Trainhopping tips // riding bottomless cars, safely.

A simple trick for getting out of town on a freight train that doesn’t have any ideal intermodal cars.
#trainhopping #hobos #evasion #stealthcamping #freighttrains

[@manclimbtree3622]

Love these videos. Best I’ve found on KZbin. Please make more.

[@PitchBlackForge]

More to come. Next is an overnight camp with minimal equipment, and some hitch hiking stories. Domestic and overseas.

[@johnbabik9600]

Whether it's thirty minutes or just four, all your content is concise, informative, and entertaining.

[@chrisshaw4228]

I have used 2 skids that fit almost perfect. I don't ride suicide unless I absolutely have to. Love your videos my man. No bs just good info. Thanks

[@PitchBlackForge]

Pallets are a good one as well.

[@kenball8526]

Great video PBF, your wisdom and knowledge on this subject is golden.

[@TerraExplorations]

Great to see ya back Ben ! the idea of being wrapped around an axel like a wet towel scares me.

[@niclay9085]

Well it ain’t rocket surgery 😂🎉❤

[@terrytowner419Honey]

Sometimes u have to ride this way. Myself I wait or get on buss to another town. To easy to die in my book.

[@DanTrampOnIG]

Sweet video. Just would be a little skeptical of riding the door/plank without the shaking of the train rattling it off the lip. Would have to be a pretty lucky find to find something that fits exactly, no?

[@PitchBlackForge]

I wouldn’t advocate throwing something the wrong size down in the hole and then just going right to sleep. When I’ve done this, I was very careful. A shipping container is about 8 feet wide. Also a standard length for lumber. It’s not that random. Four 8-foot 2x12’s will fill a well almost completely. There are diagonal cross-beams. And the planks I used were from scaffolding, so they were intended to hold a bunch of weight.

[@timbnsfs.9275]

Pallets!! Had to do that out east abunch. Nickekplate route has no 48s and Canadian Pacific has been trying to phase them out too. But now there's highwall 53s that are great!! Philly ha grays ferry, easy spot and the ride north to selikirk is phenomenal once you pass NYC/jersey

[@Belleville197]

Allow me to make one correction... In most cases, what you're talking about is a 53 foot well car with FORTY foot containers... or two TWENTY foot containers. 53 minus 40 = 13 which you divide by 2 which equals about 7 feet of space on each end of the well. A 48 foot container in a 53 foot well would only leave about 2.5 feet of space on each end. Most 'suicide' rides involve ocean containers in well cars designed to accommodate 53 domestic containers. Some well cars are made for 48 foot containers and some are made for exclusively ocean containers so a maximum of 40 feet in the well. There are a few cars out there that are made for 45 foot containers but carrying two 20's or a 40, leaving you with 2.5 feet of space. A lot of the new well cars being made now, especially those from National Steel Car have that nice upper deck space to ride. Solid end well cars are fewer and fewer these days. CN still has a lot of them.

[@PitchBlackForge]

I misspoke. Yes, a 40 in a 53 is the standard “suicide” car. There are still some of the old square bottom 48s out there, on particular lines. But mostly people wind up riding the “mini-well” on the upper deck. There are also the “Viking ship” cars, though they aren’t all that common, and not all are good rides. The days of riding a 48 with a 40 foot container on the bottom, and a 48 foot container on top, are over. Damn shame.