What is the best way to catch a train?

Question

I go to school at a college with train tracks running through it. Most of the trains are relatively fast, but there occasionally are slower ones. What is the best way to go about catching or hopping on a train?

Answer 1

Go buy a ticket get on at the station.

Answer 2

What you described is not the best way to catch a train, but it is the best way to get hurt or dead.

The answerer above points out that there are "unsavory" characters out there. This is putting it mildly. They are members of a loosely organized group known as the Freight Train Riders of America. They make the Hell's Angels look like preachers. They'll be happy to slit your throat or pitch you off a train moving at speed for your water or a dime. They don't care because they know they'll never get caught.

Keep in mind, when considering the legality of train hopping, you will be dealing with the FBI if picked up for anything more than trespassing or vagrancy.

Some years back a coyote smuggling migrants locked ten or more in a boxcar. They literally cooked inside it under the summer Texas sun, unable to get out. All died.

Find some pictures of derailments with 20 or 30 cars piled on top of one another, or burning. Would you rather get squashed like a bug or die trapped in the flames of the burning Haz Mat?

Ever see a boxcar or bulk flat car pass at a grade crossing, with the bulkhead blown to bits or the end of the box bowed out like a balloon? This is caused by shifted loads. Guess what happens to someone in or on them?

Some folks think the weather is not an issue if riding in the summer time. You may start your trip on a hot day, but by that night, you find yourself riding out at 60 mph through the desert, which is now 30 degrees since the sun had set. Frozen people are not uncommon.

And it's not only the railroad police that will complecate your life. Most of us didn't care if someone was riding our train, as long as they weren't on the engine or where they could reach the angle cock on the brake pipe. In a post 9/11 USA, if spotted by a crewman, the local police or sheriff's deputies will be waiting for you at the next crew change point, guaranteed.

Answer 3

You don't want to do that.

Trains go really far now, so you might just find that train picks up to 60 mph and doesn't slow down for 400 miles.

The obvious safety issues have been mentioned. Freight cars have been deliberately made far less useful to freight hoppers.

There's also the hazard of other people doing the same thing. The day of the hobo is gone, modern freight hoppers aren't nice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freighthopping

The nightmare scenario, of course, is you're inside a boxcar somebody closes the door on. The doors don't open from the inside, and they can go weeks unchecked.

Answer 4

I have a better but longer way.

Try to do a study of how many student of your schooo/college can benefit If a Halt station is created near your college.
Try to see if there is a local population around your college which can also used the station if created.
Make a presentation and show the railway how much they can be benefited if they create a station and stop some trains according to Colllege times.

May be get it endorsed from your head of school.Your school can also pay the construction cost for that station and provide free land to railways.

Try to submit your report to Rail company/ local newspapers/Your elected representatives and make a website to promote your idea.

it may takes months or years but you will be remembered for long by your fellow school students!

Answer 5

I used to do that and have went hundreds of miles in box cars as a youth. Be sure the train is going no faster than you can run. If you see an open box car, run parallel to it until your speeds are the same and jump up and into it. If the train speeds up, DO NOT attempt to jump off. You must ride until it slows again. If you absolutely must leave, jump and roll with your head tucked in. There are some things you should be aware of. Hobo's will usually ask for money. railroad cops will arrest you (it's illegal to jump a freight.) Good luck and be safe.

Answer 6

Ok, what you're talking about doing is highly illegal and very very dangerous. Think about what could happen, if you get caught you go to jail and they could possibly suspect that you're a terrorist trying to blow up the train or something. If you fall, you're either gonna lose a limb or two or be killed. Falling off of a train, you usually fall in towards the tracks rather than outward, so you'd be seriously screwed on that deal. How about just walking...or taking some other kind of transportation.

Answer 7

Rare earth magnets, if you are catching a freight train. Passenger trains are usually stainless steel, or aluminum, so you won't stick to it. Get several of those rare-earth magnets that can hold 400 lbs, with handles on them. Hook them to yourself with a short bungee cord and a harness, and throw them near the door of a freight car. You should be able to pull yourself up, if you're not killed or dragged along. Those magnets are STRONG! - Gremlin guy -

Answer 8

To know the schedule for the trains. Try to avoid rush hour and try to purchase the tickets in advance to avoid ticket lines later. Monthly passes work well.

Answer 9

when the train is stopped i wish not to encourage this every year people do this for aventure but then again there are people who seek out these travelers and they are too victims of abuse and death so don;t do it take the train like a normal peron does at the station

Answer 10

With a horse. Watch some western movies and study how they do it.