Yup I hopped trains

YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
I wish there was a better way to express how much I enjoyed reading this.

They way you described it, was like reading a Harry Potter book. In the sense that I could imagine what you were describing.

That's rough dude. Living every day in a blender. Never knowing what ingredients are going to be thrown in, or when it's going to get turned on.

I haven't met you, yet*. But I'm proud of you.

That's one hell of a testimony.

*Hopefully someday.
Haha the blender analogy is great! Never thought of that. Human garbage can was one that always came to mind. Thanks for the kind words. And you’re right....*yet. There’s several folks on here i hope to break bread or share a hunt with. The Harry Potter reference made me laugh bc I immediately starting counting down how long it will take before @pcbuckhunter decides to start calling me that . Also I think everyone will appreciate this.... @nccatfisher had sent a pm last night saying he almost ended up working as rail police . We both agreed it would’ve been a fun time playing Tom and Jerry, but ultimately we both know he would emerge victorious.
 

wncdeerhunter

Old Mossy Horns
Haha the blender analogy is great! Never thought of that. Human garbage can was one that always came to mind. Thanks for the kind words. And you’re right....*yet. There’s several folks on here i hope to break bread or share a hunt with. The Harry Potter reference made me laugh bc I immediately starting counting down how long it will take before @pcbuckhunter decides to start calling me that . Also I think everyone will appreciate this.... @nccatfisher had sent a pm last night saying he almost ended up working as rail police . We both agreed it would’ve been a fun time playing Tom and Jerry, but ultimately we both know he would emerge victorious.

I've been on a few trains before - RR police were scarce and we had a line that ran through our jurisdiction - We should talk sometime :)
 

pcbuckhunter

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I've been on a few trains before - RR police were scarce and we had a line that ran through our jurisdiction - We should talk sometime :)
If that jurisdiction is WNC …. I’ve heard some stories that involved various agencies from an old Railyard Hostler.

If you were involved in anything near what I heard…. You had some interesting times I’m sure.
 

YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
There’s a guy on Utube that I ride along with from time to time, Hobo Shoestring.

It’s a lot more comfortable riding along from the recliner lol.
Oh yeah! He’s either a TN native...or that’s his current home base when he’s not riding. He’s a shining example of a good ol down home dude that you’d wanna meet and ride with. Man when I was riding and hadn’t been drinking, I’d sleep crazy good on trains. Actually, I’ll update this thread tomorrow about how a deep sleep got me in a pickle in Texas . I literally don’t miss ANYTHING about the lifestyle except for the actual train rides
 

YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
Alrighty. So I was telling bwfarms how I could sleep really good on trains. Keep in mind I did a lot of long distance stuff where I’d go from one state to another, or sometimes thru several. One of my favorite manifests to be on was a piggyback:
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They’re almost always a high priority train and just about everything but Amtrak pulls to the side to give these intermodals first dibs on the track. They’ll roll at 70mph consistently no problem. They’re actually one of the best cars to ride. Where, you ask? Tucked in underneath those 4 sets of tires. There’s quite a bit of room under there and if you’re train is being spotlighted or brakemen are doing maintenance checks, you can sit up on those axles and be invisible.

So I was with 2 gals that were very inexperienced riders. They were really good hearted people but had zero business riding freight. No street smarts or people reading skills. I ditched them on more than one occasion just to end up going back with them a few minutes later because I felt bad. The one time I let my guard down and decided to listen to their bright idea, we ended up in the middle of the Nevada desert in a car with 2 tweakers driving 120 mph on the wrong side of the road. I ended up putting the driver in a head lock and holding a knife to his throat( and risking him wrecking the car ) after they had the radio cranked up and I heard them planning how they were gonna figure out a way to ditch me and rape the girls. But I digress.

needless to say I had to do all the pondering and figuring when it came to what yard we’d go to, what manifest was going to which yard in another area or state, etc. Occasionally I made the wrong choice or was too drunk to think clearly. The reason we were in Vegas was I put us on the wrong train in Colton, CA and instead of shooting over to Tucson, AZ, we were on the train that splits north to NV. Imagine my surprise waking up the next morning and seeing all the statues in Vegas. What’s worse, the one gal thought we were at the real Statue of Liberty 😑After the Highway tweaker incident, we walked 24 miles and eventually had a guy pick us up. He was a nice older gentleman and smart too. “I’ll gladly give ya a ride, but y’all have to stay in the back since I don’t know ya” I gotta say it was pretty cool riding in the back of a pickup over the Hoover Dam. Somehow we end up in Yuma AZ via train but I don’t remember the particulars .

