Engineer tossed me some love! (Sunday, October 13, 2019). Edit: he said Roanoke he was going to with the train. Winter gear help link below for any help with winter gear.... Thanks! www.paypal.me/...
This was 4 years ago, 2019. I so wish I knew who helped Shoestring so he can be thanked and to let him know that he passed. I know Shoestring never forgot this kind act and I'll never forget it either. RIP Shoestring, I keep wanting to look for your next video, miss you ol' buddy.
@@uuuultra So starve them? The good people are the ones who do something to help others. I have bought food, care packages, gave money, hell i bought a 6 pack and sat down with a local homeless guy and had a really good hour long conversation.
@@zuestoots5176 He did not suggest starving anyone. He just said we need less individuals who want other people to work so they don't have to. We need less individuals who have no problem taking other people's wages for themselves
Yes....and no. Depends on how you handle charity. If you have "x" you can give....and you have many more people asking for charity than you have "X"....you need to give wisely. Sometimes giving at the wrong place or time enables people to become addicted to an area than in the long run is not good for them
@@marenkuether-ulberg3311 Kindness costs you nothing. Agreed. But 'giving' by definition does cost you something. If you have something material....food/money....and you provide it to others while depriving yourself than it does cost you something.
@@cdavid8139 what you get in return via respect, and peace of mind is kinda invaluable though. It takes nothing to want to give, but everything to hand it over.
@@elonisai7562 I agree with you. It does become difficult to start making the call between sympathy and 'enabling'. WHen you are being shoved down a yard track and the engineer is 1/2 a mile away and these strangers come out of the weeds....it can be a bit scary. In particular at night. Or conversely, when you are shoving and your conductor is 1/2 mile away and you look up and there are four of them on your locomotive walking toward the cab....the line between assisting and intimidation is a fine line. But all in all...I agree with your post.
As a freight conductor I never hassled any I caught on my trains and let them ride as well as give them info. That was a class act on the engineers part. Also a class act on shoestrings part not showing the engineers face. Railroad companies would love a reason to get up in any crews ass about anything, it’s just the sleazy way they operate
I did have a run in with a driver once as a kid. Me and a few buddies was smoking out in a tunnel under the tracks and the trains stopped where we had to come out. He have us a tour of the engine and told us all about the train.
I hope so. Potentially this kindness puts his job in jeapordy....and in the long run enables those who choose this lifestyle to continue to exist on the work of others. This engineer gave up money he should have been taking home to his family and water that his employer provided him. He basically enabled the videographer to continue his existance in living off the kindness of others.
@@ChrisDragotta LOL. OK Boss. Let's swap rolls. Come up in the cab or on the road with me for four decades and then you can show me how to lighten up when dealing with many of these folks
I know a engineer and he looks out for the real Hobo's. He actually was attacked by 2 drug addicts and a hobo saved his life. There's no way to get help in some of those yards when you need it and he was damn glad that old boy was where he was 😂
@@southjerseysound7340 Problem is...you can't always tell who is good or bad. Lot of drugs out there. Individuals who will jump you in the wrong part of towns....and railroads often go through the wrong parts of towns.
@@cdavid8139 I know,the engineer I know was attacked by 2 drug addicts in Philly. If it wasn't for the hobo helping he might not be here. He avoids people in the cities and says that the good guys are usually the ones you see in the smaller towns etc.
I was taking pictures of trains out in the middle of the Mojave desert and an engineer threw me a water bottle out of nowhere... kinda surprised me....
My dad used to be a hobo when he was young. He told me once an engineer actually invited him to ride in the locomotive for a whole day. The engineer told him that driving a train is very boring as there is not much maneuver you can do and he would prefer to drive a truck....
I understand the engineer your dad ran into. I’ve been driving freight trains for 15 years now. I drove trucks when I was younger after my hours to help an a friend. It turned into a hobby that spun out of control. Gave up the extra trucking in the end. It was killing me, the lack of sleep. Train driving makes a lot more money and you work less hours. But I do miss my tuck. It was a lot more challenging and variable work.
My little boy was really into trains when he was a kid. About 25 years ago when he was about 5 yrs old, we were in downtown Cleveland and were near the Amtrak station. As the train was leaving, the conductor came to one of the doors at the end of a car and threw a sealed deck of Amtrak playing cars out to us, pointed at my boy and smiled & waved. I believe he still has it tucked away in his boxes of 'special' stuff.
Tony I don't know if you will ever read this. But 7 months on, from when you wrote this comment. I don't think you could ever begin to imagine how prophetic your words were.
I've had a number of positive experiences like that. Food, water, unit rides, actually taken to their home to stay for a few days with no expectations or questions asked. Nothing like seeing the good in people.
