Hopping Frieghts

[Anonymous]

Hopping frieghts is too risky for me to do though I know a couple of guys who do it as their main method of getting around the country. I've known a couple of other people who are missing limbs as a result of falling under a moving railcar. What fines/penalties/jail time is in the different parts of North America if caught hopping a frieght train?

[route_rock]

Fined for tresspassing ( depends on locale) Penalties? You lose a limb, Jail time? well a coffin is forever!

[Anonymous]

Also worth bearing in mind that it's not just the trains that can hurt you - there are some dangerous characters riding freight cars by some accounts I've heard. Violence, robbery, and worse would be as much of a risk as getting run over by the train I suspect.

[chad thomas]

Not to mention the possibility of getting set out in the desert to watch an endless parade of trains fly by at track speed while you are stranded in the middle of nowhere. I know of a couple of guys that got stranded that way at the sideing of Trego,Nv. It was a full week before those cars were finaly picked up. They were lucky to have at least a few days worth of food and good bedrolls or they would have surely perrished.

[Anonymous]

I may be the only one here but sure go ahead!..
Its best to hook up with someone over the net who has rideen trains before..
I also say that yes it is illegal but the fines are small in most states and sometimes you can get permission from some shortlines as long as sign a waiver. Yiu can email me off line and I will connect you with my private site..
Justpost your email and we will contact you.
If it were up to me I would make it possible to rent a boxcar to go from point a to point b. Theres nothing like a boxcar veiw in colorado,,,

[PBenham]

My advice--DON'T!

[chad thomas]

At the risk of haveing my dad pop in here and read this, a story that he need not know nothing about, I'll tell of a misadventure of mine.

When I was in the 5th grade I lived in Belmont,Ca. on the SP commute line between San Francisco and San Jose. I used to hang out trackside up on Old County Rd., a couple blocks from home. A friend of mine that was in my class would often hang out there too. Well one day I was given buss fare to go to my grandmothers and mow her lawn after school one day. My grandmother lived near Holly st. in San Carlos (the next town to the south). I had about 3 hours to get there, do the job, and return home (again on the bus).

If I had stuck to that plan I wouldn't be telling this tale. But that is not what happened. My friend went to wait for the bus with me. He was only there to see me off after school. While waiting for the bus, the local freight showed up. We got the bright idea of hopping the local freight that worked the industries in the area and rideing it down to grandmas. We knew it worked industrial blvd. a couple blocks away from grandmas house. So with that plan we ran the 3 or so blocks to the spur they were working in Belmont and layed in wait for our oppertunity to board. At one point they set most of the cars out on the main while they spotted the last car. We found a boxcar with the doors open and hopped in. That was hard for us to do at that age as we were both too small to climb aboard by ourselves. But with a little teamwork we managed to climb aboard.

They finished up at that spur and hooked back up to the train and we were off. It was so exciteing but if caught I knew at the very least I would be grounded for life (and rightly so). As we neared the industrial tracks near my grandmothers the train just kept going. My heart sank as I knew I had just screwed up big time. The further the train got, the more petrified with fear we were. Finaly just inside the Santa Clara County line the train came to a stop. We bailed off as soon as we were going slow enough and high tailed it off the railroad tracks.

Then we were faced with how to get home. Yes, I could have called my parents for help but that would have resulted in a red a$$ and a long stay in my room. Well we still had 2 hours before we would be MIA so we got the idea that we could use the dollar I had for the bus fare and hop a bus home. So we found a bus stop and waited. When the bus showed up we asked the driver how to get home. Unfortunatly it was not that simple. We had crossed the county line and were in a different transit company's territory (Santa Clara County Transit) and the bus service in my county (Samtrans) would not honer transfers from SCCT. We didn't have enough money for both bus trips. But we were only a couple miles from the county line.

We then went back to the tracks for a long walk to were we could catch a Samtrans bus.
Things were looking up as we were makeing good time. Then we came across some older kids that tried to pick a fight with us. We were way outnumbered and ran like hell to get away from them. Even though they probabely gave up chase rather quickly, we didn't chance it. We ran as far as we coul without looking back. Once we cought our breaths we resumed out normal pace.

