CARPE
DIEM!
Art ’Wiz’ Tyde returned to his loving wife after the rail trip,
they divorced, and he left Linux-Care to start Sputnik Communications. He bought a condo in the Philippines New York
Brian ‘Pronto’ Molver awakened me on his San Francisco New York City World Trade
Center
September 11 shook the
nation as well as hobodom clear to the Roseville
In balance, I tell
everyone that as long as trains run executives shall ride. Four years after this grandest hob trip in
history and 9/11, in 2005, two more dynamic executive trips would dawn: One through the Canadian Rockies and another
across Mexico‘s Copper Canyon.
This original story was
contracted to a cannonball editor for a glossy national magazine but, as you
see, 9/11 derailed that. So read this
account in the hobo spirit and, if you get to Sparks
as I recently did, check the growing message, America
########
About the author
His vicissitudes
parallel Buck the dog’s in Jack London’s Call
of the Wild. Raised in loving
confines, Bo Keeley later battled around the world of adventure that led in
1997 to the trail-less outdoors. He is a man built like a scarecrow with baggy
clothes and a Jack-o-lantern smile with the wisdom teeth long gone but
remaining memories, some of the best from railroading. Six years ago, thinking
there wasn’t much left to do, Doc Keeley, moved to the American southwest
desert and discovered otherwise, a peaceful place Buck never reached. He lives
and writes from a burrow behind his rickety house. Sample more writings at www.dailyspeculations.com and www.greatspeculations.com.
Disclaimer
Freight hopping is
potentially dangerous and is illegal, and the author, executives and publisher
don’t condone that anyone engage in an illegal activity. The usual penalty for getting collared by the
bull is being ordered off the premises or a petty trespassing charge. The author and publisher recommend that no
one hobo without permission from the railroad.
Historically, freight jumping is encouraged to transport seasonal
laborers who run the same risks as executives.
Hobo Book Picks
Autobiography of a Super Tramp
Williams Davies
Beggars of Life Jim Tully
Bound for Glory Woody
Guthrie
Damndest
Radical Roger
Bruns
Deep Enough: A
Working Stiff Frank
Crampton
Fishbones: Hoboing in
the 1930's Fishbones
Freighthopper's Manual for
North America Daniel Leen
Good Company Douglas Harper
Hard Times Studs Terkel
Hard Travellin’ Ken Allsop
Hobo: A Young Man's Thoughts Eddy
Joe Cotton
Hobo Life in
"Hobos," Peter Spielmann, Penthouse, pp. 138-45, May 1979.
Knights of the Road Roger Bruns
On Hobos and Homelessness Nels Anderson
Rand McNally Handy Railroad Atlas
Riding the Rails Michael
Mathers
Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move Errol Lincoln Uys
Rolling Nowhere Ted Conover
Sister of the Road:
The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha Ben
Reitman
South of Heaven Jim
Thompson
Tales of the Iron Road Steam
Train Maury Graham
The American Tramp and Underworld Slang
Godfrey Irwin
The Last
Great American Hobo Dale Maharidge
The Road Jack London
Tramping with Tramps Willard Flynt
Tramping on Life Harry Kemp
Hobo Web-sites the Execs used
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/famoustramp/terminology.html
http://www.catalgo.com/hop/list/0140.html
http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse
http://www.geocities.com/yosemite/5474/2cars.html
http://www.hobo.com/hobo%20movies.htm
http://www.hobospider.com/stories/hobostory.html
http://www.kartoo.com/
http://www.railserve.com/Rails_to_Trails/
http://www.railwaystation.com/airsw.html#CA
http://www.thespoon.com/trainhop
http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0%2c1411%2c55336%2c00.html
http://www.worldpath.net/~minstrel/Hobolink.htm
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=train+hoppers+space
http://home.indy.rr.com/evanwi/hobo.htm
What the Executives Took Train Hopping
Bandana
Boots
Camera
Cell phone
Clip-on tie
Compass
Condoms
Credit cards
Dark sweatshirt
Day’s food supply
Earplugs
Flashlight
GPS
Gallon water jug
Hand-held computer
for E-mail
Hats with straps
ID
Infra-red goggles
Journal & pen
Lighter
No weapon
Overalls
Paperback
RR atlas
Rope
Scanner and frequency
list
Sleeping bag
Soft pack
Tarp or tube tent
Toilet kit
2-way radios
Train timetables
Wallet tethered to
clothes
Cars they Rode
or Explored
The venerable Boxcar or ‘empty’ is the standard hobo
ride. It’s out-of-sight yet there’s a
‘window’ or open door, the equivalent of a wide-screen TV Bulls don’t much care if tramps hold down
boxcars, gondolas and covered hoppers, but regularly kick them off piggybacks,
container cars, double-stacks, and definitely the units. You can string a hammock accross a boxcar, or
once I played handball since it’s the right length until the ball flew out the
door. The floor is five feet above the ballast making getting on or off ‘the
fly’ dangerous.
