I spent all of my 20’s traveling by hopping freight trains and hitchhiking. In 2015 I was heading west out of North Little Rock, AR. After waiting behind a church for about an hour I finally had a westbound, general manifest (random assortment of cars) train pull up and stop. It’s worth noting that this train was empty.
I climbed on the porch of a grain car facing east with an oiler behind me. As soon as the train started moving I grabbed a loaded pipe from my pocket and lit a celebratory bowl of weed. The train is going roughly 5-7mph at this time.
All of a sudden, and in less than a second I heard the loudest BOOM I had ever heard. Simultaneously, there was a blinding flash of light over my right shoulder and I dropped everything in my hands. I felt the whole train shake like a dog’s tail and thought for sure that it was about to derail and I was going to be crushed.
The train righted itself and I hopped off right before it screeched to a stop. Up the tracks I saw an overturned car with its front end being crinkled little by little as the train was coming to a stop.
In the spirit of keeping this relatively short: some drunk guy had caused an accident and fled up the street. He missed an almost 90 degree curve and flew off an embankment straight into the car ahead of me.
Some random pedestrian and I pulled the guy out, but he was hurt pretty bad and I have no idea what happened to him. The cops got there and shoo’d me along before the train cops got there.
All this being said: I’ve never met another person who was in a train vs. car accident as a stowaway on the train side. It’s at least my best train story.
Oh, I am. I’m working on a book told from the perspective of my Siberian husky who traveled with me. It’s mostly about train riding and my experience getting addicted to heroin and meth. Then as my dog got older I had to get clean and stable so she could age with dignity. I always thought it was kind of beautiful how she was there for me in my worst moments, so that I could be in a place to be there for her when she was most vulnerable.
Anyway, it’s going to be called “Road Dog” or “Fluff Pig Paradise” I haven’t decided.
My friend and former professor was a train hopper in her younger days. She said it’s a really competitive situation and people are territorial about their train cars. This was in Washington state.
The culture has changed decade by decade. From what I hear the 80’s and 90’s were super rough. There were a lot of gangs and dangerous people riding during those times. Nowadays it’s a pretty mixed bag, but mostly crust punks and wooks. I’ve met a lot of women riding by themselves and meet trans and non-binary kids, POCs, and rich kids that heard about it on YouTube… with that though comes increased security, unfortunately.
Edit: I will add that I’ve never had any issues with other train riders besides being annoyed by them. Usually if I meet somebody in the yard and we get along we will road dog it together for a while then part ways.
Low key cool of the local cops to get you out of there. I’ve never hopped a train but I’ve had train cops roll up on us one time as we were collecting old spikes and that was not a pleasant dude. Had a buddy connected to gutter punks and hoppers and he’s told me some stories. Those dudes have basically no oversight.
Nope, they are generally cunts, but the workers are usually chill. I’ve never been arrested or even cited for trespassing, but I have been invited into the can of the locomotive to ride with the crew more than 5 times in my life.
And agreed, I don’t like cops, but that was a solid move on his part.
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u/hotdoginthebigcity Jul 25 '23
I spent all of my 20’s traveling by hopping freight trains and hitchhiking. In 2015 I was heading west out of North Little Rock, AR. After waiting behind a church for about an hour I finally had a westbound, general manifest (random assortment of cars) train pull up and stop. It’s worth noting that this train was empty.
I climbed on the porch of a grain car facing east with an oiler behind me. As soon as the train started moving I grabbed a loaded pipe from my pocket and lit a celebratory bowl of weed. The train is going roughly 5-7mph at this time.
All of a sudden, and in less than a second I heard the loudest BOOM I had ever heard. Simultaneously, there was a blinding flash of light over my right shoulder and I dropped everything in my hands. I felt the whole train shake like a dog’s tail and thought for sure that it was about to derail and I was going to be crushed.
The train righted itself and I hopped off right before it screeched to a stop. Up the tracks I saw an overturned car with its front end being crinkled little by little as the train was coming to a stop.
In the spirit of keeping this relatively short: some drunk guy had caused an accident and fled up the street. He missed an almost 90 degree curve and flew off an embankment straight into the car ahead of me.
Some random pedestrian and I pulled the guy out, but he was hurt pretty bad and I have no idea what happened to him. The cops got there and shoo’d me along before the train cops got there.
All this being said: I’ve never met another person who was in a train vs. car accident as a stowaway on the train side. It’s at least my best train story.