Irresponsible idiots.
One day one of them will be ground to a pulp and of course, it'll be the railroad's fault.
I remember a newspaper article from about that time on the problems of trying to keep the people off the trains. Most of the riders new to wait for the departure brake test and would run to the train while the brakes were in the process of being released for departure. One picture was of a "rider" hiding in a covered hopper car carrying flour, needless to say he was covered in the stuff.
From what I remember of the article, most of the riders were tring to avoid the San Onofre checkpoint.
We used to see large numbers of people riding Santa Fe manifests northward from San Diego back in the 1970s/early '80s. Trains would usually come roaring down off the short hill through El Toro around 2am. Me and a few friends all lived in homes on either side of the track, and if we happened to be awake at that dark, early hour we'd spot bodies standing in the doorway of nearly every open boxcar or sitting up on the rooftops. Can't say if there were any sitting on the end platforms of hoppers. Easily several dozen persons per train. I seriously doubt they were surfers returning from a weekend at San Clemente or Trestles Beach.
Wait until mark 1:13:29 (hour and 13 min into the video). Seems more people are riding the UP RR intermodal trains than the Amtrak Coast Starlight these days....
https://youtu.be/5KaCY6VcKCM?t=4281
Very sad.
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