Featured Boxcar Party: Six Hobos and a Hoghead

Thanks, everyone. I'm definitely going to pursue writing on a more consistent basis. Also super excited to have recently purchased a decent camera, I haven't had one for nearly ten years. So definitely more writing and better pictures to come beginning in Autumn.
 
Been a while since I read such a story with such charisma, passion and something that drew my attention. I wish you nothing but the best in this grand adventure we call life. Safe travels my friend. Awesome story...
 
Really enjoyed reading your story folk !
Felt like reading a real good book and you really do have great writting skills !
Gotta say if you were to write a book i definetly would be interested in reading more of your travel stories.
Thank you for posting this and wish you the best
 
What a good read! Thank you for sharing this!
Do you know anything about those 6 in the band, if they have anything online or if I can buy one of their CDs? They really sound like a group I'd love to listen to and support if they have a patreon or GoFundMe. Figured I'd ask and find out.
 
Thanks, @Berky. Yes I know heaps about those six in the band. They went by "The Dead Man Street Orchestra" but have since all sort of went on into their own projects. The most successful being Alynda Lee Segarra who formed her band "Hurray for the Riff Raff". She's been on the Conan O'Brian show and Letterman as well. Her music style has changed a lot over the years, from Junebug Waltz;
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to Rican Beach;

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To playing Blaze Foley's sister in the movie Blaze seen at 1:50 in the trailer, also that's her singing "Drunken Angel".

Barnabus Jones(Trombone), Shaye Cohn(Trumpet) and Todd Burdick(Tuba) formed "Tuba Skinny";

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Tim Roust the accordion maestro and Sherman the fiddler were both busking with various groups in New Orleans last I saw them.

The six of them have also been part of several acts in the past including;

The Loose Marbles(w/ Barnabus & Kiowa Wells)

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The Sweet Nothings(w/ Barnabus Jones, Alynda Lee Segarra, Shaye Cohn)

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G String Orchestra/G String Quartet(Barnabus Jones & Ian the fiddler who was also part of The Dead Man Street Orchestra's separated party I met a few days later)

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Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship(w/ Alynda Lee Segarra)

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And I'm sure a few others I'm not remembering at the moment.

Here's a few videos I filmed when I was staying with Alynda, Barnabus and Jesse in the Bywater during the New Orleans part of the story I wrote above.

The Brown Bag Stagglers(w/ Barnabus Jones & Alynda Lee Segarra)

Singin' the blues;
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Tell em I had to go;
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St. James Infirmary;
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Michael James played suitcase drums in The Brown Bag Stagglers and he's a great musician I can't leave out of this, he formed "My Graveyard Jaw"

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Jesse Kammerdiener was singing and playing banjo, he's a great musician as well. Here's some of his work;

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Some late mentions are; Shotgun Jazz Band(Barnabus) Stalebread Scottie & the kitchen men(Barnabus, Todd & Shaye)
 
Fuck yea man this is the best shit I've read in years I've also settled down since my years of rambunctious traveling but I enjoy reliving my glory days by reading other people's stories and hopefully scribbling down a few of my own in the future. Yet for me laziness abounds. But props brother great fuckin story I hope to hear more
 
I'll that I wanted to say was that is such a great story. I really enjoyed it. You seem like good people and maybe I'll have the pleasure to say hello one of these days. Cheers!
 
This story has been buried for seven years. Figured there might be some new members that might enjoy it, so this is more or less a shameless bump/necro. Ultimately I'd like to edit and format this story and publish it online somewhere, so I figured some more feedback might inspire me to actually do something with it. I'd also super appreciate some feedback on trimming the fat.

To me, it feels like this is a couple stories tied together. Does it belong together? Should I trim the fat by removing the travels with Joey to Chicago? It's kind of a totally separate story but that trip found me back in New Orleans again with the people this story started out with so I'm just not sure if I should try to shorten it up and remove that Chicago trip or not? Super appreciative of anyone's input, even critiques.
 
Thank you for bumping this, I hadn't read it previously. It was really well written, I enjoyed the pace and it captured my attention for sure. You should definitely write more. Great pictures too by the way!
 
This is one of the best train stories I've ever read. It captures all the energy and innocence of discovering a new world, but seen through the eyes of someone who has the technical knowledge and language to convincingly describe that world. Your simple, direct style is perfectly matched to the subject matter, you don't make the mistake of trying to glorify it, it's beautiful as is.


I felt like the Tony section followed well, no reason to drop it. It shows your life drifting increasingly in this new direction and your evolution as a rider.

The only immediate criticism i have is that the hearing lacked context. Everything else is so meticulously detailed, this seems rushed by comparison. Plus, you've already laid out how the duty list works, with your name creeping up towards the top, and the rigidity/demanding nature of the job. The structure is already there for us to understand how you could fuck up, or say fuck it, or get fucked over as the case may have been: just tell us what happened in a line or three.

Thanks for bumping.
 
bote said:
This is one of the best train stories I've ever read. It captures all the energy and innocence of discovering a new world, but seen through the eyes of someone who has the technical knowledge and language to convincingly describe that world. Your simple, direct style is perfectly matched to the subject matter, you don't make the mistake of trying to glorify it, it's beautiful as is.