Coal cars
are open-top gondolas with V-bottoms that unlatch to release coal. It’s a dirty ride and everyone talks about
the bottoms releasing but It would be rare and I sit on top on a tarp and tie
myself to the side. Coal cars are
usually strung in a mile-long ‘unit’ train going from or to the mines
Container cars
are similar to piggybacks except without wheels. They haul overseas or intra-country
merchandise. There’s usually a well in
which to sit at the end of the container on the flat car, and it’s advisable to
take the rear one to avoid a shifting load in an emergency stop.
Double-stacks are
containers mounted two-high on a flatcar.
Engines are the most
comfortable rides in poor weather where you sit in the cab or hide on the deck
of one of the ‘trailing units’ behind the lead one. These are boarded either with permission from
the engineer, or secretly after the crew has checked the locomotives before the
train pulls out. The cab has all the
high comforts: heater, light, bathroom and fridge stocked with bottled water.
Also called the ‘power’, units or locomotives.
Flat cars
are emergency choices to ride off which I’ve lost gear and also been nabbed.
Always tie everything down including yourself.
Gondolas resemble
rolling shoeboxes without lids and haul pipe and scrap. Of all cars, this is the most touch-and-go
for ‘shifting load’- the third most frequent killer of tramps (after boarding
‘on the fly’, and ‘silent rollers’). The
sides vary from waist to above-head high and have the advantages of an out-of-sight
and windless ride, but they can make the car an oven on a sunny day.
Lumber cars
are flat with a vertical lengthwise center piece to which lumber is
secured. At either end is a phone booth
size area that can be ridden for short hops.
Oil tankers
and some others have only a ladder and 2-foot bumper to ride, so they’re
inadvisable.
The
Portable parking lot or automobile
carrier has two tiers with, nowadays, impenetrable mesh all around. The older unenclosed carriers were favorites
for ‘bos to sit in the pickup beds or car seats and listen to the radio or
stereo with the heater on during winter. The automobile ignition keys are often
taped where tramps know where to look.
Sometimes autos are vandalized so if the bull nabs you on one it’s
usually straight to jail. There’s a
window sticker with the vehicle destination, a big help if you know where
you’re going.
The Piggyback is a flatcar that carries
semi-truck trailers. One leans against
the big tires and views 360-degrees of rolling scenery under the trailer
belly. The piggyback doors are sealed
and bulls frown on pig riders, so hobos secret between the rear wheels. I’ve also ridden side-saddle shielded outside
the tires through hot yards. Things blow
around and away on ‘pigs’, so rope everything down.
Some Hobo Signs
(courtesy
of:
http://www.worldpath.net/~minstrel/hobosign.htm)
Hobo Glossary
Hobo argot is lavish, and these are the terms the
Executives used and heard.
Airedale. Someone who travels alone rather than in the company of
others. Lone wolf.
Alki. Alcoholic
Angel food.
Back (or front) porch. Metal platform at either end of a grain
hopper. These have curved sides and are
a favored ride with a viewing area and shelter via a portal into the car
bulwark.
Bad Order. A car or track in need of repair.
Beggardom. The world of a full-time beggar. The area they panhandle.
