Riding Freight Trains

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shanghaiamtrak

Train Attendant
Joined
Jan 24, 2004
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Anybody here ever ridden a freight train? my grandpa said that back in the good ol days many people did this. but these days, it seems all the railroads have police who will arrest people riding on the trains. I also have heard about freight railroad gangs. they sound pretty dangerous.

if it was easy, id try it myself, just for the experience!
 
Not only is it illegal, since you are tresspassing on private property, it's down right dangerous. :eek:

Many a hobo has paid with his life for a trip, not to mention kids who think that it's cool or fun to try and hop a frieght.

While I'll allow people who may have done something like this in the past to answer your question about "have they ever hopped a freight", be warned that I will delete any posts that give advice on how to hop a freight train or condone the practice.
 
Matt rides freights all the time, well from his position in the cab since he's a freight conductor which is a practice I would fully condone since he needs to make a living to support the International :) All 100% legal.

As for the trying to ride a freight nah too slow, don't know where it's going, dangerous especially trying to hop a moving freight and not worth the aggrivation of dealing with the RR Bulls.
 
I actualy do know a guy who is a friend of the family who hopped a freight from Tennessee to California with his friends years ago. About the mid-80's, I think. He lived to tell the tale but as Alan points out, it is not only illegal but increasingly dangerous.

In the distant past the life of a hobo was considered somehow romantic, but I know those times have gone way way way by. You can find books to read about them, that is as far as one should go.

These kids had zero knowledge of local railroad tracks and they spent the first day fumbling around on little freights that took them out to manufacturing plants, they had a hard time finding which trains were really going out of town.
 
You hop on my FREIGHT train you go to jail i don't put up with this crap i have had to stop my train before to get people off that just ticks me off i don't like walking over a mile to put peolpe off STAY OFF FREIGHT TRAINS :angry:
 
Bill, I remember you mentioning something along the lines of riding a freight trains that had a passenger car on the back, where you bought a ticket, and it usually carried DHing Crews. Does this sound familiar at all?
 
Matt one question. To get back there why don't you just climb down and then have your Engineer slowly pull down? Granted you'll still have to walk back to the cab, but it saves you half the walking anyway.
 
Viewliner, you are thinking about a mixed train which I rode from Atlanta to Augusta one time. That was completely legal. Though passengers were not encouraged at all, the railroad just did it because it got a huge tax write off. It had about 80 freight cars and one badly maintained passenger car. I do not did not have any deadhead crew...I was literally the only person in the car. I was allowed to ride in the caboose for awhile.

I was the only passenger. Usually there were none. It was purely a mood thing to do, only a hardened railfan would bother with it. Trip took 10 hours when Greyhound bus took 3 or 4. No food, no running water, no power, no lights.

That is different from just hopping a freight only train.. What I did was legal and not dangerous.....just exremely bizarre. And a lot of fun for a one time event.
 
Bill, I knew what you did was legal, I just remember you mentioning that. That's why I brought it up, knowing that was legal.
 
ok ok

didnt think you guys would be so serious (although i know its a serious issue). ill just stick to amtrak.

btw, i know what a conductor does on an amtrak train, but what does a freight railroad conductors job duties entail?
 
He, like an Amtrak Conductor, is responsible for the safe journey of the train. He is the "boss" if you will, and is in charge of keeping track of slow orders, copying Form D's, Form EC-1's, Track Warrants, etc. Also if there are any track work foremen he contacts them to get permission through their limits. If something malfuctions with the train, he is responsible for walking the train and notifying the correct authorities, usually the dispatcher.
 
wow, i thought these were all duties of the engineer. i guess conductors use to ride in the caboose, but now with no more cabooses they ride in the cab with the engineers?
 
Yes sir. They ride on the Fireman's side, or as them damn freight boys call it, Conductors Side.
 
I became a railfan at a very young age.

Growing up in Southern California, I had the experience of watching the demise of the once-proud, now-defunct Pacific Electric Railway.

When I was in my early teens, I talked three of my friends into hopping an SP freight train from Alhambra to downtown Los Angeles. We made the trip without incident. We rode an empty boxcar. At every grade crossing, we stood at the open door and waved at the waiting/passing motorists. The train stopped near the Broadway bridge crossing the LA River. From there we walked to Chinatown and Olvera Street.

After finishing our sightseeing, we returned to the SP tracks to go home. The bulls and the LAPD were waiting for us, and we got busted. We were taken by the LAPD to the Highland Park police station. All of our parents were called. One parent was designated to take us all home.

