mike gregory - Posted - 04/30/2011:  20:06:36

About a mile from here, some 11-year-old kid was playing a game involving hopping on and off boxcars of moving trains.

He lost a foot, but is apparently going to live.

1four5 - Posted - 04/30/2011:  20:18:12

We did it quite often. The yards were a couple block from school, and if we caught an outbound train, we could beat the bus home. That included a 1/2 mile hike from the tracks to the farm. Never got caught, and the parents never knew we did it. Jumping off at pretty good clip could really get interesting, but we got good at it. Sometimes I wonder how we survived growing up. The potential for danger was incredable. We even used to crawl under the trains as they started out, and lay coins on the track, watch a few wheels flatten them out, then reach up and take them off the track. I cringe thinking about it.

Dagnabbit - Posted - 04/30/2011:  20:24:20

Around here a dog got a little close to the train and it cut off a few inches of his tail. In pain he swung around to take a bite out of his attacker and was decapitated. 

Just goes to show that you shouldn't lose your head over a piece of tail. Lesson learned. 

mike gregory - Posted - 04/30/2011:  20:58:31

Well, if it's Joke Time:

"I sure hope he likes hopping, 'cuz that's what he's going to be doing a LOT of from now on!"

pandjlocke - Posted - 04/30/2011:  21:21:06

I grew up in Pocatello, Idaho. It's nickname is The Gate City. The name comes from the city being the gateway to the west. It was a major hub for the Union Pacific Railroad. The UP's north/south track ran about a hundred yards just across a vacant field from my back yard growing up. About a mile down the track was an old abandoned building rumored to be an old mental institution. I think it was actually an old nursing home, but that's not as good a story to a kid. We just knew it as the haunted house. The only actual haunting was the hobos that took shelter there o. But we could run across the field and hop the train, ride it for the mile and hop off to explore the haunted house. That's some good kind of fun when you're twelve. Stupid, but fun.

feldspar1333 - Posted - 04/30/2011:  23:08:56

Well, if none of of did any of the fun or INCREDIBLY stupid things we did when we were younger, we would be doing those same stupid things now, but with much greater consequence. I am glad we did it.  

pstroud1 - Posted - 05/01/2011:  02:25:17

Just watched a good documentary on Netflix last night about Hobos.

Good show but not a safe thing to do for sure.

I was kind of a highway hobo for a year or so when i was in my teens.

Paul

figmo59 - Posted - 05/01/2011:  04:36:43

we usta walk the tracks as kids.

best bullfrog catchin in the world....you wouldn't think so but trains can sneek up on ya.

never hopped one though.

racer - Posted - 05/01/2011:  04:52:39

HI played hooky from school one day my buddy and i hopped a train to go to the big city of Toronto,and ended up in Montreal bad move ,my butt is still warm from that one.Ron

pandjlocke - Posted - 05/01/2011:  07:34:29

quote:

---

Originally posted by pstroud1

Just watched a good documentary on Netflix last night about Hobos.

Good show but not a safe thing to do for sure.

I was kind of a highway hobo for a year or so when i was in my teens.

Paul

 

---

It is rumored that a guy once went up to Woody Guthrie and told him that he wanted to be a hobo like Woody. Woody replied something to the effect of , "Be careful what you decide. It's not that easy for most. Remember, I'm a hobo with a recording contract."

banjodawg - Posted - 05/01/2011:  10:21:15

quote:

---

Originally posted by 1four5



We did it quite often. The yards were a couple block from school, and if we caught an outbound train, we could beat the bus home. That included a 1/2 mile hike from the tracks to the farm. Never got caught, and the parents never knew we did it. Jumping off at pretty good clip could really get interesting, but we got good at it. Sometimes I wonder how we survived growing up. The potential for danger was incredable. We even used to crawl under the trains as they started out, and lay coins on the track, watch a few wheels flatten them out, then reach up and take them off the track. I cringe thinking about it.

---

We also used to set pennies on the tracks near our home! Only once did we jump a train.  The trains went slowly through the little town next to us and, without prior planning, we jumped on one behind the High's Dairy store.  When we wound up in Baltimore, we had to find a ride home.  Mom and Dad never knew until we were grown and had our own kids.  Dad laughed when we told him and said, "You should have told me!"  Yeah, right!  (As he has mellowed, he has forgotten just how tough he was...)