Bindle stiff. The ‘roll’, ‘bindle’ or ‘balloon’ was popular in olden days,
rarer now with modern backpacks, when tramps picked up their bed and walked or
rode.
Big
Blowed-in-the-glass ‘bo. Born to be a hobo.
Boxcar. See
‘Cars the executives rode’. Also
side-door
Boxcar art. Inscriptions, monikers or hobo graffiti on
trains and in yards. Different from
‘tramp art’ below.
Brake test. The engineer tests the brakes just before starting to ensure
the brakeline is pressurized. There is
an accompanying electronic click along the train that’s the standard cue to be
ready to pull out.
Brit,
Build a train. To assemble or ‘make up’ a train by piecing together sets of
cars bound for a general destination.
Bull. A railroad policeman. Also special agent,
cinder dick.
Bull horrors. A pathological fear of bulls seeded by stories
along the grapevine (and
Bum. A low-status
‘homeguard’, or ‘local’, who may have let himself go, dressed in inside-out
shirts and mismatched shoes padding the streets smelling like a brewery.
Bumper. The small platform
at the ends of boxcars, oilers and others, a two-foot wide steel mesh that’s
used to climb across cars or ridden in a crisis.
Cabbage head. Someone who’s used so many drugs in a lifetime
that recovery is improbable.
Cannonball. A
fast freight, hotshot.
Carry the Banner. Walk the streets all night.
Catchout. To jump a freight.
The catch-out yard is usually a division town.
Call (the train). A
new crew is phoned at their homes or motel when a freight’s arrival into the RR
yard, or completion of the train being built, is anticipated by about one hour.
A tramp asks for the ‘call time’ to know when he should come back to board in
time before it moves out. One asks for the call time rather than ETD.
Catwalk. Walkway atop boxcars and others sometimes
used to ‘deck’ a car and jump from one to another.
Croaker. Doctor.
Container. See
‘Cars the executives rode’
Control
tower. The highest
building in the yard occupied by the overseeing yardmaster.
Crew. The
operators of the train including the engineer, conductor and perhaps brakeman,
who ride in the lead unit. The conductor
used to travel in the caboose until FRED came of age.
Cross-bar hotel. Same as jail, calaboose, hoosegow, or the ‘can’.
Crumbs. Lice, or gray soldiers. ‘Crummy’ is to be
lousy that requires ‘boiling up’ or
cooking the clothes in a pot, a common sight in jungle yesteryear. Many hobos refuse to stay in missions where
crumbs abound.
Crummy. An unoccupied caboose in transit in the middle of a train
that hobos sometimes ride.
Cushions. Amtrak, a passenger train.
Cut-out. To drop or ‘cut
loose’ cars at a RR yard or siding. Will
mine be cut out? is the hobo concern. To
‘break a train’ or ‘shuffle the deck’ is to rearrange the cars.
Dead-end siding. One that leaves the mainline and doesn't come
back to meet it at the other end. Here the rider may find his car and self
cut from the train, and afoot.
Dead soldier. Empty booze bottle lying beside the road or
jungle.
Deck. To ride atop a car looking forward to bridges.
Dirty face. The
head locomotive, also used to name a train, e.g. the
Ditched. To be thrown off the train
Division point. The
major yard or city where a crew changes. These points form a cross-country
string of knots about ten hours apart where hobos may detrain alongside the
crew to eat and freshen, knowing another freight will stop within hours. Division towns are replete with transients
and amenities such as the
Dog. Slow freight train.
Slang for the Greyhound bus.
Doughnut philosopher. A satisfied fellow with the price of a coffee
and feed in a bread line. He doesn’t
object to a doughnut hole getting larger because it will take more dough to go
around it.
DPU. Distributed Power Unit, a locomotive set added to the middle
or rear of heavy trains for a boost up steep grades. It is remote-controlled from the lead
engines. Also called a ‘helper’.
Drag. A
train of mixed freight that makes a ‘milk-run’ stopping at many local yards and
sidings. Also, a work train or ‘turnaround’.
This lowest priority train is eschewed by riders.
Dynamite. When the engines
uncouple from the rest of the train with a resounding blast from the air brake
being released at that point and heard to the last car.