I felt like the Tony section followed well, no reason to drop it. It shows your life drifting increasingly in this new direction and your evolution as a rider.

The only immediate criticism i have is that the hearing lacked context. Everything else is so meticulously detailed, this seems rushed by comparison. Plus, you've already laid out how the duty list works, with your name creeping up towards the top, and the rigidity/demanding nature of the job. The structure is already there for us to understand how you could fuck up, or say fuck it, or get fucked over as the case may have been: just tell us what happened in a line or three.

Thanks for bumping.
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This is such a fantastic and useful response, thank you. I never even gave a second thought to the hearing portion. I wonder why I wrote it like that. My best guess is because it's not necessarily something that I enjoyed, whereas the rest of he story was good times. I thought I did leave cliff notes on what happened, I'll have to go back and work on it. Maybe try to paint the scene better. Again, thank you so much!
 
Eng JR Lupo RV323 said:
This is such a fantastic and useful response, thank you. I never even gave a second thought to the hearing portion. I wonder why I wrote it like that. My best guess is because it's not necessarily something that I enjoyed, whereas the rest of he story was good times. I thought I did leave cliff notes on what happened, I'll have to go back and work on it. Maybe try to paint the scene better. Again, thank you so much!
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So here's the investigation portion;

"I rode to Roseville in a grainer from Fresno to appear at my investigation for AWOL charges. They must have gotten word from the employees I had told my stories to because when I walked into that room with the audio recording devices on, the mics on the desks in front of us they asked me right out the gate "How did you get here today Mr... Lupo?" I responded "A train". The manager then asked "What kind of train Mr... Lupo?" I started to answer him I was just going to say an Amtrak and he rudely interrupted me with an even stupider question "you do know the difference between a freight train and a passenger train don't you Mr... Lupo?" I then realized exactly what he was getting at and thought, wait a fucking minute here. I'm being charged with absent without leave not fucking around in boxcars, what is this really about?

So I asked them pretty much that "Am I being investigated for AWOL or are you doubling up here with additional accusations? I was served a notice that mentioned only AWOL, are you sure this is legal? Do you ask every person that walks through those doors for AWOL charges how they got here and if they know the difference between trains?" They realized it wasn't appropriate to the charges so the manager asked that the tapes be stopped and those segments removed. They ended the trial on the firm instructions "If the arbitrators who listen to these tapes deem you in the wrong and you're terminated, you DO realize you can no longer appear on RxR property or ride freight trains right?" It was a ridiculous question and I didn't feel I owed him an answer. I looked at my union local chairman and asked are we done here? Sounding fed up with the company he said "Yeah, we're done here" I walked out.

I got on the computer since my login had not been taken from me yet, it would take some weeks for the arbitrators to listen to the hearing so I had access for a while still. I looked up southbound trains and I found my train in the rock pile tracks. I rode a boxcar back to Fresno and I'm still sort of hanging around this shithole today, family anchors me a bit. I never really know how to end this story, I feel like I'm still living it in a sense. I'm basically right here in this story, I have other experiences that I've written about that have taken place since this but they all feel like their own chapters in some way. I guess what I hope to do is someday compile them all together in some manner and hope they all fit in such a way that others will enjoy reading them as an entire book. Until then, safe travels my friends. I hope to meet more of you folks upon future travels, we oughta do something worth writing about, hey."


I felt like I gave two full paragraphs on the hearing. I'm not in any way trying to say your takeaway isn't valid. I'm just not really sure what else I can add to it. That's more or less how it went down. Mostly it was a dull experience, just sitting there next to my union rep quietly as the managers asked a handful of questions, I don't even really remember what else was asked. I will say this- After rereading it, I definitely need to work on that last paragraph. That isn't how a story should end. I'm just kinda talking to the readers and explaining how I don't have a good ending. Surely I can do better. I feel like it definitely peters out right there, the last place you'd want such a behemoth of a story to peter out. Do you feel like this segment is where it felt lacking in content? The last paragraph? Or the investigation hearing itself still feels dry to you?
 
The hearing itself is quitr good, I wanted to know what led to the charge in the first place. Because for one thing, there's the whole section earlier on where you're racing to make it back in time, and you succeed. So, was there a similar situation and you just didn't make it in time? Or wa ut somehow related to the alcohol/dexline you mentioned? If so, how? I don't think the story needs to turn sad or be a sermon on the evils if alcohol, I just want to know how the charge hapoened, cause by this point im invested in the character, so if something like this happens to them, it's significant.
 
Also, although I get what you mean about the ending not being a typical ending for a story, as memoir it works pretty well. There's a nice amount of hope and connection to balance out the bittersweet and loss.
 
Ohh I think I follow what you're saying now. Hmm, maybe I need to transition better there. It didn't really have anything to do with alcohol. That was just a side attraction I enjoyed while I was kind of reevaluating my life and deciding if I ever even wanted to go back. I think I was vague in all of that, so I'll go back and rework that segment to make things more clear. Super appreciate this feedback, these are things I didn't even notice myself as the writer. I think the blanks are already filled in in my head, and even though I have tried to write it in a way where I'm putting myself in the readers shoes, I would have never noticed those blanks without your input.

