First Trainhopping Journey on the East Coast

Hello everyone!

I spent months planning for and organizing a trip from Richmond -> wherever we end up with someone I met on STP, we met up and hopped our first train together, making it all the way to Florence, SC in a single day and night. Unfortunately, he ended up parting ways with me on day 1, maybe he was tired or realized trainhopping wasn't for him, but instead of owning that fact he blamed me, calling me reckless and saying I regretted all my decisions that day when I didn't... We succeeded, I was confused.

So I headed further south alone, ended up staying a night in Charleston, SC. Met a cool homeless guy under the bridge near the hop off spot. The downtown area was strange, lots of people who looked the same, dressed the same, etc, and a bunch of boutique stores that sold like 4 specialty products and a store called "the grocery" which didn't open until 5pm...

The next day I headed further south, making it to Savannah, GA, where I slept overnight at a yard waiting to head north, I was spotted by a supervisor that morning and escorted off the premises, then questioned by a cop (looking homeless in a random neighborhood near the tracks ig), who let me off without hassle. I then took a bus north to Atlanta, where I spent a couple nights in a cheap hotel to rest after sleeping outside for some nights.

The next day I was attempting to head west from Atlanta, only to end up heading north into a high security intermodal yard instead. We stopped right in the middle in broad daylight. With very little cover all I could do was hide my face from the cameras and hide as best as I could while we went past all the workers. I didn't get caught luckily.

I spent all day and night waiting for a train further north, but they kept teasing me, bringing them all the way to the signal and back in... Eventually I caught one heading north and ended up in Chattanooga, TN.

In TN I met a homeless man named Rusty, who was very kind and showed me around town and looked out for me while I was there. Exhausted from coming so far solo (originally planning to have a road dog), I didn't want to take the risk of ending up back in Atlanta so far from home, so I caught a bus from Knoxville back to DC where I live.

Overall it was a great trip, even though it didn't quite go to plan, I still trainhopped after saying I was planning on it for over a year and I learned a lot about railroad operations and made some good contacts around the area.

I am definitely planning to go again, probably further west next time now I have some experience. Message me on here if you hop and are on the east coast!

(Posted in introductions because I don't have enough likes for the trainhopping channel).
 

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