Ear Pounding. The
sermon before the meal at a mission.
Engine. See ‘Cars the executives rode’. Also called ‘power’, units or locomotives.
Executive hobo. Boxcar tourists with
a regular well-paid managerial or administrative job, and usually millionaires.
Fish. Newcomer rider, greenhorn.
Flat car. See ‘Cars the executives rode’.
Flintstone Kid. The latest generation of hobby hobos who use
credit cards and may dress the part.
Flip. To board or flip a moving freight. ‘On the fly’.
Flop. To sleep, or a place to sleep. I coined the ‘bum flop’ after years of
watching with envy tramps stretch out on a park bench or boxcar and fall fast
asleep in seconds. A flophouse is a cheap
lodging place utilized by transients where the normal setup is a large room
with many bunk beds.
Fly catch. To board or dismount a moving freight.
FRED. Flashing
Red End Device. The blinking red
taillight on the last car of a freight train that replaced cabooses with the
shortening of crews during the 1980’s.
Hobos call it the Fu_____ Rear End Device when they miss the train.
Freight. A
train made up of non-human cargo, often plus illegal riders. This article uses ‘train’ synonymously with freight but most hobos
wouldn’t.
FTRA. Freight Train Riders
of
500-mile paper. Cardboard used for
padding and warmth on freight cars.
Frisk the train. To walk a freight before it pulls out in search of a
ride. Sometimes you board at once or, if
it’s exposed like a piggyback, you hop on with the brake test.
Gandy Dancer. Laborer for the railroad.
Gentlemen of the road
. Hobos who display mannerisms, speech or dress of having once been
white-collar workers. ‘Executive Hobos’
have the potential to become these.
Get into the world quick. An old expression embracing a young man bitten
of wanderlust who takes the first opportunity to jump a freight train.
Gondola. See ‘Cars the executives rode’.
Goody. Goodwill, source of used clothes and other items.
Gooseberry picking. Stealing clothes off a clothesline.
Grainer. Grain car, a curved-side hopper.
Grease the rails. To get run over by a train.
Grey soldier. Body
lice.
Head up. The
spot in the yard on the mainline where the locomotives pause for a crew
change. This key information allows
hobos to board before the freight moves out.
Helper (or pusher) engine. Extra units added to a train in the mountains
to provide power uphill, then removed at the other side for trains climbing the
opposite direction. Also DPU.
Highball. Equivalent
of putting the pedal to the metal on a railway.
High iron. The mainline.
Hobby Hobo. One who rides as an avocation instead of a
vocation. Also, boxcar tourist or
weekend hobo.
Hobo. a
person who rides freights from job to job.
Used comparably with ‘tramp’ in this article, however history splits
hairs in a triarchy: At the bottom are street people, bums and ‘homeguard’ none
of whom travel. In the middle are tramps
who rides freights and may take occasional jobs from town-to-town. At the top, hobos ride freights from job to
job. My favorite distinction is that
tramps and hobos both stuff newspapers under their clothes for insulation, but
hobos read them first. Also, Knight of
the rail, King of the Road.
Hobo code or rules. The unspoken rules that govern hobo jungles
and gatherings. For example, leave kitchenware for the next user, don’t steal
from the camp, share chores, and submit to the ‘kangaroo court’ of peers if a
rule is broken.
Hobo colleges. A man named Eads How organized the first
string of hobo collages in major cities in the 1910’s, followed by the most
successful, Ben Reitman’s
Hobo culture. Hobo life on the rails, jungles and at
work. The history of American expansion
within the continent is seeped in the culture.
The fraternity of the rail had early beginnings in the 1890's and
matched pace with track building. They
had a lingo, written symbols, codes, colleges and a philosophy that creeps up
today along the rails.
Hoboette. A female hobo. Sister of the road. Likewise, a
‘moll’ pals with hobos. About 1-in-20 train hoppers is female.
Hobohemia. The area of the town inhabited by transients
Hobo nickel. Originally, hobos carved nickels of wood for
barter, then later used minted ‘Buffalo Head’ nickels to file ornate designs on
the face. Today they are collector’s
items.
