Brownville Jctn, ME

[wokofshame]

First off it should be noted that you do not want to be anywhere near here in the spring or summertime. Fall is probably best. The blackflies and mosquitoes will literally eat you alive.
It is so bad, even a fire doesn't keep them away. Forget trying to sleep w/out a tent or bug net.
Next off is the town police chief, Nick Clukey. Skinny dude with a big nose that has a JIHAD against train riders. If he or another cop (at least 4 of them for this town of ~500 souls) sees you walking with a pack they will stop you, run your name, and tell you to get out of town or else they will catch and arrest you. That is considered your warning and if you do not immediately leave they will keep hassling you and arrest you once you slip up.
I have been to all kinds of friendly and unfriendly places towards travellers and let me tell you this town is STRAIGHT UP FUCKED.
When I got arrested the cops told me to tell everyone I knew to stay away from Brownville Jctn. Well doing so would be admitting failure, so I'm not going to do that. "Put up 'signs'" was what I was told. The cops said they'd seen two different "signs" put up saying the town was unfriendly.
I guess they mean like the old school 1930s hobo signs? I tried asking what the fuck they were talking about as I hadn't seen any but was told I should know, having been riding trains for a minute.

I'll relate my story from the start: Hitched into town with some Trailer Park Boys types (the one kids girlfriend was in labor at WalMart and they were texting back and forth). Went fishing with them out on the dirt roads and then cam back into town.
No problems 1st night (and no trains as it was Memorial Day) as I stashed my pack in the woods per instructions of LoneHobo and peterBilly, who also had negative experiences a year ago. yesterday around 10 am comes in New Brunswick Southern RR drops off 15 cars and picks up another 15 around noon. I grabbed my bag to catch this but there were no ridables (tankers and a loaded autorack) and it was broad daylight.
Walk to store then back towards where I was camped by west end of yrad in woods. Chief Smallpenis pulls over, gives me a spiel about how I need to leave town immediately by hitchhiking, i give him a spiel about being up here to look for work and how I'm hitching, he actually kind of believes me.
Go to post office and escape from blackflies. Friendly person asks where I'm headed and i say Nova Scotia. (There are plenty of friendly felon/logger types in town, some of whom work for MMA. Just be careful, you can't be sure who's a crony of the pigs).
Well the postmistress overhears this and calls the cops once I leave to get water. Apparently just wearing a knife on my belt raised her to thundercunt.
I try to get water from some off taps on an apt building and dude storms out "What you doing you burglarizing my house" "Fuck off see my water jug?"
The guy has a radio for being on the Fire Dept and is super aggro, he radios the cops also.
Back to the post office to get water from the postmistress, apparently when she had called the cops she'd said I was heading towards the yard cross the street. This time there's another cop, in T-shirt, they're looking for me in the yard while I watch which is funny but annoying. Finally they figure out I'm in the post office and they order me outside to have us a little talk.
(Put on retarded redneck accent) "You lied to me blah blah blah Nova Scotia is not Maine blah blah"
And then "Don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining" a good one I have to file away.
THE POLICE CHIEF HATES TRAINRIDERS. HATES THEM. They get one or a pair of trainrider every few weeks in the summer and that is too much for them. he wants to rid the town of them. Seriously. I have no idea why the guy hates something so much that is in his town so little.
The one worker i talked to (at the PO) was super friendly and led me to believe other were too, so I dont think its even that the RR complains to the cops. he just hates travellers.
The blackflies are killing me at camp so I leave my pack and walk down to the river (should be alright, yeah?). Go swimming for a few hours. Coming back, a pickup truck pulling a trailer with lawnmowers on it circles me by blocks twice.
I know now it was either an off-duty cop or else some concerned citizen. Apparently there was also another report of me also from someone else, the town is a fascist informant shithole.
Fast-forward to 11 PM. I have a little fire going way out in the woods (no shortage of camping spots, the town is surrounded by dense forests)
and decide to stretch my legs and see if there are any switch lists sitting in the yard shack which is about 1/2 miles from west end of town. None and i walk back.
Now this part is really fucking stupid looking back. I'm headed down the edge of the tracks when I see figures in the distance. My first thoughts is its the crew for the train thats sitting there. Nope. There are three or four figures
and some have back packs. Don't fit crew, anyway train (MM&A to Montreal) is not OD until 1-3 AM according to the guy I talked to.
They must be trainriders. Definitely look like it.

