railroadron
Well-known member
There was a time when BN was in fact a very tramp friendly railroad. Aside from Interbay and Northtown there were no hot yards although there has always been bulls who didn’t do much, or so it seemed. Roger the famous SP Bull in K-Falls (80 s) was known to run ID s while shootin the shit with ya, always reminding us to stay out of the rear units and off the hot shots..we didn’t listen. There was Bob the BN bull in Vancouver who drove around the yard in a green car..maybe even his own who didn’t even run ID s but did harass if you were drunk and in the yard. He was good about telling you where to catch which I presume it was because he didn’t want you in town and preferred you to leave ASAP. Cool thing about Bob was he never got out of his car so if you weren’t in sight he didn’t stop. Many times I’ d be over in B yards Vancouver sitting on a grainer and waiting for Air and he d stop and shoot the shit from the car window..even wish you a safe trip. Any other town like Pasco or Spokane that had bulls, I never saw em, probably because I never rode all the way into the yards. Interbay was always known to be hot but who would ride into Interbay? You ve got the whole city to bail before and after the tunnel and besides, who d want to walk back to the city? Actually Seattle bugged me out because it was difficult to find a place to bed down that either didn’t have someone already there or at some point folks passin by and Seattle seemed to have an abundance of not just crazies but drunk crazies. I never slept well in that city and I don’t do and never will do shelters..Period! My only business in Seattle was to get my check and move on but it never seemed to work out that way. You know the drill, gotta have a jug to ride and then another and possibly another..somehow it just takes forever to get on that train. Wenatchee was back then a cool ass town to hang and party in..no bull there . If ya didn’t mind working you could always get work up in the Apple and or cherry orchards which I did from time to time. Every evening we used to hang out in the apple yards..east of town and drink 20 or 30 88 cent quarts of Rainier Ale and oly s till we all just passed out. Spokane back then was a CC and actually trains were designated there because back then BN owned and operated both High and Low lines as well as Kettle falls and Colville lines that interchanged with Canadian rails. Spokane was a great place around the 4th of july because every year they have Indy car races through the city and downtown becomes one big party. Fourth of July 1987 ( I was 17) I got cited 3 times that day for drunk in public (detox was full) and one citation for open container. I stashed my gear near the old SP&s yards next to the river and after a bath in the river I put on my best clean duds and headed into town lookin to get into trouble and it wasn’t long before I found it. First thing I got a half gallon of Canadian Mist and 6 pack of coke..made my first drink and here comes Spokane s finest on horse. They cited and poured out my jug! So back to the jug store and got another..this time managed to polish it off and in a drunken stupor roam the streets. This is how I managed the other tickets. I don’t recall much more of that day but I do remember somehow finding my gear, scoring some righteous buds and 12 pack of Hamms and woke up pulling into white fish on a Piggy the following morning.
I think it was around Sept. of 87 when Alise and I met JD outside St.Vinny s after an early morning breakfast of hot oatmeal and French toast. Rollin smokes JD asked if we’d come recently off the Highline which we hadn’t or met a kid name Vern who had a little dog with big floppy ears named Ticker. Nope, didn’t know him. He told us how he and his road dawg got separated several days before on the low line out in the middle of nowhere when Vern jumped off to use the bushes. Apparently he d gone down the embankment which was loose rock and because they were in the hole, he figure they were waitin for a train to pass. Not the case.. Train started rollin before he could pinch it off and get his pants up so all JD could do was throw his gear off and yell meet me in Spokane. Personally if it was my road dawg I’d of got off and been stuck too cause its not often when you meet someone you can really call road dawg which means exactly as it implies..Road Dawg! Anyway, because Alise and I were MT bound, JD asked to accompany us. He wanted to ride back along the low line and look for him near or at the hole which he didin t think was that far from Sandpoint Jct. so we offered extra eyes and decided to go with. After a few hours an eastbound rolled up and I stuck my fingers up for the engineer to see, asking high or low..which was how we did it then. He stuck his head out and said Low so we got on. Mother fucker lied..we hit sandpoint and got on the Highline. We planned on getting off in Whitefish and going back to Spokane to try again but somehow that didn’t work out. None of us ever woke up because they sometimes changed crews on the fly. I remember waking up to early morning sun obviously east of the Rockies around Browning in the hole. Jumping off to stretch my legs and take a squirt I ran into Arky Ark who was several cars down in another open box like ours with a couple others who had mountain bikes with em. Kinda funny to see them riding around the boxcar poppin wheeelies and shit. We got off in Havre later that afternoon and scored a piggy going West maybe about 20 minutes of jumping free of the other. Arriving back in Spokane we’d gotten off when it CC d and thought we d walk towards town thinking, hoping he may have made it and sure as shit he did. It was ticker who came running up to us just happy as shit to see JD and meet us. Over the campfire that night we’d decided we were gonna go to Coos Bay OR and pick shrooms like everyone else who knew about it. I had a special place between Coquille and Coos bay that was freaking crazy with these purple and red amanitas that no one seemed to know about. So the journey from hell had begun.