Hobo poetry. Tramp
flatulence, especially around a campfire.
Hobo Sign. Tramp
pictographs rarely seen now but necessarily popular in depression era
hoboing. Examples are: A comb with teeth (cruel dog), a stick figure
in triangle dress (kind woman). See
attachment ‘Some Hobo Signs’.
Hogger. The engineer or ‘hoghead’. The ‘hog’ is an in-yard locomotive.
Hopper. A covered grain car, also called a
‘grainier’. The curved-sided hoppers
have ‘front and back porches’ used by ‘bo’s to stay out of sight or bad weather
during a journey.
Home guard. Local street people who don’t hop freights.
Hotshot. A
high priority, fast train that others side for.
Its status is due to cargo such as mail, containers and piggybacks.
Hot yard. One busy with bulls chasing hobos.
Hump. The raised ground in a ‘hump yard’ used to classify and
build trains by gravity. Strings of cars
are pushed up the hump, uncoupled in sets, and roll downhill to a widening
funnel of destination tracks where switches are remote controlled.
In-the-hole. A train on a
siding. Also ‘sided’ or ‘on the farm’. It occurs with two trains bound in opposite
direction or when one overtakes another in the same direction on one mainline-
the lower priority train must wait on a sidetrack until the other passes.
Jack-roll. Rob a drunk.
Joint. The seam in a track where two rails meet and
are bolted together. Joints cause the railroad's clickity-clack and provide an
indicator of speed, so are the tramp ‘alarm clock’ if the train slows down to
get off. Most modern main rail is
‘continuous’ or smoothly welded at the joints, so the wheels glide over them
silently. Also, slang for prison.
Jungle. Hobo camp site.
King of the Road. The well-placed hobo. Anyone who feels the freedom of flipping a
freight. The title of Roger Miller’s hit
song. Also, the perennial title bestowed
at hobo conventions to the most experienced, best representative of the open
road. The host popular event is the
Brit,
Knight of the Rail. Respectful term for a hobo.
Library bird. Those who roost in libraries to pass time,
poor weather, or educate themselves in soft chairs.
Mainline. The
major rails between cities that form the American railroad gridiron. Most follow original right-of-ways
established in the nineteenth century.
There are regularly two mainlines- one in each direction so trains
needn’t side often- except in the mountains where it is often single.
Man. The freight train, e.g. the Denver Man bound for same city.
Manifest. The
goods a freight carries. Also the list
kept by the conductor showing each car contents, origin and destination. A
hobo may ask him to check for an ‘empty’ going to a particular destination.
Moniker. A hobo's nickname or handle. The road name
provides privacy and often tells a bit about the person.
Mulligan stew. Hobo stew.
Open Raod. The system of
railroads that can take you anywhere you like, as in the ‘Call of the open
road’.
Piggyback. See
‘Cars the executives rode’. Also pig, or
pig train.
Pie in the sky. The reward in the hereafter after one catches
the last ‘westbound’. A culminating
phrase of a mission sermon is often ‘There ain’t no pie in the sky.’
Pound the ear. Sleep in a bed.
Priority train. Based
on importance of cargo hence speed of travel, the highest priority train is
Amtrak, next the mail trains, followed by container cars and piggybacks, then
mixed freights, and, finally, drags.
Portable parking lot. See
‘Cars the executives rode’.
Profesh. Experienced hobo.
Punk. Young tramp, fish, tenderfoot., road kid.
Reefer. Refrigerated
boxcar.
Rubber Tramp. Migrant workers traveling by car began to put a dent in the
hobo population with the rise of the automobile in the 1920’s.
Sally. The Salvation Army helps million of Americans yearly. Most familiar at Christmas time as
bell-ringers with alms kettles, this is the small evangelical church of 125,000
members called soldiers. Officers are
ordained ministers who work long hours for scanty wages. The Army raised $88
million following 9/11. Donations are
distributed to soup kitchens, shelters, toys for kids, and thrift stores that
many tramps shop.
Shack. Brakeman.
