polite and careful, the railroad workers will tell you whatever you need to know.
Covering your maps with acetate or clear vinyl packing tape, or painting them with Map-pruf, or a combination of several techniques will make your maps last a lot longer. Carrying them in some sort of waterproof plastic map case will help a lot too. I know one guy who carries his maps rolled up inside a piece of 4" diameter, white, PVC water pipe with a PVC cap on both ends. Whatever you decide to do, keep in mind that maps can be VERY, VERY valuable gear. TREAT THEM ACCORDINGLY.
A compass can be absolutely invaluable as well. Buy a good compass, don't be cheap. A few places where a cheap, poorly made piece of gear is no bargain would be socks and boots, coat, sleeping bag and compass. Learn how to read a map and compass well. Lots of times you are going to find yourself in situations where there are no street signs, no way of easily determining where you are from the available information. On foot, in an unfamiliar rail yard or junction, with no street signs or readily identifiable landmarks.
Some of the younger railriders carry GPS units, but the older guys usually rely upon experience, verbal information and the occasional map or compass. Stretch has about twenty years of railriding experience behind him. Texas Mad Man has over thirty years. Between the two of them, there aren't too many places on the U.S. railroads they have not already been at least once.

wacytabacy
09-01-2004, 05:25 AM
fucking dogs eh? sick!

MO FA ME
09-02-2004, 10:15 PM
i'm homeless
KaBar2
09-03-2004, 05:47 PM
Wherever you are, that's "home." Deal with it.

crave
09-04-2004, 03:07 AM
map & compass reading abilites are invaluable in a variety of situations.

good stuff kabar.
enlighten
10-01-2004, 08:31 PM
quick question, i haven't seen anything about this mentioned here, or in littlejohn's book... what about reefers, i know on most of the old ones the refrigerator compartments are enclosed, but on alot of the refurbished ones (for example armn's) there's a litte hole next to the door on one side where you can get in and ride. it's completely enclosed on the other side by a grate type thing, so you can kinda see out. which would of course be a drawback cause you could only get out on one side. anyway...tell me what you think about it, and whether or not they're rideable. thanks

KaBar2
10-04-2004, 04:51 PM
When I was a kid, tramps used to ride the ice bunker in the old-style "reefer" cars when the car was empty and the ice bunker was empty. It was a good ride, because the cars are insulated and they were a lot less noisy and much warmer in the winter. In those days, the ice bunker hatches opened to the top of the car, so the tramps could catch a ladder on the fly, climb to the deck and then open an ice bunker hatch and get inside. Reefer cars no longer use ice, and have no ice bunker.
The thing that bothers me the most about modern reefer cars is the NOISE of the refrigerator unit. I never tried to ride one because I hate the sound of those reefer compressors. No way could I stand riding close to one, the noise would drive me crazy, even with earplugs.
All I can say is I would think long and hard about it before I tried it. Examine that space very carefully and look for hazards--fuel leakages, chemicals, fumes, grease, sharp objects, etc. What would happen if you were in there and the car derailed? Think about it.

Kid Cadillac
10-05-2004, 05:10 AM
hey kabar, speaking of derailments have you ever been riding during a derailment?...when I was 11 years old my family took a fancy train( I think it was actually called the orient expess) from d.c to chicago only a little while before chicago a trackter was stuck in the tracks and we hit it, the room car I was in fell on its side so all the doors were faced down, the luggage was blocking the door so it took a little while before the worker got to me, I was so young and ignorant I actually asked the guy if "this happens all the time." I really didn't think it was a big deal until all the news cameras showed up. I think there wer only minor injuries, I remember somthing bad happened to the engineer, but I can't remember If he died.hope not. Thanks Kabar.

Cadillac
KaBar2
10-05-2004, 06:51 AM
But my friend Texas Madman has been in several. He was critically injured in one, with multiple broken bones, head injury, etc. He jokes that "I've got so many screws and bolts and plates in me that if I try to go through a metal detector, the alarms go off!" For several years after he was released from the hospital he didn't ride trains, but would only travel by bicycle. He figured it not only was safer, but he needed the exercise of his injured legs. After a few years, though, he went back to riding freight trains. He received a very generous settlement from the railroad, as well as having all his medical bills paid for. Their lawyer came to him and said "We're prepared to offer you $XXX,000, if you will agree not to sue us." Tex said "Shoot, I can't sue you guys for something that was my own fault. But I sure would appreciate some help with these medical bills." Eventually, they paid his hospital expenses and gave him a big chunk of change. I think he used part of it to send his kids to college. He has one son that is a banker.

rollinaround
10-05-2004, 07:30 AM
Now I'ma guess on this, that outfit wasn't the chicken shit UP? Was it?...
errr, that is the outfit that paid Texas Madman off. I'd be curious to know.
Ident
10-14-2004, 08:59 AM
I was checking this list of hobos that died on this website: http://www.hobo.com/westbound.htm
And I came accross Waterbed Lou.
Maybe I'm just late on the news but is that the same Waterbed Lou we see everywhere?