Our planned route was west to Seattle (they ‘d never been) then south to Vancouver where we’ d catch SP going over the bridge into Portland and then Eugene from Brooklyn followed by Coos Bay from Eugene. Our first train together as a group was a piggy. Now back then Piggy s were a little different because they put to trailers back to back with the rear doors butted together, so the cars were long and completely decked unlike the half decking you see now days. It was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky when we CC d in Wenatchee and began the climb towards the summit and famous Cascade tunnel. Because they had never ridden the route and was a glorious day to see it, we found a better ride on the same pig train we got in Spokane, switching to a car that had a 40 foot trailer and a small 28 foot container that allowed standing room and space to see all without an obstructed view. Several hours into the trip as we neared the west Portal of the tunnel we were coming around a curve with the wheels just squealing and we all saw this big pile of WUP (white unidentified Powder) right next to the tracks and piled almost as high as the car. Now I’ve done some dumb risky shit in my life but to date that was the cake topper. Not thinking, I decided to lean over kinda half hanging on in order to grab a handful of this mysterious substance, I suddenly found myself not just in the shit..it was in my freakin mouth. I fell off the train at about 40 to 50 miles per hour!! Talk about an adrenaline rush! LOL! ( Iwasn t laughin then though) This shit happened so fast..my brain registered no pain other than the fact it knocked the wind out of me and out of survival instinct.. I dove back on managing to do so only 6 cars away from which I came off . From stand still to 50 miles an hour instantly violently jammed me into the upcoming axles of the trailer and not only fractured my knee but also ground off a wart I had on my arm with the rough surface that provided traction. Then we hit the tunnel!! I was in freaking agony!!! I was in so much pain I think I passed out several times in the pitch black tunnel that seemed to take forever to get through. Back into daylight finally and fresh air, I looked down to examine my obviously fucked knee and was even more pissed to see my jeans were ripped. Vern and JD managed to crawl back to me..crossing knuckles and risking their own safety to care for my sorry ass. After several minutes JD took off not saying what he was doing but he crawled the whole freaking train believe it or not all the way to the units to alert the engineer who graciously stopped the train in Monroe WA right next to a medical center and pulled off as soon as we all got off. The medical people came out and crossed the street with a gurney to help me out…Blah blah blah after X rays determined I wasn’t gonna die they gave me a leg brace..no crutches and handful of Ibprofen (no insurance) and sent us on our merry way. Have you ever tried to carry to carry a 60 pound pack with your leg in a brace and no crutches? Fuckin miserable! I moved at a snail’s pace. It just so happened it was Labor day weekend and a carnival was in town which they all got jobs in order to get funds to get us out of the ridiculous town that trains didn’t normally stop. The next few days were pretty agonizing cause I could nt walk hardly with my knee swelled up like a foot ball nor could I change to any comfortable sleeping position. Now that I think about it I think I even layed on my side to pee. Once the carnival broke we all got rides with em to Everett which we rode the city transit to Seattle. Luckily back then small dogs were allowed on busses. Then federal way and ultimately Tacoma because there was no way we were going to Interbay and I could nt catch anything moving. After several more agonizing days in Tacoma in order to give my knee some rest and get the swelling down we decided to continue our trip from hell. Strangely there wasn’t a a train for like a whole day which I thought might be because of a derailment, however several did pass through that night when we were nt prepared to move..again because I was in too much pain to get my ass up and sleep was near impossible except when I was only out due to pure exhaustion which was the case. The next morning I remember a short piggy rolled in stopping briefly and we decided to get away from the ever present Tacoma Aroma and climbed on. After what seemed about a hour the train suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere about 10 miles from Chehalis and the conductor walked up telling us it was a hot government train with agents in the upcoming town ready to pull us off and jail us, recommending we bail. Wasting no time, we gratefully did just that. Actually there was another rider several cars ahead of us who didn’t head the warning basically telling the conductor he was full of shit so he stayed put. We were literally living off the land out there for a few days..setting up camp along a creek and quickly diminishing what basic food stuffs we had like good ol beans and rice. We also found a few farm houses with gardens which we raided at night for veggies and split firewood.
