Riding the Rails with Jack London

The Road by Jack London. 1907.

Jack London takes us on a thrilling account of traveling continental United States by stowing away on train, and we see that it is no free ride!

Keepin' it real

"Every once in a while, in newspapers, magazines, and biographical
dictionaries, I run upon sketches of my life, wherein, delicately
phrased, I learn that it was in order to study sociology that I became
a tramp.

This is very nice and thoughtful of the biographers, but it
is inaccurate. I became a tramp--well, because of the life that was in
me, of the wanderlust in my blood that would not let me rest.
Sociology was merely incidental"

'I wasn't playing at being a hobo,' says Jack London, 'I was one.'


The Train

In between some sections of the train, there is a narrow platform built into the end of the car. A hobo can jump onto some of these platforms as the train leaves a station and not be ousted while the train is in transit.

A"blind".

A few of these platforms are not accessible to crew inside the train while the train is moving, because the adjoining door leads to a room loaded with luggage or freight and so is always locked, or there is no door. Such platforms are called "blinds". 

"I may as well explain here what a blind baggage is. Some mail-cars are
built without doors in the ends; hence, such a car is "blind." The
mail-cars that possess end doors, have those doors always locked.
Suppose, after the train has started, that a tramp gets on to the
platform of one of these blind cars. There is no door, or the door is
locked. No conductor or brakeman can get to him to collect fare or
throw him off. It is clear that the tramp is safe until the next time
the train stops. Then he must get off, run ahead in the darkness, and
when the train pulls by, jump on to the blind again. But there are
ways and ways, as you shall see.

When the train pulled out, those twenty tramps swarmed upon the three
blinds. Some climbed on before the train had run a car-length. They
were awkward dubs, and I saw their speedy finish. Of course, the
train-crew was "on," and at the first stop the trouble began. I jumped
off and ran forward along the track. I noticed that I was accompanied
by a number of the tramps. They evidently knew their business. When
one is beating an overland, he must always keep well ahead of the
train at the stops. I ran ahead, and as I ran, one by one those that
accompanied me dropped out. This dropping out was the measure of their
skill and nerve in boarding a train.

For this is the way it works. When the train starts, the shack rides
out the blind. There is no way for him to get back into the train
proper except by jumping off the blind and catching a platform where
the car-ends are not "blind." When the train is going as fast as the
shack cares to risk, he therefore jumps off the blind, lets several
cars go by, and gets on to the train. So it is up to the tramp to run
so far ahead that before the blind is opposite him the shack will have
already vacated it."

Winning the Blind

Train crewmen, "shacks", search the platforms for hobos while the train is at a station and kick them off. The trick is for the hobo to wait until the crewmen have boarded the train before attempting to stow away on the platform. Crewmen similarly 'ride her out' - wait on the platform as long as possible to stave away hobos. But once the train starts moving, the crewmen must board the train so they cannot guard the platform.

When the crewmen deems the train has gained enough speed to ward any hobos from boarding - yet safe enough for his own leaping abilities, he will jump off the platform and jump back on the train at a car further down the line. At this point, the hobo must run very fast to keep up with the moving train and jump onto the platform that the crewman has just vacated.

It's a contest of wits, guts, and athleticism between the shack and the hobo who will win the blind.
 

"I dropped the last tramp by about fifty feet, and waited. The train
started. I saw the lantern of the shack on the first blind. He was
riding her out. And I saw the dubs stand forlornly by the track as the
blind went by. They made no attempt to get on. They were beaten by
their own inefficiency at the very start. After them, in the line-up,
came the tramps that knew a little something about the game. They let
the first blind, occupied by the shack, go by, and jumped on the
second and third blinds. Of course, the shack jumped off the first and
on to the second as it went by, and scrambled around there, throwing
off the men who had boarded it. But the point is that I was so far
ahead that when the first blind came opposite me, the shack had
already left it and was tangled up with the tramps on the second
blind. A half dozen of the more skilful tramps, who had run far enough
ahead, made the first blind, too.

At the next stop, as we ran forward along the track, I counted but
fifteen of us. Five had been ditched. The weeding-out process had
begun nobly, and it continued station by station. Now we were
fourteen, now twelve, now eleven, now nine, now eight. It reminded me
of the ten little niggers of the nursery rhyme. I was resolved that I
should be the last little nigger of all. And why not? Was I not
blessed with strength, agility, and youth? (I was eighteen, and in
perfect condition.) And didn't I have my "nerve" with me? And
furthermore, was I not a tramp-royal? Were not these other tramps mere
dubs and "gay-cats" and amateurs alongside of me? If I weren't the
last little nigger, I might as well quit the game and get a job on an
alfalfa farm somewhere.