Uncle was and Engineer he told me it was kind of and unwritten rule that you were nice to the hobo's as long as they weren't drunk, belligerent or just plain assholes. Usually because they would have more time on the rails then you could ever hope to have. He also had one tell him about a section of tracks that was starting to look pretty beat up. Said section was clear out in the middle of nowhere so no telling how long it would of taken to get a crew out there if the hobo hadn't said something about it.
In all the years I've watching riders, I've never seen one interact with a crew, let alone receive a care package. Wonderful to see the respect from both sides.
I enjoy watching. I worked for army/reserve.20 years. Also made tv parts for 30 years. Had wife and 4 kids. But lived along the old nickle plate rails almost my life used to visit the bo camps and found apples, peaches. Pairs. And straw Berry's for my kids ice cream. Met many good boes. All by my selfe and 68. Do it as long as you can . The best conductor I knew was John"smiley" Davidson. On the nickle plate. From Toledo to LIma ohio run. Retired Sgt williams.
Never knew about this occasionally shared relationship between the freight rider and crew. Even if it’s a once in a blue moon type of thing this was really interesting to see lol. Be safe out there shoestring and enjoy the ride.
My dad was a UP conductor retired and he chewed Redman chewing tobacco. When he would have to walk along the train sometimes he would hear "gotta smoke?" from out of the shadows. He'd always say no, but I got some chewin tabbacca if you'd like. Dont know if many ever partook but he believed in helping a guy out if you could. UP Conductor Dexter Missouri to Pine Bluff Arkansas
@@TheHoboShoestringGrew up in Poplar Bluff back when UP had a depot there at the yard before they moved it to Dexter. You'll be alright rolling through them farm fields in the summer but if she stops you'd better have a case of off with ya. Gods speed & safe travels Shoestring
@@uuuultra I don't think it will encourage anyone to wait for days on the side of a track waiting for a kind hearted engineer to show up with $9 and a banana. I didn't see any begging. The Engineer called him over.
Awesome Engineer! I love that sound of the units running. My Mom and Dad bought a house by the tracks. Dad worked on the Railroad and when he would get dispatched out we would all stand on the porch and wave. At night we would wave a Railroad Lantern. Good times! He worked 42 years with SP in Oregon. (During the 70’s and 80’s) sometimes he brought a Christmas tree home on the Caboose!
I’m a conductor and we did this a lot for homeless. Usually we would drop water, snacks and a crew pack which included wet wipes, napkins, TP, hand sanitizer and a toilet seat cover. I would ignore the car hoppers. My grandpa used to car hop back in the early 1900s. My heart goes out to the homeless. If you are a railroader then you see areas of homeless that most of the general public never sees. I always appreciated the Engineers that wouldn’t mind making a special effort to help them. I have had my fair share of tweakers too. One starting punching the Telly on the back of the train while I was doing my air test. 😂 But yes, like someone already mentioned. Don’t show the train crew. Best thing to do is blur out the Engine number as well. Safe travels friend
I thought there are a lot of druggies and criminals train-hopping. Homeless I can understand unless they choose that as a way of life. No way would I invite them into the cab, though.
@@rvnmedic1968 some choose it. An ex of mine got with her current boyfriend after me. She spent months traveling by train car with him to the east coast ( i live on the west coast). They would both travel and play guitar, just getting money where they could...we broke up at the end of 2013. She started train hopping in 2014, so all of this was almost a decade ago. Mind you neither of us were down on luck at all...she came from a middle class house and had everything she needed, including a car, job, room, family, ect but still wanted to do that. From what i could tell she just needed to be free for a little while. As far as i know, she's back now though. Said it gets on you after a while and she wanted a stable place to be....so not all are cut out to do it for life. People like Shoestring and Stobe The Hobo are just different.
The whole thing, but I would hope the rr would spin this in a positive light considering our boy is about to have major surgery and isnt hurting anybody. ❤
Hobo Shoestring's freight train hopping videos that’s awesome man, best video I’ve seen in a while, I love seeing actual kindness and not just people doing nice things for the camera
Cool video, but keep the engine numbers / crew off the vid. The outfits we work for look for any reason to fire us. Years ago when I was a Yardmaster, I'd send the "riders" out on a local or yard job, have them dropped off with another carrier at our connection track, and their YM would get them out on the right train to make their destination. Good ol' days back then. Not so much now. Now I'm throwing care packages out again.
Normally railroad workers would report people who are on railroad property but that one there helped you which is a blessing. A real Christian engineer there. Amen. 🚂🙏👍
I would gladly give NS millions of dollars of freight business. They seem like a company with a great deal of class and respect. Once again demonstrated by kindness to Shoestring from this Engineer.
