Freighthopping
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Freighthopping or trainhopping is the act of surreptitiously boarding and riding a
History
Illegally hopping a ride on a private freight car began with the invention of the train. In the
Typically, hoppers will go to a rail yard where trains stop to pick up and unload freight and switch out crew. They will either board a freight car in some fashion unseen or “catch one on the fly” once it has begun to move.[2] Train surfing is a similar activity that involves the act of riding on the outside of a moving train, tram or another rail transport.
Riding the rods
Most train hoppers simply rode in or above freight cars. Another historic method was “riding the rods“. In the early 1900s days of wood frame freight car construction, steel truss rods were used to support the underside of the car in order to provide it with the strength to carry heavy loads. There could be four or more of these truss rods under the car floor running the length of the car, and hobos would “ride the rods”. Some would carry a board to place across the rods to lie on. Others would lie on just one rod and hold on tightly. Riding the rods was very dangerous. When a train moved at high speed, the cars could bounce and rock violently if the track was rough, and rock ballast might be tossed up which could strike a rider.
Dangers
Riding outside a freight car, whether atop or underneath, is dangerous.[3] Being in a loaded car with shifting, heavy cargo can also be dangerous.
The 1944 Balvano train disaster in Italy involved hundreds of freighthoppers.
Today
Hopping trains happens all over the world and varies from place to place. Some places are more critical and consider freight hopping a crime, and other places are more
- Europe
Despite increased deterrent measures, would-be migrants use the
- United States
Union Pacific Railroad in the United States encourages people who witness transients on freight trains to report them to its dispatch center. According to a sheriff's deputy from Lincoln County, Nebraska train hoppers no longer write symbols on trees and buildings, but there is still a network of train hoppers that occurs mostly online.[6]
- Mexico
It is estimated that yearly between 400,000 and 500,000 migrants—the majority of whom are from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—hop freight trains in the effort to reach the United States.[7][8] The freight trains are known as La Bestia.
- Mauritania
In the Mauritania Railway, freighthoppers can ride with their cargo freely due to the lack of road between Zouérat and Nouadhibou.[9]
See also
- Ben Reitman, the “hobo doctor”
- Mike Brodie, freighthopping photographer
- W. H. Davies, the "tramp-poet"
References
- ^ "Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture". Bbcrc.org. Retrieved 2015-07-08.
- ISBN 978-1-934759-43-1.
- ^ "Boy Critically Injured Trying to Jump Train in Northeast Philly". Newsworks.org. Associated Press. Retrieved 2017-07-22.
- Independent.co.uk. 11 June 1997.
- TheGuardian.com. 10 April 2002.
- ^ Johnson, Heather (August 28, 2018). "Ridin' the rails". The North Platte Telegraph.
- ^ Sorrentino, Joseph. "Train of the Unknowns". Commonweal. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
- ^ "Invisible Victims: Migrants on the Move in Mexico". Amnesty International Publishers. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
- ^ Mykolas, Juodele. "Freight Train Hopping In Mauritania: 4000 Kilometers In A Cargo Carriage With Local Shepherds And Their Sheep". Bored Panda. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
Further reading
- Uys, Errol Lincoln (2003). Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression: Routledge.
- "Riding the Rails", American Experience PBS series.
- Conover, Ted (2001). Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America’s Hoboes. Vintage. ISBN 0375727868 [1]
External links
- Hobo Letters Letters from boxcar kids who rode the rails during the Great Depression