Shuffle the deck. To
change the order of cars in a train.
This occurs within a yard or en route when a string is added or cut off.
Shooting snipes. Tramps too poor to afford ‘tailor-made’ (store bought)
cigarettes collect butts from the ground until enough accumulates to roll their
own.
Sky pilot.
Side. To
pull off on a parallel side rail to allow a priority train to pass.
Silent roller. A car or string that
glides engine-less, without light and quietly- and dangerously- along a yard
rail especially in the hump yard.
Slave market. Employment agency.
Slow order track. One that’s in bad order or under repair so
engineers are required to slow. It’s an
opportunity for a ‘bo to get on or off at a slow roll.
Snipe shooting. To hunt for snipes or cigarette butts in the
gutter.
Snowbird. Tramps who use trains instead of RV’s to
follow warm weather to the south, especially California, in the wintertime
where they camp out or stay in missions.
Stack train. One made up of flat cars or well cars that
are loaded with shipping containers, sometimes double-stacked. Also called an inter-modal or container unit
freight.
Staging trains. Trains holding for release on a mainline due
to a backup of traffic at a point on line, for example, to allow room within
the next yard to build trains on the receiving track. ‘Trains held out’ is the number stacked to
enter the yard.
Stake
the door. To block the
door of a boxcar preventing it from sliding shut on an inclined track.
Stamp tramp. One who rides town-to-town, often in a grand
loop of the country, to collect food stamps or other assistance using different
identities. New food stamp restrictions
have greatly reduced their numbers. Also
called stamp collector, circuit tramp.
Standard gauge. The usual track gauge of 4 feet 8 1/2 inches,
one giant step, used in the
Stem. Street.
Stiff. A tramp. There are working stiffs, mission
stiffs, etc.
Streamline. To travel without or with only a light pack for the purpose
of disguise and agility from freight yard to yard.
Surf. The top of most cars has a metal walkway along which a tramp
may go with peril and hop from car to car.
To ‘deck’ or ride the top of a freight car.
Switch. To move a car or train from one track to
another at a junction in the rail that is controlled by the ‘switchman’ who
throws a ‘switch’.
Switchman. Employee
in a yard who throws switches at track junctures. Modern switching may be via remote control.
The Road. The open road, traveling freely, living the
life of a hobo.
Through train. Or a ‘run through’, this freight usually doesn’t take on or
drop cars at yards, and sides only for higher priority trains and stops only
for crew changes.
Tied down. A train waiting on line for a relief crew or other reason
with the power still on.
Touching hearts. Begging. panhandling, or putting the ‘touch
on someone for money.
Tramp. Used
synonymously in this article with hobo, a tramp is traditionally thought of as
a non-working hobo.
Tramp art. Artwork by hobos and itinerants often made of
wood and carved using a simple tool such as a pocketknife. Hobos used to fashion ornate furniture and
carve ‘hobo nickels’ in exchange for a meal, room, or money.
Unit. An engine, the
‘power’ or locomotive. The engineer and
conductor ride in the ‘head’ or lead unit, while the ‘trailing units’ are
normally unoccupied. It’s a great
offense for a hobo to be caught aboard any unit unless by rare invitation of
the crew. Most hotshot freights boast
2-4 units.
Unit train. One made up of a single commodity, e.g. coal, piggybacks, or
containers.
Varnish. A passenger train such as Amtrak. Also called ‘riding the cushions’.
Westbound. A train a hobo dies on. To catch the
westbound, die or find the ‘big hole of the sky’.
Willy. Good Will
Industries of the Methodists.
Yard. The location where freight trains are made up and crews
change. Generally, two main lines funnel
from either end into a yard of some dozens of parallel rails used for storage
and shunting cars. There’s usually a
maintenance section, and a ‘hump’ area where yard engines back cars to the
apex, the couples are released, and car strings roll by gravity to a switch
point and onto one of a number of tracks in building a train.
Yard master. -
The railroad man in charge of a yard stationed in the main tower.
Yard worker. The
‘brakies’ (brakemen) and switchmen who work a rail yard from whom hobos solicit
train information.