When I seen the bag I thought that was awesome. When I saw that he put cash in the bag too, I got tears. Yall can't do a man like this! We can't share emotions!
I might be living that hobo life in the near future, hoping and praying that I don’t, but I hope I can find people as generous as that engineer if I have to live that way.
Nice!!! My brother, his now wife, my wife, and I were foaming at Gallitzin Tunnel near Altoona once on a scorching hot day and an EB stopped to build his air (and possibly get his rear end helpers-don't remember for sure now) before going down the slide and around Horseshoe Curve. The engineer tossed out a bag of ice cold bottles of water to us. Much appreciated!
I run'em for 23 years now. That was about how 95% of us are. The crew on the NB were a class act, coin, lil grub and H20 is what ya normally get from us. If you get on that dp without any issues, it's all good! When people mess with controls and cause grief to the crew, that's where the hospitality ends. Nice job on the secrecy of the hoghead but ya know if an official saw it, they'd could research crew called pretty easily, they track everything.
Hobo Shoestring just wanted to say that my Grandfather who raised me by the way was a Train Engineer for 26 years for Santa Fe... He used to slow the train down so hobo's could get onboard he would also talk to the conducter in the caboose and tell him to look the other way and just let the Hobo get onboard he would even have his fireman walk back to the car that the hobo just got in and give blankets and a Big Grocery bag or two full of Fruit and other food items and a small amount of cash. He worked in the train yards building trains and he also drove a Train over the open road Freight Trains.... anyways when i watch this I feel close to him he died in 1974 he was 62 years old . I was 14 years old then and now I'm 62 years old RIP Alfonso Johnson
Love hearing you say Bristol...I’m a Bristolian ( well born in Bristol but live just outside) who’s from the original Bristol in little old England, if we tried doing what you do over here on railway tracks we would be a serious trouble, I can’t believe how you can just jump on and off so easily! Respect to the train engineer for doing this, a very nice man!
My grand dad whom died before i was born was a train conductor. My mom said he worked alot and was hardly home. Had 5 kids to support. Great job back in the 40's and 50's. My mom as a kid would walk the rails picking up coal to keep the house warm in winter. Times were simpler back then. Now this type of living has changed but its still beautiful and simple.....i always wanted to be a hobo.
New to the channel and have only watched a couple videos but absolutely love them. Got a new subscriber outa me. Hope your operation goes well kind sir.
Don’t know when I subscribed to this channel but this popped up in my recommended and I love your videos already. Gives me major Hobo Stobe vibes. Really good stuff, stay safe and keep on riding man!
that was very nice of the engineer to give you that stuff im sure it helped you out quite a bit this just gose to show that train crews know whats good for hobos that ride on their train with them
Hey brother - I appreciate your videos and think of you as kind of a Shaman - I believe you are a spiritual man and a Patriot - May God Bless you for many years to come . I used to ride the Rails as a kid in Ohio to run downtown to the Pinball Arcade - great days of the past, long gone but still fresh in my memory. You helped rekindle those memories and I thank you from the bottom of my heart . Your a real inspiration-
@@TheHoboShoestring you should catch a train up here to Sandpoint Idaho and camp here for a while an make a video of your trip here and post it to RU-vid. I watch your channel Shoestring
Wish our west coast UP workers were just a lil nice like this anytime I'm spotted that close to tracks the workers always call me in to bull lol That's was hella awesome of the engineer to do that....
@@lexmarks567 Look at the railfan comments posted on RU-vid. So many railfans now trash the very industry and employees that railroad for a living. Railroaders know this and after a while they get tired of railfans like Millenium FOrce posting videos trashing the very work they do
There are some good railroaders out there and i am one of them. No joke..i was checking my train and i had a DPU in the middle. I saw a family of five on there and told the parents, "i never saw you all ok,stay low and get where you need to go." They're not stealing or anything so why should i really care
*Politics:* Oh that's an illegal trespasser *Freight Engineers:* I didn't see anything unusual *Freight Managers:* Are you sure you didn't see anything..? *Freight Engineers:* No I just got thirsty & hungry for the trip. *Freight Managers:* Alright, just let me know whenever. I'll be waiting.
@@armageddon1981 I mean it's true... This society is screwed up in so many ways. It will be the same dam thing on Mars if we ever get there. In my opinion. I seen this show on Netflix lul. Anyway. They are saying the things out there on another planet is a parasite. That they never seen before... if anything we are the parasite. We take the pain & suffering wherever we go. *Hope you understand my comment..*
