--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "bobbartop" <bobbartop@...> wrote:
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> --- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Mickey" <mickeycrimm@> wrote:
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> > Yes, the rails were dangerous. It's a young man's game. Google "Freight Train Riders of America" and read about a guy named "Sidetrack." He was on the rails when I was. We couldn't wait for him to get caught. He was a serial killer.
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> > In the link this guy pretty much knows the rails.
> >
> > http://www.digihitch.com/article1525.html
> >
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> Ok, I looked at this link. I later googled FTRA, and there could possibly be hours of stuff to read about it. I had never heard of this before. Wow!
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> I read some of it, and I read the article on digihitch. I had to look up some of the words. I didn't know what MRL was, now I know it's Montana Rail Link. I did know what an SD80 is. Did I understand this guy to say it was so cold that he climbed the ladders and walked across the tops of the hoppers until he reached the back locomotive? ON A MOVING TRAIN, IS HE CRAZY? lol
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I don't blame the guy for what he did. He was in a bad spot. But I never would have put myself in the spot he was in. He put himself in a spot where he could have froze to death. I would have jumped in the back unit to begin with. Trains can be so long and heavy that it takes 4 or five locomotives working together to pull them. The Engineer and Brakeman are up in the first unit. No one is in the other units. I rode the back unit many times, especially in winter.
Tomflush wanted to know what the difference is between Hollywood and real life on the rails. In the movies they have a lot of scenes of people riding in boxcars. That's the biggest fiction. Empty boxcars are by far the worst ride out there. If a boxcar is the only choice I pass on it. I ride in a unit or a 48 or on a grainer. A full grainer with a nice little patio on the rear is my favorite.
If you are in an empty boxcar with a metal floor and going down the road at 50 miles an hour you could scream at the top of your lungs and not hear yourself. An empty boxcar with a wooden floor is not much better. The tracks are not exactly smooth rides in a lot of places. You could be laying in your sleeping bag and get bounced a foot off the floor.
In the second link a reporter actually takes a ride on a grainer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4yzlsRPrU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDnerbAAIkg&feature=related