So yeah, back to me sleeping well on trains. We end up at another hop out spot with the intention of going to Austin TX. Yup...Austin. See, I told ya I was a human turd back then. Well, a lot of times you might hope to get dropped right in the destination city or town , but anything could happen and sometimes you’ll end up on the out skirts or a few towns over and have to change your plan. But we got on a hot shot outta Yuma hoping to get as close to Austin as we could. That train was destined to terminate in Dallas and we’d figure it out from there. It was never a big deal where ya ended up tho. It’s not like you had a home or some kinda schedule to follow. Naturally, you take advantage of free time 24/7 by boozing and fighting and not doing anything to better yourself. Makes sense right? Meanwhile your family is back home not knowing if you’re dead, in prison, or even happy.

The three of us are tucked under the axle of that tractor trailer and this train is screamin across Texas. Life is good. I was extremely paranoid tho. We were gonna shoot right thru El Paso. El Paso is a border town. Granted, we were close to the border since Yuma. But security was much higher between El Paso and Sierra Blanca . All my anxieties came true as we went thru. Border patrol, railroad police , K-9 units, electronic scanners that scanned trains for riders, guys with optics in towers, you name it. Our train must’ve stopped a half dozen times and multiple SUVs and ATVs rolled the train. We spent hours crammed up between the top of the axle and the underside of the truck bed/frame. The train barely crawled. Obviously we are US citizens but I was not looking forward to getting locked up in a border town. But that’s part of the deal when you live your life as a professional hard head. It was scorching hot and not much breeze hitting us in that little hiding spot with 3 people jammed up against all that hot metal. We eventually got outta there and the train got back up to 70mph and we were relieved.

what we didn’t know was there was a big surge of storms just east of us and we were headed into them. Even being under that trailer, the wind plus the speed of the train had the rain blowing sideways and we were getting drenched. Thank god it was summer time and we didn’t have to deal with freezing cold. We agreed to hunker down and try to get some sleep. Periodically I’d wake up for a minute to see we were still hauling butt. I knew that no matter what, that train would end in Dallas. So if we were moving, we weren’t there yet. At some point I totally crashed. Not much food and being up for too long at the beginning of the journey wore me out.

It’s morning time and I’m still knocked out. The gals were too. I get woken up by what I perceived to be the train derailing and crashing . Massive banging and crashing and mechanical noises of death. I sit up and peek my head out from around the side of the tires in time to see the trailer on the car in front of us disappear into the air. Im still half asleep and totally confused as our car lurches forward and I realize what’s happening. We slept all the way to Dallas. We were in the termination yard and they were taking apart the train and ours was the next in line. As we referred to them: a train monster

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We stuffed our gear in our packs and bailed out into the yard, which was totally surrounded by barbed wire fences. There were workers everywhere and we’d just sprint past them trying to find an exit. Railroad police found us and they were pissed. Then a state police officer showed up. He was the one that would take us to jail. We got cuffed and put in his car. We went a couple minutes down the road and he pulled into a parking lot on the side of a diner. He let us out and uncuffed us. Being thoroughly confused, I asked him if we were still going to jail. He said something to the effect of “sometimes I think there’s more stuff going on with a person than what you can see. I feel like that might be the case with you guys. I hope you find what you’re looking for.Take care of one another and be safe.” Finally I asked “we are in Dallas right?”. Nope, we were technically in Mesquite, but Dallas was just up the road. That was the last time I allowed myself a deep sleep on a train.
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mekanizm

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Love the stories. Ironically just a couple weeks ago stumbled across Shoestring Hobo, Stobe the Hobo and Brave Dave and binge watched them recording their travels. Shoestring obviously lives the lifestyle while the other two seem to be more calculated and couple a thrill for adventure with a YouTube motivation. Shoestring fell while dismounting a moving train and got half his hand cut off. Stobe apparently got trapped on a narrow bridge and the train snagged his back-pack and drug him to his death. Brave Dave from the UK filmed most of his escape from The Bull (RR Police) up in Canada in a yard and later when he went back to film another adventure he didn't make entry into Canada because they had watched his YouTube Channel and put out a warrant for his arrest. He was banned from Canada and the US for ten years.

I watch another channel called Sampson Boat Co about a young guy rebuilding a hundred year old Pilot Cutter. Along the way he picked up a shipwright named Pete to help the build move along faster. Pete became a star of the show and we later found out he has two stumps and prosthesis from a train hopping accident.

There is something almost romantic about hopping a train. It seems to be about the ultimate freedom when trapped in a corporate cubicle. The reality is a lot more chilling. People crave the stories. Tell us more Yancey!
 

YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
Love the stories. Ironically just a couple weeks ago stumbled across Shoestring Hobo, Stobe the Hobo and Brave Dave and binge watched them recording their travels. Shoestring obviously lives the lifestyle while the other two seem to be more calculated and couple a thrill for adventure with a YouTube motivation. Shoestring fell while dismounting a moving train and got half his hand cut off. Stobe apparently got trapped on a narrow bridge and the train snagged his back-pack and drug him to his death. Brave Dave from the UK filmed most of his escape from The Bull (RR Police) up in Canada in a yard and later when he went back to film another adventure he didn't make entry into Canada because they had watched his YouTube Channel and put out a warrant for his arrest. He was banned from Canada and the US for ten years.

I watch another channel called Sampson Boat Co about a young guy rebuilding a hundred year old Pilot Cutter. Along the way he picked up a shipwright named Pete to help the build move along faster. Pete became a star of the show and we later found out he has two stumps and prosthesis from a train hopping accident.

There is something almost romantic about hopping a train. It seems to be about the ultimate freedom when trapped in a corporate cubicle. The reality is a lot more chilling. People crave the stories. Tell us more Yancey!
Yeah I’d venture to say there’s more bad outcomes than good ones. I met maybe a half dozen individuals in a couple year period that were the exception to the rule tho. Hardly drank, if at all. Didnt get into the gang mentality . Although everyone justified it as being “crews” not gangs, but the behaviors were the same. Didnt waste time getting drunk and fighting under bridges or aimlessly puttering around. There was one guy my age who really did the deal. In the time it took me to go from Southern California to Oregon, he had gone from southern CA across to Florida, up to New York and way up thru Montana and over to Washington via the high line. He chased all the seasonal farming and outdoor jobs across the country. He was a real deal modern day hobo and not a criminal. Well, other than his mode of travel being illegal lol. I think what separated him from people like me was he already knew who he was. He wasn’t looking for answers in a bottle or approval from a group of maladjusted people that were a bad influence and didn’t know how to care for one another. He’d come out of a yard, hit a town to resupply, and be back on another train ASAP. If he saw a group of travelers he’d be quick to disappear. He just enjoyed the solitary life and the gorgeous views and working in a different state with different folks every couple months. It’s easy for me to say I wish I would’ve done it that way. But if I had, maybe I wouldn’t be here living the life I love with my wonderful wife and great friends and hunting partners.

I think my next write up will be about traveling with dogs. If there’s one dang thing we ever did right, it was treating our dogs better than we ever treated ourselves or each other. I’ll try to remember to include a story about how a mutt saved my life out in the California desert. Thanks Mek
 

Zach's Grandpa

Old Mossy Horns
We all really enjoy reading your stories but please keep in mind that when you put this on the internet it's up for grabs for anyone to do with it what they want. It would really be a shame to see your stories in a book written by someone else.

A suggestion for you; print all of them off, put them in a well sealed taped up envelope, take a picture with the date of the sealed envelope, and mail them to yourself in some form of registered mail. Never open them and store them in a safe place. That's called a poor man's copywrite and it proves that they are yours on whatever date you mail them. Take my word for it, people will steal you stories off the internet.

I have every one of my stories on here protected that way.
 

FITZH2O

Old Mossy Horns
We all really enjoy reading your stories but please keep in mind that when you put this on the internet it's up for grabs for anyone to do with it what they want. It would really be a shame to see your stories in a book written by someone else.

A suggestion for you; print all of them off, put them in a well sealed taped up envelope, take a picture with the date of the sealed envelope, and mail them to yourself in some form of registered mail. Never open them and store them in a safe place. That's called a poor man's copywrite and it proves that they are yours on whatever date you mail them. Take my word for it, people will steal you stories off the internet.

I have every one of my stories on here protected that way.
Wouldnt posting them here do the same thing? It provides a date stamp and author.
 

Zach's Grandpa

Old Mossy Horns
Wouldnt posting them here do the same thing? It provides a date stamp and author.
No the internet is take what you want unless it has a copywrite on it. Oh he could prove that he posted them on here but if someone stole them they could say they had them before he posted them on here. It would be a court battle he probably wouldn't win. Producing a sealed envelope with a date on it and a picture of the envelope sealed and dated with each story inside dated is pretty solid proof of who owns them. I think his stories are well worth the effort of protecting.
 

FITZH2O

Old Mossy Horns
No the internet is take what you want unless it has a copywrite on it. Oh he could prove that he posted them on here but if someone stole them they could say they had them before he posted them on here. It would be a court battle he probably wouldn't win. Producing a sealed envelope with a date on it and a picture of the envelope sealed and dated with each story inside dated is pretty solid proof of who owns them. I think his stories are well worth the effort of protecting.
I agree they are worth protecting. I honestly don’t know anything about it and was just wondering.
 