Also I should probably tie in this whole extra little story about that time in New Orleans. I'll work it into the story on an edit but lemme know if you think it should be included or not based on this shortened up version.

I fell in love with a girl when I was a teenager. She moved away to New Orleans and we kept in touch almost daily on the phone. Romance wasn't in the cards but I loved her as a person and a friend, so we were friends. Neither of us had cell phones in those days, these were landlines. We'd chat all the time, her in New Orleans, me in California. Then one day hurricane Katrina hit, and I had no word from her or way to reach her. Landlines were destroyed, what happened to my friend? I'd call and call, all I ever got was some weird buzzing noises on the other end. A sound I'd never heard before when placing a call. Months and months went by, what happened to my friend, did she survive?

Nearly a year had passed, that number never worked again. It was something that just never felt right to me, I had to know if she was ok. So when Joey asked if I wanted to ride trains to Chicago, I started thinking of New Orleans. I agreed to ride with him to Chicago and then I had my own plans to go to New Orleans. I wanted to visit my train hopping busker friends but I also wanted to show up to my friends house to see if she was there. We used to write snail mail all the time so I knew her address by memory, in Algiers. During the time that I was staying in the bywater, I borrowed a friend bike and I rode to Algiers to my long lost friends address.

I knocked, but no answer. I saw no clear signs indicating whether or not she lived there still. No name on the mailbox, nothing. I knocked a couple times and then a door opened next to the one I knocked at. An old woman came out and asked who I was looking for. I told her my friends name and she said oh, yes she lives here but her truck is gone right now so she must be at work. Those words healed a friend sized hole in my heart, she lives! I didn't even need to see her, I just needed to know that she was ok. But I definitely wanted to see her too. So I left my phone number with the old neighbor lady and I returned to the bywater.

That same night I got a call from my friend. It was so cathartic to hear her voice again, she was so excited sounding too. I had so many fucking questions! She said "How about you take me to dinner and we can catch up!". We set a time and that night I stood on the porch waiting for her to pull up. Alynda, Barnabus, Sticks, Aileen, and others were all out there with me. They were all aware of the entire saga and they wanted to witness the reunion. My friend pulled up in front of me, left her truck in the street and ran and jumped into my arms. I hugged her so hard and cried. My busker friends awwwed in a quiet tone, letting us have this moment.

It was so amazing, reuniting with her. We got all the tears out of the way and I hopped in her truck with her and we drove to a Thai restaurant in the quarter. We ate and caught up on everything. She told me that she stayed through the hurricane in the city. She found refuge on a tall building with strangers and rode it out. She told me that she suffered an aneurysm during that whole event and was hospitalized in a coma for many many days. She said that it fucked her brain up and she'll never be the same. She couldn't really explain it so well, just that she feels like she'll be a hermit more or less for the rest of her life. I believe it was some sort of social anxiety and probably a bunch of other stuff too.

It was sad, it was really sad because here we were reuniting and it all felt so good to me but I wondered how difficult it had to be for her just to even call me, let alone show up and then go have dinner and talk about all of it. I asked her what she needed from me and she just asked for understanding. I love that girl and I may never fully understand everything that happened but I absolutely respected her wishes. That night nearly two decades ago was the last time I've seen or spoken to her. I hope she's ok. I'll never reach out or try to find her again. I accept it, but it still makes me sad.

Do you think this segment fits into the story or perhaps too much?
 
Just for clarification, you did end up going to Chicago first then down to NOLA? Did you take the CN/IC Route? Anything worth mentioning about the way down? This could almost be a story of it's own.
 
Hobo Corncob said:
Just for clarification, you did end up going to Chicago first then down to NOLA? Did you take the CN/IC Route? Anything worth mentioning about the way down? This could almost be a story of it's own.
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Heh.. I leave that part of the story out because it's kinda just meh. Despite being an engineer and having a vast knowledge of train operations, at that time I still had very little knowledge of how to ride freight solo and get to where I wanted to go. If it were UP lines I could have waltzed into any UP yard office and pulled up all the info on the computers and figured it out. I was actually so eager to get to Nola that instead, I walked to Union Station and bought an Amtrak ticket on the City of New Orleans train. The ride was almost as uneventful as most Amtrak rides are.

I did meet a girl while hanging out in the observation car. Her and I hooked up in the women's restroom on the Amtrak. We didn't really talk or hang out much after that. I ran into her at Flora Gallery on Royal street about a week into my stay, she acted like she didn't recognize me which was kind of funny. But yeah, all in all that leg of the journey wasn't much to write home about. To answer your first question- Yes, we rode out of the Bay Area and got onto the transcon all the way up into Chicago on a few different IM's.
 
I like the story about the reunion in Nola, it's definitely interesting and dramatic. Like corncob said, it could be its own story. I think if this were a novel it should be included, but if it's a short story leave it out because it opens up these bigger questions about who you are kind of late in the story.
The story arc as i see it now revolves around your relationship to your job. It's like "How I learned to stop working and love trains" (thinking of Kubrick).
 
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