Wanting to live life on the rails | Squat the Planet

Wanting to live life on the rails

Jimmy Beans

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No no, let's just rewrite everything for him all over again. You know if we just wrote it all out every time someone asked, it wouldn't feel so daunting anymore. We'd be conditioned to it and before long.. we can probably only spend like a few hours each adding our input for everyone that asks this same question that they can find the answers to in the search feature.

I mean that's a lot of work, you gotta use your mouse and put the cursor in the little search bar and then move your hand back to the keyboard and press keys, probably about 12 keys jeez that's already just so much effort and then hit enter too? Then what, they have to actually look at the results and read? Just seems to make so much more sense for us to simply rewrite everything again from the ballast up.
 
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No no, let's just rewrite everything for him all over again. You know if we just wrote it all out every time someone asked, it wouldn't feel so daunting anymore. We'd be conditioned to it and before long.. we can probably only spend like a few hours each adding our input for everyone that asks this same question that they can find the answers to in the search feature.

I mean that's a lot of work, you gotta use your mouse and put the cursor in the little search bar and then move your hand back to the keyboard and press keys, probably about 12 keys jeez that's already just so much effort and then hit enter too? Then what, they have to actually look at the results and read? Just seems to make so much more sense for us to simply rewrite everything again from the ballast up.

For a minute when I wrote my response I was wondering if id get shit on for not being helpful enough. But then through the clouds like a rolling chariot from the gods you come rolling down manning a sd70ace legacy unit to more elegantly put into words my thoughts. My angel, my otp, my savior. Love you buddy.

@Tyler267 we get nearly word for word this same question prolly 20 times a month, maybe now that the weather is nice out. I'm going to assume you didn't read any of the thought out time consuming things in our faq section, but as it changes quite often you may of missed it but please use the search bar before posting. There is nearly a decade of threads about trains that is freely available to you to browse at yer leisure, not to mention our downloads section that I am 100% sure has maps that are relevant to yer interests.
 

Jimmy Beans

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Didn't mean to be such a chode about it but this question gets so old after a while, yanno? If Matt had a burrito for every time this question has been asked, he'd be so enormously fat.

You just gotta think about the question itself and what it is you're really asking people to outline. The dangers, the constantly evolving changes in operations the most seasoned rider can't even keep up on. Every city is different, there's millions of miles of rails.

That can't be put in a simple 3-step breakdown. Plus the laziness of asking it like that in general, we're just so tired of it being asked. The only answer is research it yourself, use the search feature.
 

Coywolf

Make America Freight Again
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What's ballast?

Kidding. that phrase is so poetic. Compliments to you.

It is obviously a nautical term, Koala, geeze.....
 

Older Than Dirt

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RoadFlower33

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Sooooooo, I havent made a new account since I made this one... but im certain matt sends an auto e-mail out to all new profiles explaining this in entirety in a nice way too. I read it when I made this profile. It wasent there for my last two profiles but I'm certain it's there now. Making it even more frustrating... join a group and dont read the welcome letter? You get out of life what you put into it life.
 

Short

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I didn’t have an IRL mentor, but I did talk to a couple other riders online. The first thing I did before I even stepped foot on railroad property was read hopping freight trains in America by Duffy Littlejohn. I must have read it three times. There is a wealth of information on RR history, operations, track and yard layouts, cars, etc. albeit a bit dated. Then I googled all of the different rail yards within an hours drive and for a couple months checked them out and just observed. I watched them build, break apart, depart, pass through, cc, and listened. Then I bought a scanner and did the exact same thing as before, except this time I made my way into the yard and also practiced getting on and off the cars I learned were rideable. I did this a couple times a month, and while I was at home or on break at work, I was reading railfan websites that list train symbols and their orig and destinations and YouTubing what those trains looked like. I was following lines on google maps. I was obsessed with learning as much as I could from my friends and on my own before taking my first ride because I was really fucking intimidated but I knew it was something I wanted to do. My first trip wasn’t for 4 months after I first cracked that book.

And you know what? Even after ALL of that, I still felt underprepared. It was still scary as hell, and I wasn’t ready for all of the different things that happened. But I did arrive in Chicago from Philly 34 hours later and it was the best thing I had ever done. I was hooked after that and with each ride, I am still learning something new.

I still have less than 5k miles under my belt, but long story short, I wish I had a mentor IRL to teach me from the start. I believe I could have learned all that I did in those months leading up in a couple weeks riding with someone who already knew what they were doing. I am proud for having started on my own, but if I could have changed one thing, that would be it. Just my two cents
 

Coywolf

Make America Freight Again
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There is so much info on this site. In the past week I've spent HOURS sitting at this laptop reading. Lots of helpful threads!

Welcome to the club. I've spent so much time on this website, it will suck you in.
 

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