We got to the Samtrans stop with an hour left to get home. Once we were on the bus everything went smoothly and before I knew it we were back in our hood. I got home before my cerfew and my parents were none the wiser, although I did have to come up with an excuse as to why I didn't mow grandma's lawn. If my parents only knew.[8D]

[ajmiller]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TerminalTower

I may be the only one here but sure go ahead!..
Its best to hook up with someone over the net who has rideen trains before..
I also say that yes it is illegal but the fines are small in most states and sometimes you can get permission from some shortlines as long as sign a waiver. Yiu can email me off line and I will connect you with my private site..
Justpost your email and we will contact you.
If it were up to me I would make it possible to rent a boxcar to go from point a to point b. Theres nothing like a boxcar veiw in colorado,,,

And you don't have to take your bike apart either if you had your own boxcar.

[Anonymous]

It never ceases to amaze how stupid on this forum can be!!!!!!

[doghouse]

Chad, NEVER break.

[CSXrules4eva]

Hopping freights...hum I wouldn't recommend it. Though it does sound like a thrill. Ok getting back on track here.......like some people have already stated not only is the moving train dangerous to the person doing the hopping but, the enviornment is also dangerous. The person doing the hopping just doesn't know weather or not his / her car is going to be put on a siding for a week or three; that person doesn't know if that car is going to be droped off, then picked up, and then set out on a different route from the inital route. That person is also at great risk if a derailment does occur, if they are in a boxcar for instance they will never have the slightetest clue as to what happened until, they got thrown across the car at the last minute.

[coborn35]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TerminalTower

I may be the only one here but sure go ahead!..
Its best to hook up with someone over the net who has rideen trains before..
I also say that yes it is illegal but the fines are small in most states and sometimes you can get permission from some shortlines as long as sign a waiver. Yiu can email me off line and I will connect you with my private site..
Justpost your email and we will contact you.
If it were up to me I would make it possible to rent a boxcar to go from point a to point b. Theres nothing like a boxcar veiw in colorado,,,

The fact that you are even considering that really appalls me.
I have been on this earth a mere 14 years and I know better than to ride train cars illegally. The most severe penalty you can get in any state is death. Literally. Wanna watch your buddy get split in half while a train rolls right over him. It would make you want to kill yourself im sure. Not a good feeling knowing you basically killed your buddy by letting him and yourself do this.
Use common sense bud.

[TheS.P.caboose]

I would not advise such an action. In addition to what the others have mentioned there's also the FTRA to worry about. Today the FTRA stands for Freight Train Riders of America. When the group started up FRTA stood for [censored] The Regan Administration. This, in its current form, is a dangerous group of people to be around. They're known for killing other riders. Too risky IMO.

[ajmiller]

QUOTE: Originally posted by coborn35

QUOTE: Originally posted by TerminalTower

I may be the only one here but sure go ahead!..
Its best to hook up with someone over the net who has rideen trains before..
I also say that yes it is illegal but the fines are small in most states and sometimes you can get permission from some shortlines as long as sign a waiver. Yiu can email me off line and I will connect you with my private site..
Justpost your email and we will contact you.
If it were up to me I would make it possible to rent a boxcar to go from point a to point b. Theres nothing like a boxcar veiw in colorado,,,

The fact that you are even considering that really appalls me.
I have been on this earth a mere 14 years and I know better than to ride train cars illegally. The most severe penalty you can get in any state is death. Literally. Wanna watch your buddy get split in half while a train rolls right over him. It would make you want to kill yourself im sure. Not a good feeling knowing you basically killed your buddy by letting him and yourself do this.
Use common sense bud.

I couldn't agree more. It's like my great grandma used to say, "It's all fun and games until someone gets split in half!" Well, actually, she never said that, but you get the point. Being split in half is something no one should experience. It's quite painful and requires lots of stitches, but I digress.

