Old Missoula

Riding Old Rails.

We’ve been strolling down to the NP station the past few days, just watching the trains pull in and pull out.

As No. 1 and No. 2 met the other day, I had an expert observer at my side. Bob Sheehan retired from railroading 30 years ago next month, but he’s still a regular at the depot. While the car toads, redcaps, baggagemen, et al, went scurrying about their duties, someone remarked that it’s a rarity any more to see a freeloader on the cars.

It sure is. Prosperity, the Great Society and hitchhiking have just about done away with the old knights of the road.

Way back before the depression, every freight train had its quota of free riders, especially during the days of the Wobbies just after World War 1. During the so-called Roaring Twenties, sometimes it seemed there were as many passengers riding outside the trains as there were inside. And during the depression of the 30s, entire families often got from here to there via the freight trains. The yard bulls just didn’t get tough during those days.

Rod Riders Vanish

It’s been years since any of the pros rode the rods under the cars. In recent times a few may have ridden the “blinds,” the dead-end of a car just behind the locomotive on a passenger train, but the leniency of railroad police stopped short in most cases, and coming of diesel engines just about put the kibosh on the practice.

In my gandy-dancing days on the Great Northern, up between Whitefish and Browning, I picked up quite a few tricks on how not to get on and off a train. Also some tips on the positive side.

The rails might shake their heads, but here was the accepted practice among the free riders: In catching a moving freight train, always seize the grab irons at the front end of a car. If the train was going too fast, you’d be swung against the side of the car and bounce clear. If you missed the grab iron at the rear of a car, you’d be swung under the wheels of the following car. The best bet was to find an empty and dive in through the open door.

In catching the blinds of a passenger train, get well away from the depot, but not far enough that the train would pick up too much speed. And always stand in the corner on the station side. That way the special agents and other personnel had a more difficult time spotting you. And, at your destination, try to get off as the train slowed down in approaching the station, or after it was well past, whichever gave you the best chance of landing without getting skinned up and pocked with gravel or cinders.

The Wrong Way

A friend of mine caught the blinds of a passenger train out of Sandpoint, Idaho, one day, and did just about everything wrong. He was asleep under a water tank about 150 yards from the station as the oncoming train picked up speed. He stopped dead, grabbed the irons at the rear of the tender and felt his fingers uncurling as his feet dangled back toward the baggage car. Just as his hold was about gone, the tips of his fingers held, he pulled himself up and was none the worse for wear when he got to Spokane. But he never used that technique again.

So much for how to steal train rides. As we mentioned, the practice is virtually a thing of the past, so I don’t think I’m putting any wrong ideas into young heads.

The article above appeared in Deane Jones’ column of The Missoulian on June 13, 1967.

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