All of a sudden I'm lit up by red tracer dots.
"On the fucking ground"
Its the cops. They run the 100 ft to me, knee me in the back and cuff me, 4 of em, the chief and one other had come out to search for me in the woods( mind you, my camp was deep in the woods and 1/4 mile+ thru swamp from far end of town) seen my fire, and gone back to town to meet their backup- two burly chickenshit asshole redneck PD in SWAT team gear, SWAT-style packs, machine guns (I'm not shitting you, they had what I think were AR-15s),
all camo everything. I thought at first they must be border patrol but no, brownville PD.
They made sure to rough me up and knee me in the small of the back rub me in the gravel a bit.
These guys were headed to my camp but i made it easier for them. Spent a night in jail the food wasnt really too bad.
I don't know what to say. If you come into town, come with all supplies and immediately make a beeline for a camp spot. DO NOT bring your gear into town and try to avoid town completely and any area visible from it ie under the bridge
across the river.
Don't build a fire, and don't tell anyone what your business is in town.
This town blows. I'm not beat but i doubt I'm ever going back.
Also both RRs run only about 5 days a week so if you show up on the wrong day you are fucked with a 2 or 3 day wait.

 

[drunken marauder]

But I thought small town cops were cool..... God I cant stand any of em...

 

[joaquim33]

hey whats up MURT this is cory the fella from massachusetts, we met by the tracks in georgetown a few weeks ago when i was getting off the bus. i've never stopped in brownsville, but i had a great experience with the cops in a town not far from there in central maine last summer. my buddy and i got off the train late PM after a nice ride up from bangor, and camped out in a lumber yard next to the tracks. early morning came around and we went to get some breakfast at the cool little diner right next to the train yard. after eating we were sitting outside and i was rolling a ciggarette before starting to hitch to the coast when the sherriff roles up on us. he sez "you boys come in here on the train last night" and simuntaneously I say "no sir" and my buddy says "yes sir," very awkwardly interrupting each other. he gives me a dirty look and tells me i'd be better off not lying and then he goes off to his car to run our names.
while he's doing so a middle age man with a crew cut who had been watching this all from his front porch across the street walks up to the cop car and he and the sherriff are talking and pointing at us and giving us the eye and i'm thinking, oh lordly this doesnt look good. however, the sheriff then came back to us and says "allright boys, now i know a lot of you are on these trains, and i got better things to do then be chasing you around, just be careful, cause my nephew tom lost his arm on a train. thats right little tommy, so you boys be careful and have a good day" and leaves. then the crew cut neighbor comes up to us and turns out HE's a cop as well, as he starts telling us how he told the sheriff we were just minding our own buisness at the diner, and then starts off on "so you guys are riding the rails? DAMn ! i always wanted to do that...too old now...etc." etc...
anyway... too bad about brownsville, but this shows that not all the cops are that bad in maine.

 

[bryanpaul]

damn!.......some transient probably did some fucked up shit in the 70's or 80's there and it's engrained in peoples brains or some shit.....haha SWAT gear and machine guns......that shit's scary tho...bored outta there peanut brains and triggerhappy, go to reach for your ID at the wrong moment or try to bail and that's the end of ya....

 

[wokofshame]

Wassup cory, u in mass now?
So, funny tidbit i completely forgot about.
So the jr cop was handing my knife to Chief Cockstain and accidentally slashes the guy across the wrist with the blade ( I keps my shit rzor-sharp bitches) . Cop starts bleeding, freaks out and asks me what I was doing last with the knife. UNForutunately, i didnt notice this at the moment and just told him i was sharpening and greasing it last.
I figured out how to fuck wit the guy, 3 weeks later i looked up the pd's # online, called, left a message telling him I just had a positive hep C test and not to fuck his wife without a rubber until he gets tested etc.
revenge is sweet

 

[joaquim33]

that made me laugh out loud. look me up if yer ever back in or around vermont i'll be here until the spring. cheers cory