Riding the rail (also called being “run out of town on a rail”) was a punishment most prevalent in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries in which an offender was made to straddle a fence rail held on the shoulders of two or more bearers
What did it mean to ride the rails in the 1930s?
Riding the Rails presents the poignant and little-known story of teen hobos during the 1930s, a time of desperation and bitter hardship These young itinerant Americans were all searching for a better life; what they found was a mixture of freedom, camaraderie, misery, and loneliness
Why did they ride the rails?
During the Great Depression, people went across the country in search of work But without a job, they didn’t have money to pay for transportation The only way to get across the country, and potentially get the job, was riding the rails This is how the hobos of the Great Depression lived from day-to-day
What was it like riding the rails during the Great Depression?
Riding the rails was dangerous The bulls were hired to keep hoboes off trains, so you couldn’t just go to a railroad yard and climb on Most hoboes would hide along the tracks outside the yard They’d run along the train as it gained speed, grab hold and jump into open boxcars
Is riding the rails still a thing?
Very few people ride the rails full-time nowadays In an ABC News story from 2000, the president of the National Hobo Association put the figure at 20-30, allowing that another 2,000 might ride part-time or for recreation The very first American hobos were cast-offs from the American Civil War of the 1860s
How did hobos ride the rails?
Called “bo chasers” and “car-seal hawks,” they adopted extremely aggressive tactics They took it as their job to terrorize those who rode the rails, often by any means necessary In addition to bouncing out hobos on trains, they often threw stones at hobos or shot them
How did hobos survive during the Great Depression?
With no job and no home, men were forced to go to where the jobs were Hitching rides in boxcars along the nation’s railways, these hobos, as they came to be known, carried their few possessions with them and lived a nomadic lifestyle
What was a hobo jungle?
The hobo jungle was a place to rest and repair while on the road outside of the city Some were more permanent than others, but all shared the element of refuge, an out-of-the-way place where the hobo could eat, sleep, read a newspaper and wash himself before heading out again
How many people ride the rails?
Many of their faces were not lined with age; they were the fresh faces of America’s youth Many were teenagers—teenagers “on the bum” They were part of an army of youthful transients, numbering roughly 250,000, who were riding the rails through America
How long did the Great Depression last?
43
Why did teenagers leave home during the Great Depression?
Some left home because they felt they were a burden to their families; some fled homes shattered by the shame of unemployment and poverty Some left because it seemed a great adventure With the blessing of parents or as runaways, they hit the road and went in search of a better life
What was life like for Teenage Hobos in the Great Depression?
During the Great Depression (1929-1939) many teenagers (16-25) decided to leave their families and hitchhike to California in search of a better life Most left in search of money, food, or work but some left in search of an escape or adventure in place of their boring or sometimes abused lives
Why did 100000 Americans go to the Soviet Union during this time?
What company laid off its entire workforce during the height of the depression? What country did 100,000 Americans move to during the depression & why? Soviet Union- they were promised job opportunities & it helped to build communism What person used Germany’s economic suffering to rise to power?
How did hobo shoestring lose his fingers?
Riding on trains is a dangerous lifestyle, Nichols admits He was hurt one time while traveling on the Kansas City Southern Railroad in Pittsburg, Kansas He fell and had a pinky and ring finger on top of the rail The train ran over his fingers
What is a female hobo called?
bo-ette – a female hobo
Who is the hobo King?
From a Convention attendee: Britt’s “Hobo Days” celebration usually draws about 20,000 tourists over several days, and about 75 or 80 trampsPast Kings and Queens Year King Queen 2019 Slim Tim Flux (Magnolia) 2021 Buzzman Sully
How did they bend railroad rails?
The rails are made of a type of steel that while very strong, are also quite pliable, and can be bent around curves simply spiking the rail to the ties at the starting point of the curve, and then pushing on it with long bars used as leverage in the old days, and track machinery in modern times, or even an off track
When did train hopping?
In the Depression Era of the 1930s, the unemployed took to the rails to try and find work – crossing vast stretches of land in an open grain car, or huddled inside a box car – hiding from the “bulls”, as the railroad police were called
What happened to passenger trains?
Between an 18-year span following the year after World War II, 1946, passenger traffic declined from 770 million to 298 million by 1964 By the 1950s total industry losses on passenger rail service was over $700 million Commuter trains declined by 80% from over 2,500 in the mid-1950s to under 500 by the late 1960s
What is hobo short for?
Possibly a term for a stowaway traveler out of the Hoboken, NJ train yards, or a contraction of ho, boy, or the dialectal English term hawbuck (“lout, clumsy fellow, country bumpkin”) It could also be an abbreviation for homeless boy, homeward bound, or homeless Bohemian