Freighthopping

Freight-hopping youth near Bakersfield, California (National Youth Administration, 1940)

Ernest Hemingway hopping a freight train to get to Walloon Lake (1916)

Freighthopping or train hopping is the act of surreptitiously riding a railroad freight car. In the United States, this became a common means of transportation following the American Civil War as the railroads began pushing westward, especially among migrant workers who became known as "hobos." It continued to be widely used by those unable to afford other transportation, especially during times of widespread economic dislocation such as the Great Depression. Due to a variety of reasons the practice is less common today though a community of freight train riders still exists.

Technique

Typically, riders will go to a rail yard where the trains "crew change"(switch out crew). Either they will know of a spot to hide and wait from other riders or find one themselves. Depending on the size and layout of the yard, riders may have to get on the train while it's moving, known as "Catching on the fly". Furthermore, riders must figure out which way trains are going, either by calling the company's internal tracking number or knowing which tracks go where. Riders occasionally will wait at "Side Outs", places where there are two parallel tracks and trains pull aside for others to pass. Cars and trains are divided several ways with regards to riding. There are "IM's"(Intermodal containers, also called "Hotshots" or "Double Stack"), "Junk" (mixed cars) and coal. With these three groups some cars are "rideable" and some not: Boxcars, Grainers and Gondolas are some of the rideable "junk" cars. On IM's, riders usually stay in the metal beds in front of or behind the shipping containers, "48/53 wells" or under tractor trailers "Pig in a bucket" (when trailer is on metal platform with large holes cut in the bottom. On coal, many times riders get in "DPUs" or "Rear Units", which are the engines put on the back or middle of the train on long coal loads. Riding in the empty or full coal containers is also possible. Riding on other cars, such as the small exposed porch of a tanker for example, is called riding "suicide".

Safety concerns

Freight train operations on the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad between Chicago and Clinton, Iowa, January 1943. The conductor standing on the caboose platform is ready to hop off as the train passes the yard office at the end of the trip.

Freight train riding has the reputation as being very dangerous and, to some degree, lives up to it. According to author and journalist Ted Conover, a large percentage of modern-day hobos are ex-cons, and violence is not uncommon among the transient population. This view contrasts with the established tradition of manners and hard work among "traditional hobos".

Where train hopping is illegal, there is an inherent chance of arrest and/or ticketing. The amount of security and the attitudes of authorities vary greatly depending on the location. Increasing security has also presented a problem for train hoppers, though the establishment of legal protection for vagrants has led to a decline in the beating and maltreatment bulls and brakemen became infamous for.

Two hobos walking along railroad tracks

See also

• Train surfing
• Hitchhiking
• Itinerant
• Boxcar Betty
• Emperor of the North Pole
• King of the Road (song)
• William T. Vollmann
• Mike Brodie

Further reading

• Uys, Errol Lincoln. Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression (Routledge, 2003) ISBN 0-415-94575-5 [1]
• "Riding the Rails", American Experience PBS series.

External links

• Hobo Letters Letters from boxcar kids who rode the rails during the Great Depression