Jason possibly "Ridin' the Rails'?

[Earthbound Misfit I]

There is a chance that Jason could have been hopping trains. Emporia, Virginia has long been a transportation crossroads. So, is there a way for us or should we devote to time figure out where each of these trains were travelling to???

Here is a tidbit from what it says on wiki:

Emporia has long been a transportation crossroads. Currently, a major north-south railroad line of CSX Transportation crosses with an east-west line of Norfolk Southern. U.S. Route 58 crosses east-west and Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 301 crosses north-south.Emporia and Greensville County has a large speedtrap operation,that fines more than 100 vehicles on Interstate 95 and US 58 daily. The Police Department of Emporia and Greensville County Sheriff Deputies will wait at those locations and ticket as many vehicles as possible. Out-of-State motorists should especially beware.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emporia,_Virginia

I hope this link to google map works. I sometimes have no luck with them. This map shows where the railways and a couple other related links that are near Emporia, VA

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie...6,4.938354&z=8

[KarlK]

You would have to obtain schedules from the railways involved, although the scheduling of freight trains wasn't as common 15 years ago as it is today. Also back then those schedules weren't as widely available to the public as they are now.

[Lizbetbathory]

Schedules wouldnt really help much, when you hop trains you generally trhy to get one going the general direction you want to go that has the right cars and is going slow enough. If you hang out in the area you can sort of learn what goes where and when but even back then ( and when I did it ) the bulls could catch you pretty easy.

[joS3ph]

As a locomotive engineer for a large Class I railroad for the past 18 years, I can assure you freight trains do not run on any set schedule. Freight train schedules are nonexistent.

Joseph Y.

[Lizbetbathory]

jos3ph.... what are the cars called that were almost like tankers but had an odd space on one end? A small hole that goes into a small open space just big enough for a teen ager?

THose are the ones I rode in back in my wild and crazy youth

[joS3ph]

Originally Posted by Lizbetbathory

jos3ph.... what are the cars called that were almost like tankers but had an odd space on one end? A small hole that goes into a small open space just big enough for a teen ager?

Lizbetbathory:

You are referring to a covered hopper car Liz. Products such as beans, corn, grain, powdered chemicals, roofing granules, and a host of other dry, bulk products area carried in covered hopper cars. The covered hopper car design allows companies to ship bulk items which must remain dry and be free from any contaminants.

While this image does not depict a real-life railroad car (it's a model), it accurately represents the end of a covered hopper car. As you have mentioned, people that hop trains sometimes ride in these openings. Note the second image. That image was made by someone who WAS riding inside that opening! There have been incidents where bodies have been found inside these openings after a major train derailment. Some older transients (generally those in poor health) will sometimes succumb to the elements and die inside these openings. Often, their bodies won't be located for months. The bodies are usually discovered by workers loading or unloading these particular types of railroad cars, or they are found by railroad employees in railroad yards where trains are broken down (classified) and made-up into new, outbound trains.





Joseph