In my foolish youth I hitchhiked from Illinois to California. In Denver I decided to ride a freight train. It was going to go to Ogden. I couldn’t find an open boxcar, so I chose an empty automobile carrying train car. There was no protection against the wind and it was very cold going over the Rocky Mountains (It was a spectacular view during the day though.) What kids might not know if they decide to ride a train car is that it violently bounces you up and down and shakes you back and forth. You might make it for a short distance but the odds are that if you are on top of the car you won’t stay there for long.
That actually sounds like it might be fun, but you really
don’t know what you’ll run into. It’s taking a chance.
I’m not totally against them, but some are best done with
some company so you can team up to protect each other.
Way back in the day, hobos used to ‘ride the rails’. They’d take a plank of wood and put it between the two metal supports that ran the length of old box cars and ride underneath the boxcar. If they fell off of the plank...