KaBar2
10-14-2004, 06:37 PM
Ident--
I have only ever heard of one "Waterbed Lou." There are a lot of people who adopt some commonly-known moniker as their own, not realizing that there is already a well-known old-timer who already has that sobriquet. (A good example is "Derail" of which I personally know three rail-riding tramps who used this name.)
Right now there is a major effort being put forth by King Adman to identify the Unknown Hobo in Minneapolis. I've talked to several people online who are leaving this weekend in different directions to post up Adman's "Unkown Hobo" posters and fliers.
Go to http://www.hobo.com/unknown_hobo.htm
Adman was one of the two tramps that searched for and found the missing Lord Open Road, who had been murdered and buried in a pauper's grave by the county in Dalhart, Texas. The king then, Steamtrain Maury Graham, sent Adman and another guy to find Open Road. Once he was located, they then went through all the official hassle to have him disinterred, cremated, and then they brought some of his ashes back to Britt, to be buried in the National Hobo Cemetary. Some of the ashes (about 1/3) they sprinkled on rail cars along the way, in every different type of car, so that Lord Open Road could "ride the rails forever."
Every year at Britt, they symbolically give Lord Open Road the money of which he was robbed in Dalhart --$3.65 and we remember his name---and the names of the two sorry motherfuckers that killed him, who someday will be released from the safety of a Texas prison, I hope.

KAES.IVB.ET
10-15-2004, 11:18 PM
General question... Anyone ever been down to Freedom Tunnel (Amtrak, New York, West Side...) The last time I went down there must have been 2-3 years ago. That place was fucking nuts. I don't care who you are. Especially after it rained. Your feet just sunk in the mud. One of my boys got jumped down there too, so it kind of lost its charm. I don't know. I was over there scouting some shit out but all the locks have been put on that shit and I think there are camera's now. I'm so curious. Damnit.

KAES.IVB.ET
10-16-2004, 12:19 AM
KaBar did you see this? http://www.cwporter.com/letter18.htm I'm assuming you have so I'll just say everyone else check it out. I don't think it puts anyone in good light but it was a good read at least.
On another note I found an article about Montana freights. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2003/09...territory01.prt (http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2003/09/07/territory/territory01.prt)
Another small time article but once again entertaining. "If someone is found on railroad property, he will be asked to leave. Someone found on equipment will be arrested. Under state law, trespassers may receive up to six months in jail and a $500 fine. Under federal law the maximum jail time is six years and a $5,000 fine." When I got caught.... the railroad never brought charges against me. I had a fine and 140 hours of community service. It wasn't Montana but hey.

KaBar2
10-16-2004, 07:49 AM
I had never seen that interview before, but I think it's probably authenic. Mr. Porter seems to be something of a racist and a white supremacist. There is a certain element in the world of tramps and hobos that subscribes to this sort of racist claptrap. Generally speaking, they are the most ignorant and least educated, and/or ex-convicts. Among the white ex-convicts, this sort of bare-knuckle racism is pretty common.
I can't say as I disagree with his opinions on guns, though. He's on the right track there.
Just from reading this article, I'd say that the person being interviewed was either a member of the Ku Klux Klan, or some similar racist group, and/or a member of the FTRA, or both. His ideology roughly approximates that of the Klan.

KAES.IVB.ET
10-16-2004, 11:33 PM
My friend ducked out this summer to go hop freights. I haven't heard from him in about 4 months. Any way to find him. Do they usually find bodies if he got stabbed, thrown from a train ect. Any ideas? He's a pretty shady kid but he can handle himself and hes been jumping for a while but you never know. If he got arrested I know I would have at least gotten a letter so I doubt he's there.
Is it hard to get to Canada through freights? I've never spoken to anyone who's gotten to Canada that way. When I visited Montreal not to long ago I saw a huge freight yard so I know there's plenty of traffic going up through their.