Zach's Grandpa

Old Mossy Horns
Here's a short story for you about protected material. In 1992, Aug I think, I was sitting on a beach in Cayman when I got into a conversation with a guy sitting next to me. We exchanged the usual pleasantries and I asked him what he did for a living. He said that he was an attorney but had written a book and it had done pretty well so now he was trying to make it as a full time writer. He went on to say that writing had always been a hobby and he never ever expected to sell anything or make a living at it. He was totally surprised when the book became a best seller. That book later became a movie as did four other books he wrote. He has sold over 300 million books.

Shared that to say that you never know when something that you think is not good enough can take off and become successful. I personally think Yancy has a good read in the making, it's genuine, it's from the heart, and it's about a lifestyle that most people have no idea exist this day and time. I encourage him to explore it and see what happens.
 

YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
Interesting, did you get money.to eat and drink?
It’s funny. I hated panhandling. I was literally a bum but felt embarrassed about begging lol. Food was easy to acquire. I didn’t realize how wasteful people are until I lived like that. It really opened my eyes to how many people go out to eat, ask for a carry out box for their leftovers, and then walk outside and throw them away. That’s what was funny about passing thru towns with renowned restaurants. I ate all kinds of gourmet stuff lol. You could argue it wasn’t sanitary to eat strangers food, but at that point I had no expectation or ambition to even live to be 30. Grocery stores threw out a ton of stuff based on expiration dates. If they didn’t like hobos, they’d have security guarding their dumpsters. But several places realized they could leave the stuff on the loading dock and not even be troubled to haul it to the dumpsters because we’d come get it. But a lot of that got ruined by people who would take what they wanted and make a huge mess out of everything else. One time I went behind a CVS and found their dumpster stacked totally full with canned goods, ramen noodles, packs of crackers, beef jerky etc. We knew how to take an aluminum can and basically make a stove burner with it and use isopropyl alcohol as the fuel source. There were all kinds of turf wars over panhandling. I’ve literally seen someone get stabbed because they were holding a sign on a corner that someone else considered their own. It’s interesting to see the psychology of different people. One time I was holding a sign trying to hitch hike out of a city. I specifically wrote on it that I didn’t need money just needed a ride to a train yard. Everyone who stopped gave me money and wouldn’t give me a ride. I guess they figured it was safer for them. Cant blame them. Another time I had a sign saying I was looking for manual labor work and didn’t want money unless someone was paying me for doing some work. Again, people just tried to give me money. One guy even yelled at me to “get a F’n job you scumbag.” But yeah that’s why I have such a problem with all the political stuff going on today regarding the “need” for all these tax payer funded social programs . With the exception of the mentally ill or physically disabled, I can’t really agree with it being hard to eat when you’re on the streets. The emphasis is always on the poor city folks, but there’s wasted resources everywhere you turn. That’s why the propaganda about ID’s is hogwash too. Every major city I went thru had a program to get people photo IDs, etc. On the flip side, one of the biggest hypocrisies of the vagabond culture is the number of people that think they’re anarchists but rely on food stamps, SSDI, and handouts from other citizens. But regarding food...there’s plenty of it being thrown out everywhere all the time. Another known practice from the old school depression era hobos was when you leave a hobo camp to get on a train, you leave at least one useful thing for the next group. Water, canned food, old frying pan, fire starters, etc
 

YanceyGreenhorn

Still Not a Moderator
Here's a short story for you about protected material. In 1992, Aug I think, I was sitting on a beach in Cayman when I got into a conversation with a guy sitting next to me. We exchanged the usual pleasantries and I asked him what he did for a living. He said that he was an attorney but had written a book and it had done pretty well so now he was trying to make it as a full time writer. He went on to say that writing had always been a hobby and he never ever expected to sell anything or make a living at it. He was totally surprised when the book became a best seller. That book later became a movie as did four other books he wrote. He has sold over 300 million books.

Shared that to say that you never know when something that you think is not good enough can take off and become successful. I personally think Yancy has a good read in the making, it's genuine, it's from the heart, and it's about a lifestyle that most people have no idea exist this day and time. I encourage him to explore it and see what happens.
I really appreciate the kind words ZG. My ultimate goal would be to write a book about my past life, how I ended up where I am now, comparing and contrasting the different lifestyles, and how hunting allows me to tap into that wild side of my personality without having to flush my life down the tubes
 

Bluedogman

Six Pointer
I’m enjoying the stories brother! Keep them coming I bet you could write a book on just a bunch of short stories. We could call it “from the torments of hell to the glorys of heaven.”??
 
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