Freight Train Hopping with Hobo Stobe: Full Length Movie! (cycle, bridge, routes)
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Ever wonder what it's like to ride the rails via cargo trains? Well that what you get to experience with Hobo Stobe in this full length feature film from 2016.
Speaking as a lifelong railroad buff, former operating railroader, and occasional volunteer for the organization linked below, don't even think about doing this.
Legal aspects of this behavior aside for the moment, the railroads of a generation or two ago used a much higher percentage of simple boxcars, the doors of which were usually left unsealed when moving empty. Today, most higher-value freight moves in containers, which can't be boarded; most of the rest goes in bulk tank and covered-hopper cars. which would leave a rider open to the elements.
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Freight trains also move at substantially higher speeds, and are more prone to stop at remote locations, or terminals which are both more likely to be patrolled, and hold more perils to those unfamiliar with the industry.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 12-01-2018 at 12:54 AM..
When I lived in Iowa in the 1970's there was an annual Hobo Convention held somewhere, I wonder if that still is ongoing?
I just think it's a different world today & "hobo" doesn't sound quite so cute... I suspect "drifter" is a more fitting title.
You probably can use "nomad" or "leather trapper" as well.
According to my mom, her dad (my grandfather) who was born in 1918, would "hop the trains" a ton back in the 40's and 50's, thankful he never got injured or maimed.
He would go from one coast to the other with ease.
I looked into this last fall just out of curiosity. I watched some of Stobes vids and some from a guy in england. Turns out Stobe died on some bridge. This is dangerous. Period.
When I lived in Iowa in the 1970's there was an annual Hobo Convention held somewhere, I wonder if that still is ongoing?
Cosmeticized fluff for the readers of Sunday supplements and other forms of superficial journalism.
There is, in fact, a well-researched and well-written chronicle of life among what has been called the "Fraternity of Tramps"; it wasn't very romantic, but it was real.
This phenomenon emerged in the years following the completion of the first transcontinental railroad (1869 -- gradually to expand to at least seven possible routes). It was made possible by the combination of the opening of the west to the production -- and distribution -- of food and raw materials, and the continuing surplus of unatttached men due to the loss of women in childbirth. It was a harsh, often short life, but it arose in response to natural social and economic forces, and it was all the economy of the day could support.
The last variations of these practices died out in the 1930s, in response to improving demographics and the development of a societal "safety net"; something distantly related to it appears to be raising an ugly head, particularly in the streets of some West Coast cities, but I wouldn't expect our re-invented rail system to play much of a part in addressing the issue of "contemporary vagrancy".
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 12-01-2018 at 12:06 PM..
Speaking as a lifelong railroad buff, former operating railroader, and occasional volunteer for the organization linked below, don't even think about doing this.
Legal aspects of this behavior aside for the moment, the railroads of a generation or two ago used a much higher percentage of simple boxcars, the doors of which were usually left unsealed when moving empty. Today, most higher-value freight moves in containers, which can't be boarded; most of the rest goes in bulk tank and covered-hopper cars. which would leave a rider open to the elements.
,
Freight trains also move at substantially higher speeds, and are more prone to stop at remote locations, or terminals which are both more likely to be patrolled, and hold more perils to those unfamiliar with the industry.
You obviously didn't watch any part of the movie. IMO riding a cargo train is safer than riding in those stupid bicycle lanes that are put in the middle or along main thoroughfares.
You obviously didn't watch any part of the movie. IMO riding a cargo train is safer than riding in those stupid bicycle lanes that are put in the middle or along main thoroughfares.
I'd love to ask this question of a man I saw who got hit by a train here in South Carolina. Well, I saw part of him. A few parts of him, actually, scattered in small pieces across the railroad tracks after the coroner had taken most of him away. I love trains but only ride as a passenger in a passenger car or occasionally as guest in the lead engine, the last time in the 90s when it was't as frowned upon as now
You obviously didn't watch any part of the movie. IMO riding a cargo train is safer than riding in those stupid bicycle lanes that are put in the middle or along main thoroughfares.
You might benefit from watching a little of this one:
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