KAES.IVB.ET
10-17-2004, 12:10 AM
I know this double posting is bullshit but I cant edit the previous post any more... KaBar I saw that you wanted to make a movie. You should definitly look at Dark Days. This is one of the most amazing documentaries I have every seen.
I took this from www.imdb.com :
Near Penn Station, next to the Amtrak tracks, squatters have been living for years. Marc Singer goes underground to live with them, and films this "family." A dozen or so men and one woman talk about their lives: horrors of childhood, jail time, losing children, being coke-heads. They scavenge, they've built themselves sturdy one-room shacks; they have pets, cook, chat, argue, give each other haircuts. A bucket is their toilet. Leaky overhead pipes are a source of water for showers. They live in virtual darkness. During the filming, Amtrak gives a 30-day eviction notice.
This description doesn't give it enough credit but just to give you the idea. If you see how these guys make there homes down there it's amazing. Definitly something to see. If you get the dvd you can see how they made it. The homeless guys you see down there are the crew. They did the lighting/dolly/interviewing... Also Dj Shadow just to put the cherry on top.
BUMP

ghostvandal
10-28-2004, 05:39 AM
kabar, i was wondering if you have any new ideas to what eat on the rails.. last time i was getting pretty sick of tuna cans and bread with nuts and dry raisins after 4 days..

KaBar2
10-28-2004, 07:05 AM
Ghostvandal---
For actually riding on a train, it's hard to beat canned food. Even back in 1969, I carried a small backpacker's gasoline Svea stove and a liter of white gas. This makes it a whole lot easier to heat up food while you are rolling. The coolest stove I've seen recently is the Mountain Safety Research (MSR) Whisperlite multi-fuel stove. By changing the jets, you can burn unleaded gas, diesel or kerosene. Most of the tramps I know burn diesel that they get from a parked unit's fuel tanks. (You can get these MSR stoves at REI and other places that sell lightweight backpacking equipment.)
Canned goods are heavy as shit, though. I usually pack a bunch of packages of Ramen noodles. Instant rice, macaroni and cheese, just about anything that involves "just adding water" and boiling. In situations where you cannot cook, though, it makes sense to have some canned food that can be eaten cold, like pork and beans, sardines, spaghetti-o's, etc.
Dry, hard salami doesn't require refrigeration, nor does beef jerky.
DON'T FORGET TO BRING A MILITARY P-38 CAN OPENER.
I also carry big bags of roasted peanuts in the shell, and dried fruit (not too many apricots or you'll be shittin' like a goose.) I collect mustard and mayonnaise packets from hamburger joints, and save them for catching out, so I can make sandwiches.
A lot of tramps only eat one meal a day. The rest of their nutrition comes in pop-top aluminum cans, LOL!

thefarm
10-28-2004, 04:04 PM
i was picked up somewhere in mass. and was pulled off the train. the train cop called in a local officer and the two went into a huddle and concluded that they would just take our info and let us go. they said we would get a summons later on. when we went to court the charges were dropped but still had to pay a 250$ court fee. a good example of how the courts are fucked. i would hate to be arrested on a bunk charge only to later be found not guilty and then have to pay a fat court fee for something i didn't even do.
the best part about this was that the train cop was really cool before the local cop arrived. he told us to catch out of western mass. if we didn't want to be hassled. he also told us to not show up to the court date if we didn't want to deal with fines. he said that he hated throwing people of the trains but since sept. 11th things have tightened up. things are changing and not for the better. look around.

ghostvandal
10-28-2004, 05:33 PM
Originally posted by thefarm@Oct 28 2004, 10:04 AM
he said that he hated throwing people of the trains but since sept. 11th things have tightened up. things are changing and not for the better. look around.
Quoted post
same story happened to me, but it was engineers that found me in the slave engine, they said since sept 11 they would loose their job to let someone ride the slave engine..whatever i took the next one.
kabar about that military can opener. a good knife and your foot can do the job too hehe.

lepthebeard
10-28-2004, 07:11 PM
...bombvomitter...
...yer bro maybe in canada, it's still pretty easy to ride into our great country via the west coast from ______ to ______...
ghostvandal
10-28-2004, 10:53 PM
^ actually not THAT easy but.. at least you dont get killed by other tramps like on the us westcoast..
lepthebeard
10-29-2004, 01:46 AM
...dude neither you or I know shit about this topic...
ghostvandal
10-29-2004, 02:20 AM
hehe..well i dont know about the u.s westcoast but i sure know about canada :p