By the time our number had been reduced to four, the whole train-crew
had become interested. From then on it was a contest of skill and
wits, with the odds in favor of the crew. One by one the three other
survivors turned up missing, until I alone remained. My, but I was
proud of myself! No Croesus was ever prouder of his first million. I
was holding her down in spite of two brakemen, a conductor, a fireman,
and an engineer."

Holding her down

Once the hobo is on, however, his ride is not guaranteed. He must jump off the train and re-board at each stop to avoid detection and capture!

If the crew spots the stowaway, the stakes are raised as the journey progresses because they will increase their efforts to capture him at every stop along the route.

Then it becomes a battle of persistence, endurance, and resolve who will tire and give up before the other.

"And here are a few samples of the way I held her down. Out ahead, in
the darkness,--so far ahead that the shack riding out the blind must
perforce get off before it reaches me,--I get on. Very well. I am
good for another station. When that station is reached, I dart ahead
again to repeat the manoeuvre. The train pulls out. I watch her
coming. There is no light of a lantern on the blind. Has the crew
abandoned the fight? I do not know. One never knows, and one must be
prepared every moment for anything. As the first blind comes opposite
me, and I run to leap aboard, I strain my eyes to see if the shack is
on the platform. For all I know he may be there, with his lantern
doused, and even as I spring upon the steps that lantern may smash
down upon my head. I ought to know. I have been hit by lanterns two or
three times.

But no, the first blind is empty. The train is gathering speed. I am
safe for another station. But am I? I feel the train slacken speed. On
the instant I am alert. A manoeuvre is being executed against me, and
I do not know what it is. I try to watch on both sides at once, not
forgetting to keep track of the tender in front of me. From any one,
or all, of these three directions, I may be assailed.

Ah, there it comes. The shack has ridden out the engine. My first
warning is when his feet strike the steps of the right-hand side of
the blind. Like a flash I am off the blind to the left and running
ahead past the engine. I lose myself in the darkness. The situation is
where it has been ever since the train left Ottawa. I am ahead, and
the train must come past me if it is to proceed on its journey. I have
as good a chance as ever for boarding her.

I watch carefully. I see a lantern come forward to the engine, and I
do not see it go back from the engine. It must therefore be still on
the engine, and it is a fair assumption that attached to the handle of
that lantern is a shack. That shack was lazy, or else he would have
put out his lantern instead of trying to shield it as he came forward.
The train pulls out. The first blind is empty, and I gain it. As
before the train slackens, the shack from the engine boards the blind
from one side, and I go off the other side and run forward.

As I wait in the darkness I am conscious of a big thrill of pride. The
overland has stopped twice for me--for me, a poor hobo on the bum. I
alone have twice stopped the overland with its many passengers and
coaches, its government mail, and its two thousand steam horses
straining in the engine. And I weigh only one hundred and sixty
pounds, and I haven't a five-cent piece in my pocket!"

In for the Long Haul

Never attempt the same ploy twice!

"Again I see the lantern come forward to the engine. But this time it
comes conspicuously. A bit too conspicuously to suit me, and I wonder
what is up. At any rate I have something else to be afraid of than the
shack on the engine. The train pulls by. Just in time, before I make
my spring, I see the dark form of a shack, without a lantern, on the
first blind. I let it go by, and prepare to board the second blind.
But the shack on the first blind has jumped off and is at my heels.
Also, I have a fleeting glimpse of the lantern of the shack who rode
out the engine. He has jumped off, and now both shacks are on the
ground on the same side with me. The next moment the second blind
comes by and I am aboard it. But I do not linger. I have figured out
my countermove. As I dash across the platform I hear the impact of the
shack's feet against the steps as he boards. I jump off the other side
and run forward with the train. My plan is to run forward and get on
the first blind. It is nip and tuck, for the train is gathering speed.
Also, the shack is behind me and running after me. I guess I am the
better sprinter, for I make the first blind. I stand on the steps and
watch my pursuer. He is only about ten feet back and running hard; but
now the train has approximated his own speed, and, relative to me, he
is standing still. I encourage him, hold out my hand to him; but he
explodes in a mighty oath, gives up and makes the train several cars
back.

The train is speeding along, and I am still chuckling to myself, when,
without warning, a spray of water strikes me. The fireman is playing
the hose on me from the engine. I step forward from the car-platform
to the rear of the tender, where I am sheltered under the overhang.
The water flies harmlessly over my head. My fingers itch to climb up
on the tender and lam that fireman with a chunk of coal; but I know if
I do that, I'll be massacred by him and the engineer, and I refrain.