This incident even made the local news. Radio station KRLA made a broadcast that went something like this: "Here's a little bit of humor in the news. Four Alhambra hobo boys were caught in downtown Los Angeles trying to hop a fast freight to Phoenix."

For months afterwards I was confronted by classmates asking if I was one of them. I answered, "Yep, it was me!"

Maybe this should have been posted in trip report section! LOL
 
battalion51 said:
Matt one question. To get back there why don't you just climb down and then have your Engineer slowly pull down? Granted you'll still have to walk back to the cab, but it saves you half the walking anyway.
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Under the rule i had the police call my dispatcher and i was orederd to stop my train and inspect for kids on my train which means we can't do that i wish we could i saw those kids jump off the middle of my train :angry:
 
shanghaiamtrak said:
ok ok
didnt think you guys would be so serious (although i know its a serious issue). ill just stick to amtrak.

btw, i know what a conductor does on an amtrak train, but what does a freight railroad conductors job duties entail?
Click to expand...
I am the BOSS of the train what ever i say goes to a point. :)
 
gswager said:
I believe that there are freight/passenger train in use in Canada, usually the northern side.  
Anyone knows about Alaska RR?
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Yes, I, too believe there are still mixed trains very far north in Canada, and that they are not part of ViaRail (names like "Ontario & Northern" come to mind) . I am not sure about Alaska.

I think the one I rode in the mid-80's from ATl to Augusta was the last in the continental U.S.

Historically, it should be pointed out that there were many mixed trains all over the country at one time. They started fading out in the early 50's. Their purpose was to serve very tiny communities which may have not even had paved roads. Sometimes the train was the only way in or out. So they carried passengers and freight---all kinds of necessities....think: milk(in refrigerated cars) and newspapers. They usually branched off from a main line. They were not necessarily daily. Though there is a book out called "Mixed Train Daily".

Improved highways were the natural death of the mixed train---the airplane would not even be in the picture for routes that rural. Incidentally, that mixed train that I rode did intersect at some small town in Georgia, connecting to another small train in Ga., thus somewhat more serving the normal intent of a mixed train operation.

That train I rode obviously did not serve such needs as this---Atlanta( metro population today of 4.5 million) and Augusta were not not exactly rural communites without paved roads. It was on that railroad(the Georgia Railroad) purely because they got a tax break for operating "passenger trains". So they followed the law to the bare minimum, operating a service which was really neat for a railfan but of no serious use to the traveling public, as described in my earleir post.(no running water, no lights, mildewey and dusty--never washed by anything but the rain, etc)

Oh yes, the train did have a published schedule but it meant nothing. It actually left whenver the freight was ready to move, which could be hours late or even hours earlier. What one did was call the yard dispatcher and get an estimate. MARTA had a station near by so I got off MARTA walked throught the yard to the dispatcher and eventually the train was ready to roll. One good thing: prices were frozen back to when the last "real" train operated, so my ticket was about $5 one way where as my return Greyhound the next morning was about $30. QUOTE]
 
so freight trains have one conductor? amtrak trains have two or three right (long distance ones) and an on board service chief. is the chief "the chief conductor"?
 
Amtrak trains can vary from two conductors to sometimes as many as four. It depends on the number of cars and the passenger load. Typically there is only one conductor, the others are assistant conductors.

However the conductor is the ultimate boss on the train. No one can overrule his decisions. If he orders the engineer to stop, the engineer must stop the train. The engineer also cannot start the train without the conductors ok.

The OSB, if he even exists on the train is only in charge of services provided to the customer, ie. dining car, sleeping cars, cafe/lounge. He can ask the conductor to do something, like make a special stop for some reason, but the conductor (with consent from the dispatcher) makes the final decision if it's safe to stop the train for that special stop or reason.
 
AlanB said:
Amtrak trains can vary from two conductors to sometimes as many as four. It depends on the number of cars and the passenger load. Typically there is only one conductor, the others are assistant conductors.
However the conductor is the ultimate boss on the train. No one can overrule his decisions. If he orders the engineer to stop, the engineer must stop the train. The engineer also cannot start the train without the conductors ok.

The OSB, if he even exists on the train is only in charge of services provided to the customer, ie. dining car, sleeping cars, cafe/lounge. He can ask the conductor to do something, like make a special stop for some reason, but the conductor (with consent from the dispatcher) makes the final decision if it's safe to stop the train for that special stop or reason.
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Right on Alan thats why i love my job. :lol: B)
 
I once hopped a freight on the one train that passes through on the line by me. Didnt get in any trouble as there are no police in the area. its also on a 3 foot track guage, and the trains dont exceed 5 MPH.
 
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