Onward to Chicago...

So this is how you ride a piggyback. You lay between the wheels of the semi-truck trailer that is on a flatbed car and pray someone doesn't see you. These are best for fast rides at night. And let me tell you, this was the most uncomfortable ride I had ever had the displeasure of experiencing. Darkstar and I laid side by side between those wheels and the train shimmied back and forth so violently that we kept rocking against the wheels, each other, and occasionally knocking our heads against the axle. It was roughly the equivelant of a nine hour long mosh pit. We rode out of Philly to Washington D.C. where we had to hop off and hide in the woods while a railworker was inspecting the cars. After he left, we got back on and continued to Cumberland, MD. Cumberland is a city in far west Maryland that has a very large train yard. Three hotshots to Chicago ride out of this trainyard every day.

While I had never gone here before on purpose, I had come here on accident a few times (long story) so I recognized the yard before we pulled into it and knew where it was safe to get off. Hopping off the train, we praised the hobo gods for not having to ride that shitty piggyback for another minute. Darkstar said it best when his feet hit the gravel. "Never again man. No more pigs." Damn straight!

We climbed our bruised and beaten bodies up the hill out of the yard and to the stripmall/grocery store that lay next to it. After loading up on supplies we walked a mile or so down along the yard until we came to 'Hank's Pharmacy' which, according to my crew change guide, was a good place to wait for a train. Between the pharmacy and the tracks was a small junk yard where we stashed ourselves and waited for the next hotshot, which wouldn't arrive until 3am. We fell asleep from exhaustion and missed the train. And the next one. And the next.

The next day it started to rain, so we hid in an R.V. that sat in the middle of the junk yard. A few trains stopped and we ran down the tracks in the rain to find a rideable car, but to no avail. We climbed back into the R.V. soaked and tired, and slept until the next morning. It was still raining. That morning we were disturbed by an old man with an umbrella looking through one of the windows at us. He asked us why we were in his R.V. We apoligized and explained our situation. He was really nice guy and said we could stay there as long as we didn't make a mess. We thanked him profusely and an hour later he brought us some food and wished us luck! That next day it stopped raining but we still hadn't had any luck finding a rideable car on any of the trains that came through. We sat in the junk yard waiting (remember, 90% of trainhopping is waiting) until the evening set in. Bored out of our gourds, we wanted nothing more than something to do until the train came. I left the junk yard on another coffee run and came back to see Darkstar chatting with three other kids. And they looked kinda punk. 'Ooo! Ooo! More travelers!' I thought.

I ran up to meet them, talking up a storm, prolly sounding like an idiot, I was so bored and excited to see new people. They hitchhiked from Washington D.C. and had followed their crew change to the same spot we were waiting at. Dave is on the left of this picture while Holly is on the right. I totally forgot the middle guy's name (sorry!). We talked about where and when the best time to catch the train was and eventually fell asleep and missed the train again. The next day we waited at a picnic table outside of a McMurder across the street from the train yard. While we waited, a few nice older men bought us a shitload of sausage biscuit sandwitches. We all ate the biscuits after taking off the sausage and giving it to Darkstar who was the only one among us that ate meat.

We had just finished eating when one of the older men said, "Looks like you train is here." We all turned to see a train pulling into the yard... with rideable 48's! Finally! We threw our gear on our backs as we thanked everyone for the food and rushed across the street. I slid down the hill towards the train while everyone followed and when I reached the bottom of the hill I nearly ran right into two other hoboes! Wow, this was becoming a crowd!

"Where ya guys heading?" I asked as they picked up their wrapped bundles and started towards the train. They we old guys around 35-40 years old. I thought to myself, 'Wow, REAL hobos!'.

"We're heading to Pittsburg," one of them responed as they climbed onto a piggyback car.

"Ya, we're heading to Chicago..." I said as we walked down the train looking for a suitable car. "Good luck to you!"