Chance Em Redy
10-29-2004, 11:07 AM
Excuse me for not knowing much about train hopping- thts not possible in hawaii- so anyway, you guys just ride these trains all over the country and bring paint with you? Is it like a scheduled trip where you know when ur gonna get back home, or is it like you just take trains wherever they go and do that for a year or so? some writers just do this as a lifestyle?
damn this shit is interesting. i bet theres alot of crazy stories to be told as well. late.

imported_nelACKson
10-30-2004, 09:26 AM
well i dont think most people bring paint with them when they travel by freight train (just another thing to get in trouble for when youre traveling) ...at least i dont. its fairly easy to know where youre going, it jsut takes some research. ive found its better to take a day or two more off from work than you originally planed because train trips are usually not as simple as you planned. im a loser and just go out for weekend trips but many people spend their lives riding trains

.
KaBar2
10-30-2004, 11:30 PM
Quite a few of the younger riders do write grafitti as well as hop trains, but they usually don't carry paint because of the weight and the noise of the cans. If you get detained by the bulls BE POLITE and respectful, and they might turn you loose. If they search your ruck and find eight or nine cans of spray paint, they might very well write you up for vandalism as well as trespassing. Do what you gotta do, but BE CAREFUL.

KaBar2
11-03-2004, 06:40 AM
I got a call today from some of my friends from Britt, who just blew into town on a train this morning. Jenny, Dritz and three guys they are traveling with arrived in downtown Houston at the Library and called me. I gave them directions to the jungle and told them what bus to take. They sounded really happy to have a destination. It's raining and Houston is really shitty when it's all rainy and muddy.
They're going to stay in the hooch that Stretch and I built last winter.
Cool. I'm going down to the jungle tomorrow morning and take them some food and beers. Kind of nice to have some trainhopping friends in town.

hyrax
11-04-2004, 09:53 AM
KaBar -- I've read through a lot of the first few pages of this thread and plan on going through the rest of them, but by far this is the most interesting stuff I've read here on 12oz. I know you've been told this a lot already but it's the truth :) Glad you've been keeping this thread going.
What are the chances of you bringing a camera down to the jungle next time and maybe getting a few pictures of it, and some of your tramp and hobo friends? I'd be interested to see what it looks like, and how they look after being out on the lines for so many years.
I'm in Ontario, Canada and have never personally seen a jungle, or anyone riding the rails for that matter, but I'm sure it's different out west, more towards Saskatchewan and Alberta.

KaBar2
11-04-2004, 07:13 PM
Hyrax---
There are some tramps that object strenuously to being photographed, so it can be sort of a ticklish situation trying to take pictures. Trainhopping is against the law (it's a misdemeanor,) so they are understandably sort of resistant to being photographed and identified.
The three guys and two girls down at our jungle right now are in their mid-twenties, and are not old grizzled veteran riders. Jenny and Dritz are in their early twenties. The Other three, two guys and a girl, I don't know well, having only met them yesterday for the first time. All five are your typical anti-establishment type young adults--dressed in road-weary, patched clothing, often black in color. The guys wear dreads or longer hair. The guys all wear a beard, but because of their young ages, their beards are not very thick yet. Jenny dyes her hair jet black and wears it in dreads, the other young lady is a strawberry blonde and wears her hair braided. Everybody is wearing work boots or combat boots, dark Carhartt trousers, overalls or jackets in varying degrees of delapidation, and either "gimme caps" or "engineer" caps, with railroad patches sewn on. It's a style thing, much different from older tramps, who usually are much less well-prepared and usually dressed in whatever clothes they got from the mission or Salvation Army. All these kids have well-worn sleeping bags, blankets and tarps or ponchos, black mountaineering type rucksacks, and good winter gear (they came from up north, via New Orleans.)
These kids are what the older riders my age call "Flintstone Kids." Kids who look like this are generally anarchists, in my experience, but these kids told me they are Christians. They read the Bible. When we cooked "lunch," they said a brief grace before eating. Jenny and Dritz pepper their conversation with lots of casual profanity, but the other three do not, and while they didn't admonish her, they looked a little pained when Jenny reeled off a string of cuss words.
All of them are seasoned trainhoppers. They have been to see the elephant.

Today is a glorious, clear, beautiful Texas winter day. It's about 70 degrees and probably as pretty a day as we will see in a while.

JAZZ HOBO TRAIN RIDER

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