But you see, good Coborn, there's more to this TerminalTower, or less perhaps, than meets the eye. TerminalTower is something of a digital Village Idiot (if I may use this term in an affectionate way) to the Trains.com forum. He means well, but he has only a few functional brain cells left due to prolonged exposure to the elements and the sniffing of certain substances while gallivanting about the countryside in search of gullible public transportation authorities to pester. All of this has left him quite susceptible to volatile mood swings, ranging from unrestrained euphoria, to severe paranoia, and from inexplicable confusion to downright silliness. So please, young Corborn, don't be to harsh on Mr.Tower, because he knows not what he does. Like you, I too have no wi***o see Mr.Tower split in half, so if he should be split in half, I will be careful to avert my eyes.
[:D]

[Anonymous]

Let me relay a story my grandfather re-lived in his mind almost everyday of his life.

My grandfather grew up in a small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In the winter time my grandfather and his freinds used to jump from large drifts of snow onto the tops or sides of moving freight cars for fun. At the tender age of 10 years old my grandfather witnessed one of the most gruesome scences you could imagine. One day while having their fun, one of his freinds paid the ultimate price. While trying to jump onto the side of a box car, his freind missed the handrail and fell in between the two cars, was run over and killed. My grandfather and the two other boys jumped down to find their freind laying between the tracks dead.
And that was the clean version. I would have to say on that day my respect for a train was born. So, in the shadow of this very true story, I would hope you can now answer your own question.

[Anonymous]

Not a good idea. My father used to hop trains too as a kid and some guy he went to school with got an arm ripped off that way. He lived in Hawkins Village in Rankin, PA. and trains would be going slowly through on their way to steel mills and factories in the area and this was just slow enough to jump on and ride them to Swissvale. But that was in the late 50s early 60s.

Nowadays with lawsuits and terrorists a reality along with increases in theft and vandalism railroad police aren't likely to take kindly to boxcar tourists anymore. I'd imagine you get fines and jailtime for criminal trespassing. You wanna ride trains get a ticket and ride Amtrak.

[Tharmeni]

Well, I did it once and would NEVER do it again.

As a stupid college kid, I wanted to go to the Rose Bowl in L.A from Bloomington, Indiana. My mom and dad did not have the money and so I checked the fare (no internet back then) and then saved and worked until I had the fare. When I went to the Monon station, I discovered the fare I had obtained was for one-way only. A guy in the dorm offered to drive me to Denver and I could figure out my way from there.

I went back to the agent and bought a one-way ticket from L.A. to Bloomington (via the El Capitan and Thoroughbred). The guy dropped me at the train station in Denver and I still did not have enough money to get to L.A. (but, hey, I had the ticket for the return trip). I slid out of the station to a nearby yard and hopped aboard a a slow moving westbound freight.

It was hell. Very cold and, as mentioned above, my companions (the box car was empty when I jumped on but I was joined by "fellow travelers" as I headed west) included a fellow who described himself as a "bad Indian running from the law" and several men who I don't believe had ever showered . One held a very long knife as he sat at the other end of the car and told me that if we were stuck in snow along the way "I will do a Donner on you".

Years later, when I worked for the BN, I would get reports nearly every day of bodies and body parts found in freight cars, along the ROW, etc. I remember once there was a derailment in a tunnel and it took several days to get all the cars out. One of the last ones had several tramps in it who had apparently, in panic, turned on one another.

Once last story: I was cab riding (as a BN employee) on a freight train in Oregon when a passing train's engineer radioed that "you may have a family on board". We stopped and found, on the open end of a grain hopper car, a male, female and a five-year-old boy huddled against the cold - nearly frozen. When the cops talked to them, they discovered that the man had nearly $1,000 on him but wanted to save money by riding the freight train. If you could have seen the terrified look on the small boy's face, you would NEVER consider riding on a freight train.

The engineer later reflected on it and said "people don't try to sleep in nuclear power plants and this is a LOT more dangerous....I don't get it."

Forget it, Don't do it. The risk just isn't worth it.

[CANADIANPACIFIC2816]

I agree with what a lot of others have said in this forum. Hopping a freight train is not worth the risks that are involved. If you should loose your footing and fall underneath the wheels of a moving freight car for example, there is a very good chance that you will bleed to death before paramedics can reach you. So don't even think of doing it!!!

CANADIANPACIFIC2816