I wonder what portion of the "anarchist and eco-warrior" railriders have read Jack Kerouac? One of his books, "The Dharma Bums", was inspired by a grizzled old hobo (real or imaginary) who he met one night in a railyard preaching the message of the Buddha. Kerouac dreamt of network of visionary hoboes crisscrossing America. Has that come to pass? And did Kerouac help bring it about?

I'm a singin' hobo, not a stabbin' hobo.

i always had fantasies about riding the rails and being a hobo when i was a kid. whenever i would run away from home i'd unscrew the broom head from the handle and take a bandana, put a peanut butter sandwich and a book in it, tie it to the handle and take off. i must have looked like a freak walking down the street like that. i dressed as a hobo for halloween once. then, in high school a friend and i jumped a train at an intersection - intending to jump right back off, but the dang thing picked up speed so our friends had to race across town in their car to another intersection where the train would slow down enough for us to jump off again. that was fun.

There was a small group of rail riders at Carnegie Mellon. A north/south frieght line ran through a gully right by campus. Students (and faculty?) would jump on trains and ride out of town a ways.

I was never tempted.