After about a week out there and my knee feeling much better we decided to began the long 10 mile or so walk towards civilization taking our time which was an all day trek. I think it was Centralia or Chehalis but as we approached town, a barney Fife like cop pulled up and made mention that we were the lucky group who must ve jumped off the train, unlike the other fella who was in jail. All he said was get gone as soon as we could and sped off. That town was actually good to us and I didn’t mind the fact that trains were nt stopping in either direction because we were eatin good. As a matter of fact people who discovered us just gave us money and food and some kids even gave us like a ounce of some home grown smoke and we never asked for anything..didn t need too. Finally a train stopped and we sadly rolled on out. Vancouver and Portland were uneventful but the night we hopped out of Brooklyn somehow Ticker either committed suicide or fell off the train crossing the knuckle on a grainer in order to get out of the wind. So the next few days we were pretty bummed out and sad. Catching the Coos bay man which is an awesome ride ( I read where they’re actually re-opening the route and almost complete with the lines rehabilitation ) we rolled into Coos Bay and set up camp. One evening we were walking down in the tidal flats during low tide and I found some real smith and Wesson handcuffs. Cleaning them off and working them ..Vern thought he’d be funny and lock one onto my wrist…uh no key you fuck wad!! So while everyone was laughing their asses off I walked up to Vern and cuffed his ass to me..Man talk about everyone rollin then. LOL. We looked like escape convicts walking through town lookin for a locksmith to help us out. No dice! We eventually went to the police station who helped us with a key. After a few days we finally hiked to the spot and just like always..found mushooommss galore. The following days was one big psychedelic blur..colors man!!! Many colors! That’s all I can say. Have you ever seen a tent and just started laughing hysterically? Somehow the tent became the mothership and we were invited to go!!LOL!!! Fucking Fun..damn those were the days. Anyway we did eventually go back to Eugene and I believe we parted ways there because itwas about time to make my check rounds
I think it was around Sept. of 87 when Alise and I met JD outside St.Vinny s after an early morning breakfast of hot oatmeal and French toast. Rollin smokes JD asked if we’d come recently off the Highline which we hadn’t or met a kid name Vern who had a little dog with big floppy ears named Ticker. Nope, didn’t know him. He told us how he and his road dawg got separated several days before on the low line out in the middle of nowhere when Vern jumped off to use the bushes. Apparently he d gone down the embankment which was loose rock and because they were in the hole, he figure they were waitin for a train to pass. Not the case.. Train started rollin before he could pinch it off and get his pants up so all JD could do was throw his gear off and yell meet me in Spokane. Personally if it was my road dawg I’d of got off and been stuck too cause its not often when you meet someone you can really call road dawg which means exactly as it implies..Road Dawg! Anyway, because Alise and I were MT bound, JD asked to accompany us. He wanted to ride back along the low line and look for him near or at the hole which he didin t think was that far from Sandpoint Jct. so we offered extra eyes and decided to go with. After a few hours an eastbound rolled up and I stuck my fingers up for the engineer to see, asking high or low..which was how we did it then. He stuck his head out and said Low so we got on. Mother fucker lied..we hit sandpoint and got on the Highline. We planned on getting off in Whitefish and going back to Spokane to try again but somehow that didn’t work out. None of us ever woke up because they sometimes changed crews on the fly. I remember waking up to early morning sun obviously east of the Rockies around Browning in the hole. Jumping off to stretch my legs and take a squirt I ran into Arky Ark who was several cars down in another open box like ours with a couple others who had mountain bikes with em. Kinda funny to see them riding around the boxcar poppin wheeelies and shit. We got off in Havre later that afternoon and scored a piggy going West maybe about 20 minutes of jumping free of the other. Arriving back in Spokane we’d gotten off when it CC d and thought we d walk towards town thinking, hoping he may have made it and sure as shit he did. It was ticker who came running up to us just happy as shit to see JD and meet us. Over the campfire that night we’d decided we were gonna go to Coos Bay OR and pick shrooms like everyone else who knew about it. I had a special place between Coquille and Coos bay that was freaking crazy with these purple and red amanitas that no one seemed to know about. So the journey from hell had begun.