"You too." One replied back. In the back of my mind I noted they were hopping on a piggyback that would be impossible to hide on, putting them in full view. I wondered how long they'd been riding. 'Oh well, no time for that now' I thought, we had a train to catch. The D.C. kids found a 48 to ride in while Darkstar and I stashed ourselves into the 48 directly behind it. We sat there in the well of the car waiting for the train to leave.

This is the part of trainhopping I loved to hate. Nervously waiting for the train to leave, clinging to the wall of the well desperately trying not to get seen, and hoping the train isn't sitting there waiting for the cops to arrest you before heading off. It can be extremely intense sometimes. So intense I felt I could almost make the train move by my nervous will alone. Sometime you just relax and wait. But Darkstar and I had been prevented from getting on a train for the past several days due to being seen by railworkers and the lack of rideable cars. We were praying that this was our break. After the adrenaline had been pumping through my veins for several minutes, the train slammed forward slowly gaining speed as we rode through the middle of Cumberland. About fifteen minutes later I breathed a sigh of relief as our train blasted off into the woods of the surrounding mountains.

We soon crossed the border of Maryland into Pennsylvania. The weather was warm and the ride was beautiful. It reminded me why I put up with all the bullshit involved in traveling.

We were surrounded by the forests of southwestern Pennsylvania until we reached south Pittsburg where we stopped at a coal mining facility to let a few other trains go by. We continued through the city keeping our heads low and enjoying the scenery until we reached what I could only guess was the far northern end of the city.

The train stopped and we stood up to look around. There wasn't much to look at besides the empty highway to our left and a very large industrial plant to the right... and that white ford bronco driving down the tracks. "Oh, shit, the bulls!" I said looking at Darkstar. We leaned out the side of the car and watched the car coming down the tracks. The bull was too far away to be able to see us yet so we watched as it slowed to a stop next to one of the cars. A few seconds later the two older hobos we ran into climbed off.

"Looks like they're busted," said Darkstar. No doubt, I thought, considering the type of car they got on, they would have been easily seen sooner or later.

"Well, they wanted to get off in Pittsburg..." I thought out loud, "Probably not like that though." I silently wished them luck and hoped the "Man" wouldn't crack down on them too hard. My next worry was that he would continue down the line checking each of the cars. The truck turned around though and drove back towards the front of the train. The bull obviously didn't think there would be anymore trainhoppers on this train, much less another five kids in two seperate cars.

The train shoved forward again soon after the bull left and back into the woods we went. It was gorgeous. Nothing but the green trees, warm sun, clear rivers, and clacking of the railroad tracks. The feeling is something that I can't put into words, but makes me smile everytime I think about it. And on this trip I was beaming. It had been so long since I had rode a hotshot. I forgot how relaxing and worry free those trains are compared to junk trains. We almost never stopped, we didn't have to worry about getting disconnected from the train, and we were tearing ass through the countryside at a steady 60 mph. I estimated that we would be in Chicago by 9am the next morning.

I love this picture. Your odds of seeing a trainhopper on a train are pretty slim, so I love having this picture of someone besides me and my friends on a train. That's Dave and Holly by the way...

We crossed the border into Ohio and as the sun dove into the horizon that night I settled into my sleeping bag, letting the train rock me to sleep. I had several paranoid dreams that night about getting caught on the train, each ending with me waking up with a start as another train flew by blowing it's horn. Not the best way to wake up from a nightmare.

Darkstar and I woke up to the morning sun and suburban surroundings of... well... somewhere. I stood up and looked towards the front of the train. We were still moving at a good 20 mph or so, and I could see Dave in the car ahead of us waving back at me. We crusied through the suburbs for about another thirty minutes or so until the train slowed to a halt. I looked back at the DC kid's car as they were throwing off their packs. "We're must be in Chicago." I said, nudging Darkstar. We followed suit and the five of us wandered into the streets of Chicago's south suburbs...