At the next stop I am off and ahead in the darkness. This time, when
the train pulls out, both shacks are on the first blind. I divine
their game. They have blocked the repetition of my previous play. I
cannot again take the second blind, cross over, and run forward to
the first. As soon as the first blind passes and I do not get on, they
swing off, one on each side of the train. I board the second blind,
and as I do so I know that a moment later, simultaneously, those two
shacks will arrive on both sides of me. It is like a trap. Both ways
are blocked. Yet there is another way out, and that way is up."

Decking her

Jack rides atop the roof of a train.

Jack London demonstrates "decking"

"So I do not wait for my pursuers to arrive. I climb upon the upright
ironwork of the platform and stand upon the wheel of the hand-brake.
This has taken up the moment of grace and I hear the shacks strike the
steps on either side. I don't stop to look. I raise my arms overhead
until my hands rest against the down-curving ends of the roofs of the
two cars. One hand, of course, is on the curved roof of one car, the
other hand on the curved roof of the other car. By this time both
shacks are coming up the steps. I know it, though I am too busy to see
them. All this is happening in the space of only several seconds. I
make a spring with my legs and "muscle" myself up with my arms. As I
draw up my legs, both shacks reach for me and clutch empty air. I know
this, for I look down and see them. Also I hear them swear.

I am now in a precarious position, riding the ends of the down-curving
roofs of two cars at the same time. With a quick, tense movement, I
transfer both legs to the curve of one roof and both hands to the
curve of the other roof. Then, gripping the edge of that curving roof,
I climb over the curve to the level roof above, where I sit down to
catch my breath, holding on the while to a ventilator that projects
above the surface. I am on top of the train--on the "decks," as the
tramps call it, and this process I have described is by them called
"decking her." And let me say right here that only a young and
vigorous tramp is able to deck a passenger train, and also, that the
young and vigorous tramp must have his nerve with him as well.

The train goes on gathering speed, and I know I am safe until the next
stop--but only until the next stop. If I remain on the roof after the
train stops, I know those shacks will fusillade me with rocks. A
healthy shack can "dewdrop" a pretty heavy chunk of stone on top of a
car--say anywhere from five to twenty pounds. On the other hand, the
chances are large that at the next stop the shacks will be waiting for
me to descend at the place I climbed up. It is up to me to climb down
at some other platform.

Registering a fervent hope that there are no tunnels in the next half
mile, I rise to my feet and walk down the train half a dozen cars. And
let me say that one must leave timidity behind him on such a
_passear_. The roofs of passenger coaches are not made for midnight
promenades. And if any one thinks they are, let me advise him to try
it. Just let him walk along the roof of a jolting, lurching car, with
nothing to hold on to but the black and empty air, and when he comes
to the down-curving end of the roof, all wet and slippery with dew,
let him accelerate his speed so as to step across to the next roof,
down-curving and wet and slippery. Believe me, he will learn whether
his heart is weak or his head is giddy."

Riding the rods

'How low will you go?'

"Riding the rods"

"As the train slows down for a stop, half a dozen platforms from where I had decked her, I come down. No one is on the platform. When the
train comes to a standstill, I slip off to the ground. Ahead, and
between me and the engine, are two moving lanterns. The shacks are
looking for me on the roofs of the cars. I note that the car beside
which I am standing is a "four-wheeler"--by which is meant that it has
only four wheels to each truck. (When you go underneath on the rods,
be sure to avoid the "six-wheelers,"--they lead to disasters.)

I duck under the train and make for the rods, and I can tell you I am
mighty glad that the train is standing still. It is the first time I
have ever gone underneath on the Canadian Pacific, and the internal
arrangements are new to me. I try to crawl over the top of the truck,
between the truck and the bottom of the car. But the space is not
large enough for me to squeeze through. This is new to me. Down in the
United States I am accustomed to going underneath on rapidly moving
trains, seizing a gunnel and swinging my feet under to the brake-beam,
and from there crawling over the top of the truck and down inside the
truck to a seat on the cross-rod.

Feeling with my hands in the darkness, I learn that there is room
between the brake-beam and the ground. It is a tight squeeze. I have
to lie flat and worm my way through. Once inside the truck, I take my
seat on the rod and wonder what the shacks are thinking has become of
me. The train gets under way. They have given me up at last.

But have they? At the very next stop, I see a lantern thrust under
the next truck to mine at the other end of the car. They are searching
the rods for me. I must make my get-away pretty lively. I crawl on my
stomach under the brake-beam. They see me and run for me, but I crawl
on hands and knees across the rail on the opposite side and gain my
feet. Then away I go for the head of the train. I run past the engine
and hide in the sheltering darkness. It is the same old situation. I
am ahead of the train, and the train must go past me.