Our planned route was west to Seattle (they ‘d never been) then south to Vancouver where we’ d catch SP going over the bridge into Portland and then Eugene from Brooklyn followed by Coos Bay from Eugene. Our first train together as a group was a piggy. Now back then Piggy s were a little different because they put to trailers back to back with the rear doors butted together, so the cars were long and completely decked unlike the half decking you see now days. It was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky when we CC d in Wenatchee and began the climb towards the summit and famous Cascade tunnel. Because they had never ridden the route and was a glorious day to see it, we found a better ride on the same pig train we got in Spokane, switching to a car that had a 40 foot trailer and a small 28 foot container that allowed standing room and space to see all without an obstructed view. Several hours into the trip as we neared the west Portal of the tunnel we were coming around a curve with the wheels just squealing and we all saw this big pile of WUP (white unidentified Powder) right next to the tracks and piled almost as high as the car. Now I’ve done some dumb risky shit in my life but to date that was the cake topper. Not thinking, I decided to lean over kinda half hanging on in order to grab a handful of this mysterious substance, I suddenly found myself not just in the shit..it was in my freakin mouth. I fell off the train at about 40 to 50 miles per hour!! Talk about an adrenaline rush! LOL! ( Iwasn t laughin then though) This shit happened so fast..my brain registered no pain other than the fact it knocked the wind out of me and out of survival instinct.. I dove back on managing to do so only 6 cars away from which I came off . From stand still to 50 miles an hour instantly violently jammed me into the upcoming axles of the trailer and not only fractured my knee but also ground off a wart I had on my arm with the rough surface that provided traction. Then we hit the tunnel!! I was in freaking agony!!! I was in so much pain I think I passed out several times in the pitch black tunnel that seemed to take forever to get through. Back into daylight finally and fresh air, I looked down to examine my obviously fucked knee and was even more pissed to see my jeans were ripped. Vern and JD managed to crawl back to me..crossing knuckles and risking their own safety to care for my sorry ass. After several minutes JD took off not saying what he was doing but he crawled the whole freaking train believe it or not all the way to the units to alert the engineer who graciously stopped the train in Monroe WA right next to a medical center and pulled off as soon as we all got off. The medical people came out and crossed the street with a gurney to help me out…Blah blah blah after X rays determined I wasn’t gonna die they gave me a leg brace..no crutches and handful of Ibprofen (no insurance) and sent us on our merry way. Have you ever tried to carry to carry a 60 pound pack with your leg in a brace and no crutches? Fuckin miserable! I moved at a snail’s pace. It just so happened it was Labor day weekend and a carnival was in town which they all got jobs in order to get funds to get us out of the ridiculous town that trains didn’t normally stop. The next few days were pretty agonizing cause I could nt walk hardly with my knee swelled up like a foot ball nor could I change to any comfortable sleeping position. Now that I think about it I think I even layed on my side to pee. Once the carnival broke we all got rides with em to Everett which we rode the city transit to Seattle. Luckily back then small dogs were allowed on busses. Then federal way and ultimately Tacoma because there was no way we were going to Interbay and I could nt catch anything moving. After several more agonizing days in Tacoma in order to give my knee some rest and get the swelling down we decided to continue our trip from hell. Strangely there wasn’t a a train for like a whole day which I thought might be because of a derailment, however several did pass through that night when we were nt prepared to move..again because I was in too much pain to get my ass up and sleep was near impossible except when I was only out due to pure exhaustion which was the case. The next morning I remember a short piggy rolled in stopping briefly and we decided to get away from the ever present Tacoma Aroma and climbed on. After what seemed about a hour the train suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere about 10 miles from Chehalis and the conductor walked up telling us it was a hot government train with agents in the upcoming town ready to pull us off and jail us, recommending we bail. Wasting no time, we gratefully did just that. Actually there was another rider several cars ahead of us who didn’t head the warning basically telling the conductor he was full of shit so he stayed put. We were literally living off the land out there for a few days..setting up camp along a creek and quickly diminishing what basic food stuffs we had like good ol beans and rice. We also found a few farm houses with gardens which we raided at night for veggies and split firewood.
After about a week out there and my knee feeling much better we decided to began the long 10 mile or so walk towards civilization taking our time which was an all day trek. I think it was Centralia or Chehalis but as we approached town, a barney Fife like cop pulled up and made mention that we were the lucky group who must ve jumped off the train, unlike the other fella who was in jail. All he said was get gone as soon as we could and sped off. That town was actually good to us and I didn’t mind the fact that trains were nt stopping in either direction because we were eatin good. As a matter of fact people who discovered us just gave us money and food and some kids even gave us like a ounce of some home grown smoke and we never asked for anything..didn t need too. Finally a train stopped and we sadly rolled on out. Vancouver and Portland were uneventful but the night we hopped out of Brooklyn somehow Ticker either committed suicide or fell off the train crossing the knuckle on a grainer in order to get out of the wind. So the next few days we were pretty bummed out and sad. Catching the Coos bay man which is an awesome ride ( I read where they’re actually re-opening the route and almost complete with the lines rehabilitation ) we rolled into Coos Bay and set up camp. One evening we were walking down in the tidal flats during low tide and I found some real smith and Wesson handcuffs. Cleaning them off and working them ..Vern thought he’d be funny and lock one onto my wrist…uh no key you fuck wad!! So while everyone was laughing their asses off I walked up to Vern and cuffed his ass to me..Man talk about everyone rollin then. LOL. We looked like escape convicts walking through town lookin for a locksmith to help us out. No dice! We eventually went to the police station who helped us with a key. After a few days we finally hiked to the spot and just like always..found mushooommss galore. The following days was one big psychedelic blur..colors man!!! Many colors! That’s all I can say. Have you ever seen a tent and just started laughing hysterically? Somehow the tent became the mothership and we were invited to go!!LOL!!! Fucking Fun..damn those were the days. Anyway we did eventually go back to Eugene and I believe we parted ways there because itwas about time to make my check rounds
