--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "bobbartop" <bobbartop@...> wrote:
> I cannot imagine riding a freight train and sleeping in homeless >camps without being armed. As I mentioned, I always wanted to ride >one but never got the courage. And, of course, I've never been >homeless either. But how can one put oneself in that situation >without having a gun in his pocket? Hey Mickey, what were the >railroad police like? What was their job >detail, and how did they >deal with people riding the trains?
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I never carried a gun. It's best to travel with someone you trust. My policy was I didn't meet anyone out on the rails. In the towns fine. But not on the rails. I didn't sleep in the hobo jungles. I didn't trust any strangers. I found my own spots to crash. I thought that spot in Spokane was a good one. Turns out it wasn't.
The job of the Railroad Police (better known as bulls) is to protect the cargo. The only thing keeping anyone out of those stackers you see going thru Vegas is an easily broken federal seal. The Vegas yard got real hot one time because some of the cargo was being thrown off the hot shots by thieves up in the desert north of LV. Those idiots give freight tramps a bad name. I've been given warning tickets. Arrested one time.
Backpack Phil and me got in a little jam onetime north of LV. The hotshot stopped. We were in the back of a 48. We both got up. He watched his side of the tracks. I watched mine. Here come three toughs up the tracks. When they got up to our car one of them headed for the ladder up the side of the 48. "Be glad to meer you guys up in SLC. We don't meet anyone on the rails." The guy starts coming up the ladder. I jumped up on the deck. Phil grabbed his ball peen hammer. I was waiting for the guy;s head to pop up above the deck. I was gonna kick a field goal with my steel toed boots. It took that idiot all the way until his head was about 2 inches below the deck to figure out what was gonna happen to him. I can still see the look his eyes. He went back down the ladder and they went on up the tracks. We had to watch out for those idiots all the way to SLC.