BigJohn67 - Posted - 05/01/2011:  11:39:13

I grew up in Portsmouth, OH. There was a steel mill there, and one of the larger switching yards in the country. Often there was a train (or trains) blocking the crossings. We kids couldn't drive to an overpass, so climbing between or under the train was common. Taking a short hitch was also common. We flattened pennies on the tracks.     I never saw anyone get under a moving train. I'm glad no one ever dared me to do it.....

Coal was the main cargo in those days. And a lot of homes had coal furnaces. Sometimes people would climb on an idle train, throw down coal, gather it up and take it home. Small amounts, but maybe enough to get them to payday.

The steel mill and rail yards are gone. I miss the sound of the old steam locomotives, but not the cinders we would often get in our eyes walking to and from school.

Ronnie - Posted - 05/01/2011:  17:55:05

My Dad's friend was a GM&O freight conductor. He let me hitch hike on the freight train. A hobo with permission.

(I remember visiting a fellow in Portsmouth Ohio who stored a fantastic collection of Rolls-Royces in an old supermarket.)

donc - Posted - 05/01/2011:  18:14:19

When I was a teenager the rage was hopping busses. The electric trollies had two reels on the back so the cables could extend and retract to hold the air poles in place. The large housing made a good handle if you remembered to keep your fingers out of the way of the cables. One day they the cops were waiting at the top of a long hill and picked off a few kids as they arrived. That was the end of that hobby.

pick1936 - Posted - 05/01/2011:  20:11:19

(HOBO  BILL)    Jimmie  Rodgers &  Hank  Snow.   When  i  was  around  10  years  old  in  the  winter  With  snow  covered  road  in our  small  town. We  belly  flop  onto  our  sleds  and  catch  a  slow  moving  car,  at  stop  signs, and  ride all over  town. 

Nechville  In  Higginsville.

Lee  Kelso

Paul R - Posted - 05/01/2011:  20:30:11

Back in the late seventies the late Utah Philips wrote a fairly comprehensive article about hopping freight trains. He talked about what to bring with you, how to find out which train to catch, and so on. Then he instructed on how to actually jump on. As he said, you follow the right method or you lose your life. He didn't shy away from saying how dangerous it all is, from hopping on, to finding the right place to settle in, even to having rope to tie yourself in place in some cases.

It made me happy to be a paying customer on passenger trains.

Micki - Posted - 05/01/2011:  22:39:28

I had a friend who worked during his summer breaks at the local grocery store where I did and also in the Basett  furniture Co. during the day.  The train tracks were like the nose on your face very close to tracks.  So he was going across the tracks for lunch one day, reading the newspaper at the same time and he stepped right in front of the moving train as big as day and it cut his leg off.  So I go over to hospital to see him one day, I just had to ask, what were you thinking, didn't you hear the whistle blowing?  He laughed and said he was reading the sports.  But then he tells me he would never touch another girl as long as he lived. Why, because  he had gotten kidney stones from being in the bed so long, and the Dr. told him they would hurt really bad and if he could pass them himself things would be easier.  The Dr.  also compared the pain to those of a girl being in labor and having a baby.  So my friend says he would never wish that kind of pain on his worst enemy.  He said his leg being gone was no problem, but the stones were.  Micki

clawforlife - Posted - 05/02/2011:  06:41:20

I hopped trains when I was younger. Did alot of hitchhiking to. Couple of tips when you jump on try to get one foot in the step so your not just hangin there, the train will suck you under. If it's a boxcar make sure you put a brick or backpack in between the door, if it slams shut you may die there. When you jump, jump off the opposite way the train is moving, you can get sucked under jumping into the wind. And lastly not everybody is Woody Guthrie riding along singing folk songs, be nice but not nice enough you open a window to be taken advantage of. You don't want to look to clean and have all this new gear. There even used to be a sort of gang that rode trains and robbed and killed people. Look up "Mississippi Bones".
You can take comfort in the fact that if the train runs over your leg the heat alone will carterize it for you on the spot.

Ronnie - Posted - 05/02/2011:  08:44:36

There is an annual hobo gathering at caseyjonesvillage.com.  I missed it this year. Some of them are musicians and fun to jam with. 

Edited by - Ronnie on 05/02/2011 08:45:51

OM45GE - Posted - 05/02/2011:  09:13:33

You could try this:

youtube.com/watch?v=VZvm5H4F-aA