The train pulls out. There is a lantern on the first blind. I lie low,
and see the peering shack go by. But there is also a lantern on the
second blind. That shack spots me and calls to the shack who has gone
past on the first blind. Both jump off. Never mind, I'll take the
third blind and deck her. But heavens, there is a lantern on the third
blind, too. It is the conductor. I let it go by. At any rate I have
now the full train-crew in front of me. I turn and run back in the
opposite direction to what the train is going. I look over my
shoulder. All three lanterns are on the ground and wobbling along in
pursuit. I sprint. Half the train has gone by, and it is going quite
fast, when I spring aboard. I know that the two shacks and the
conductor will arrive like ravening wolves in about two seconds. I
spring upon the wheel of the hand-brake, get my hands on the curved
ends of the roofs, and muscle myself up to the decks; while my
disappointed pursuers, clustering on the platform beneath like dogs
that have treed a cat, howl curses up at me and say unsocial things
about my ancestors."

Endgame: truce

'No hurt feelings?'

"But what does that matter? It is five to one, including the engineer
and fireman, and the majesty of the law and the might of a great
corporation are behind them, and I am beating them out. I am too far
down the train, and I run ahead over the roofs of the coaches until I
am over the fifth or sixth platform from the engine. I peer down
cautiously. A shack is on that platform. That he has caught sight of
me, I know from the way he makes a swift sneak inside the car; and I
know, also, that he is waiting inside the door, all ready to pounce
out on me when I climb down. But I make believe that I don't know, and
I remain there to encourage him in his error. I do not see him, yet I
know that he opens the door once and peeps up to assure himself that I
am still there.

The train slows down for a station. I dangle my legs down in a
tentative way. The train stops. My legs are still dangling. I hear the
door unlatch softly. He is all ready for me. Suddenly I spring up and
run forward over the roof. This is right over his head, where he lurks
inside the door. The train is standing still; the night is quiet, and
I take care to make plenty of noise on the metal roof with my feet. I
don't know, but my assumption is that he is now running forward to
catch me as I descend at the next platform. But I don't descend there.
Halfway along the roof of the coach, I turn, retrace my way softly and
quickly to the platform both the shack and I have just abandoned. The
coast is clear. I descend to the ground on the off-side of the train
and hide in the darkness. Not a soul has seen me.

I go over to the fence, at the edge of the right of way, and watch.
Ah, ha! What's that? I see a lantern on top of the train, moving along
from front to rear. They think I haven't come down, and they are
searching the roofs for me. And better than that--on the ground on
each side of the train, moving abreast with the lantern on top, are
two other lanterns. It is a rabbit-drive, and I am the rabbit. When
the shack on top flushes me, the ones on each side will nab me. I roll
a cigarette and watch the procession go by. Once past me, I am safe to
proceed to the front of the train. She pulls out, and I make the front
blind without opposition. But before she is fully under way and just
as I am lighting my cigarette, I am aware that the fireman has climbed
over the coal to the back of the tender and is looking down at me. I
am filled with apprehension. From his position he can mash me to a
jelly with lumps of coal. Instead of which he addresses me, and I note
with relief the admiration in his voice.

"You son-of-a-gun," is what he says.

It is a high compliment, and I thrill as a schoolboy thrills on
receiving a reward of merit.

"Say," I call up to him, "don't you play the hose on me any more."

"All right," he answers, and goes back to his work."

---
Pictures courtesy of (stolen from):
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/white/hobo/ridingtherails.html
---

Remark:

When London writes of the shack with his lantern, I can't help but imagine a ghostly Poe from Zelda, pacing a graveyard beat.

This the life we chose

London's account of his train hopping is adventurous and playful, yet from time to time he reminds us of the real dangers of his daring trysts with casual awareness.

"There I lay down, my heart jumping a few extra beats, and
listened to the fun. The whole train crew was forward, and the
ditching went on fast and furious. After the train had run half a
mile, it stopped, and the crew came forward again and ditched the
survivors. I, alone, had made the train out.

Back at the depot, about him two or three of the push that had
witnessed the accident, lay French Kid with both legs off. French Kid
had slipped or stumbled--that was all, and the wheels had done the
rest. Such was my initiation to The Road."

It is an attitude not of horror of the dangers. And his playfulness is not from want of realization of the dangers. He is accepting that he too could be like French Kid, that was the game he risked, but he wasn't going to let fear detain him no more than the shack with his lantern.

I think that is a much more responsible attitude than the woman who shocks in horror of the accident. Because, what did you expect? That you would go about galoomfing on a moving train and not possibly get injured?

It is good that London is not surprised or horrified by the outcome of French Kid, because to do so would mean you expected something privileged in yourself, not to have the consequences of your actions catch up to you!