Dealing with real hobo train-hoppers today?

@Mannyrock posted:

Like most of us, I grew up watching movies that showed burly trainmen with clubs or axe handles, patrolling the railcars and beating up and throwing hobos off of the cars, sometimes to their deaths.

Just a curious thought.  How to the railroads deal with bums and hobos they find in their box cars today?

What "box cars"?

Unless they are licensed state or county law enforcement officers, they are not allowed to arrest and hold somebody until police arrive, or they could be hit with huge false imprisonment lawsuits.

Not true. Railroad Police are indeed "licensed" law enforcement officers and can arrest & detain any sort of offenders, including trespassers.

Most states have outlawed "citizen arrests" by regular citizens, except in instances of violent felonies which pose an immediate risk of death or serious bodily injury to others.  Simple trespass is not a violent felony.

Again, Railroad Police officers are NOT ""citizens" are are NOT making "citizen arrests". Also, trespassing on railroad property may not be a "violent felony", but the RR Police can still arrest you.

So, what do the "Railroad Dicks" do today?

They arrest trespassers in RR yards and thieves breaking into containers & trailers.

Mannyrock

Hi Hotwater,

Thanks very much for the information.

As I said, "UNLESS they are licensed state or county law enforcement officers, they are not allowed to arrest . . . "

Good to hear that they are licensed officers, and can round up these hobos.

Kind of like Montana having a separate "Livestock Agents" who are licensed law enforcement guys authorized to arrest and pursue for cattle theft.  Or the Port Authority Police who can arrest for hi-jacking, theft or other crimes at the ports.  :-)

Mannyrock

I'm sure that theft and vandalism are big problems, but does anyone actually try to hop a train to ride for any distance anymore?  Seems like the only options would be gondola cars, which would expose a rider to the weather.

There are trainhoppers on YouTube who seem to prefer riding on the ends of grain cars.

@Mallard4468 posted:

I'm sure that theft and vandalism are big problems, but does anyone actually try to hop a train to ride for any distance anymore?

Maybe not to ride it, but stopping a train in order the steal from containers or trailers is not uncommon. Then there is the crew change, when the train stops, and can be boarded or broken into (think El Paso, Texas).

Seems like the only options would be gondola cars, which would expose a rider to the weather.

Well cars and coal hoppers seem to make acceptible places to ride.

Hobo Shoestring, a YouTube channel from a hobo videographer, is pretty interesting. https://www.youtube.com/channe...4ygjMXmDVVcBZ1xOIh7g

@Duke Snyder 111019 posted:

Hobo Shoestring, a YouTube channel from a hobo videographer, is pretty interesting. https://www.youtube.com/channe...4ygjMXmDVVcBZ1xOIh7g

I watched several of Hobo Shoestring's video's. Interesting when he hop's a ride in one of the engines.

Time the railroads reintroduce the caboose to freight trains.  They would be referred to as Security Vans (not intended to use the Canadian term for caboose) manned with railroad police officers.  There is no way a crew can inspect their train while on the road considering the josh awful length of many trains today.  Unauthorized drones have also become another problem in that many are seen flying much too close to trains as well.

@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:

Time the railroads reintroduce the caboose to freight trains.  They would be referred to as Security Vans (not intended to use the Canadian term for caboose) manned with railroad police officers.

What good would THAT do on a 150 to 250 car freight train?

There is no way a crew can inspect their train while on the road considering the josh awful length of many trains today.

THAT is the reason there are all sorts of way-side equipment detectors (hotbox, dragging equipment, and high/wide) Avery 20 miles or so. Cabooses were eliminated for more than one reason many, MANY years ago, with the advent of way-side defect detectors.

Unauthorized drones have also become another problem in that many are seen flying much too close to trains as well.

Pretty sure THAT is an FAA problem.

I would think that druggies, grifters and drifters are not looking for long range transportation.  They are just moving on to the next available spot or campsite, when their drugs, food or opportunities for robbery or burglary play out.

For a good lesson on why being a hobo is a bad idea, take a look at Hobo Shoestrings left hand.

Jon

Also some good train hopping vids from Stobe the hobo if you haven't already checked them out.  Never met him, but it turns out he only lived a few miles from me and is buried just 2 miles down the street. RIP.

The only way to ride the NS tracks in my area is to do it illegally or apply to be a locomotive engineer. Last public excursions through Allentown, PA was Amtrak specials in Oct 2016, and 765 in Aug 2015. But, Amtrak wants to start service from Allentown to New York in the future. But. that will still leave the Allentown to Reading and Harrisburg section without passenger service. There will also be a Reading to Philadelphia Amtrak route. The ex-Reading NS freight line connects with Amtrak at Zoo interlocking so an Amtrak train could go from Reading to 30th St. Station.

Isn't train hopping pretty much a thing of the past now ?  My dad hopped locals in the 30's/40's to get home since his town was at a hillcrest, but considering diesel trains cruise past water/coal stops and go so much faster, I wonder really how much hopping goes on anymore.

I think train hopping for purpose isn't very popular anymore. People in my grandparents generation (I'm 30) apparently did it often to avoid paying fare for the street cars.

But I see it's a thing on Youtube. I like Stobe the Hobo. What he did was wrong, for sure. But I'm still entertained.

A few year back a bought a dvd from a young street vendor in new orleans.  He fancied himself a film maker.  His film/video was about his travels throughout the country on freight trains.  He is never going to Hollywood based on that dvd but there seemed to be a small diehard group that still ride the rails.

For some, the thrill and being illegal make the chance worth it to ride a train, but if caught they won't be very happy.

FWIW I think the idea of railroad dicks going around murdering hoboes back in the day is at best an extreme exaggeration, if not an outright myth. (Perhaps coming from the 1970's movie "Emperor of the North" - which actually dealt with a train conductor fighting the hoboes, not railroad police.) Railroad police were/are primarily there to prevent vandalism, robberies, and theft in yards, not so much patrolling moving trains looking for freeloaders to beat.

Part of the reason it was easier to jump a Depression-era train was because steam locomotives work differently than diesels. Steam takes much longer to get up to speed, so allowed much more time to jump on. That's why hobo camps were often in the area, but not right adjacent to, a rail yard. A half-mile or mile away from the yard, a freight would still be going slowly enough to jump on.

BTW in Minnesota, state law gives a railroad conductor the same power to arrest as a sheriff of the county the train is in.