Just wondering if any train crews anywhere are seeing any HOBO"s riding the Rods these days?Was a real popular way of life and a good mode of transportation back in the good old days.[:-^]Dixie
In my 10 years with the Union Pacific I have encountered a few Bos Most of then just needed a ride and if you left them alone they didnt bother you A couple of them do come to mind I hjad a rider on our second unit one night she was about 13 and a runaway I called the dispatcher who called the sheriff and we got her off the train. About 6 yrs ago I was doing a roll by when I noticed there was a cabin crusier on a flat car and sitting in a deck chair sunnung himself was a Bo I didnt have the heart to call anyone he looked like he was enjoying himself Larry
Somehow, you just have to admire his panache…
How about the Chicago commuter who was blocked by a container freight. He decided to climb over the freight to get to his incomming train. Just as he was on the freight the freight began to move.
He go off in Iowa. The crew said they seen him and just thought he was just a Bo and left him alone.
Several years ago an officer in a neighboring jurisdiction spotted one riding a CSX eastbound. He called the railroad and they got the train stopped where I was working. Pulled the hobo off the train and held him for the CSX police.
About 3 hours later the CSX officer called and asked me what kind of car he was riding on. I told him it was a hopper car. The CSX officer stated they got tied up on something else and unless he was in an auto carrier (apparently they had problems with hobos riding in the new cars) they weren’t interested in pressing charges and if I didn’t have any charges on him to release him.
I do wish they had told us that initially instead of asking us to hold him for them. Wasted a half of a shift with that.
Jeff
I remember a column by the late Mike Royko about this incident. The guy was quite irate that the freight didn’t stop to let him off and he got no sympathy from Royko, either.
On Thanksgiving we saw a young guy get off a container train that was stopped at a signal on the track next to us the police said not to bother as he was off the train and by the time they got there he would be long gone
I road the rails a bit when I was in my late teens (in the 70s). It is very dangerous, and I would strongly discourage anyone from doing it. My last time involved a load shift that almost crushed me. Never again…
I was stopped for a freight once and as the last car went by there was a gentleman in a business suit standing on the rear coupler hanging onto a strap of some sort on the back of the boxcar and a 35-mm camera in the other hand. He saw me see him and hid his face, but before he got his face hid, I noted, what I would call, a look of general PANIC in his eye!
I figured he was a railnut photographing trains in the rail yard to the north and decided to hitch a ride to the other end of the yard, but didn’t realize the train was on the way out of the yard! I knew the train was a local that would not go very fast as it was just going to the Cargil plant south of town, so he could get off there and WALK back (about 2 miles).