For a while I felt sad about his passing, but we shouldn’t be sad. He lived his life on his terms the way he wanted and a lot of people will never have the freedom and adventure he did, I’m kinda envious of the freedom and life he had.
Unless he was intentionally un alived by anyone like foul play or something. I just found his videos a couple of months after he died. Wish I would've known about him sooner.
I think I can safely say that the entirety of Hobo Shoestring Nation is behind you 1000%, collectively has your back, and are hoping for a positive outcome, String! Watching your Six 24/7/365. 👍🙂🛣🚞
Yah but a ride might help he's arthritis when he gets better.be like a clam in the mud.but if he just makes videos I'll still watch him funny as hell 😆
Shoestring, I don't know how you landed in my recommendations, but I thank God you did. I've watched a few episodes and I get in a relaxed state watching your content. But did I miss something? With the knowledge you have about trains and the railroad systems, brother how are you not working with them in some capacity? I never knew it was so much to know about trains and rails, but you've ended that ignorance of mine. I'm a Vet myself and I've always said that some of the nations brightest are in the military. Thanks for what you do and how you represent us.
I can't believe how much miss info you give out. You have zero clue about how much horsepower SD40-2's have. I my Honest opinion you should be in jail. what a dreg on society you are!
He loves riding the rails, but that is an illegal activity. Being a railroad employee you have to pass a myriad of checks to be considered for that kind of work and be in good physical and mental condition. Shoestring was a lifetime alcoholic up until 5-10 years ago. He would not have been considered for that reason and I am sure he probably has a criminal record also.
17:00 Stobe the Hobo is looking down with vast approval! This was a wonderful video. There really is something special about sitting by the tracks for an hour or three, just watching the trains go by. I do it myself at the platform in my hometown, but I think it might be more fun just to lay out a tarp out on the line, just sitting and letting the world turn. This was a wonderful video to watch. Cheers, Mark. May you beat cancer like a yard dog.
I have no idea why RU-vid pushed your content to my feed the other day, but I’m happy I’m here. Hobo life is something very foreign to me but I’m fascinated and very supportive of you. Keep up the amazing work! Subscribed.
Glad to see you out in the fresh air. Keep building up your health and nutrition in advance of your surgery and treatment. Have a great day Shoestring.
Your pants are the best in the world. I have the same and they are unbreakable. I wish you good health and beautiful journeys on freight trains. Greetings from Poland.
I must say I just started watching your videos and I now have a new passion, loco motives are now my new hobby I’m learning. I have plenty to learn and trains to catch now I’m starting my journey in Edmonton Alberta Canada 🍁
I enjoy the videos. Reminds me of my hitch-hiking days back in the the 70's. I sort of envy the freedom of the lifestyle, but I am too old at 68 to rekindle the wanderlust in me. I am glad to have a home in North Florida on the river, but do miss the traveling of my younger years. Best wishes and good luck Shoestring. Look me up in Fort White if you ever get this way.
11:30 the bells on those gates only run while the gate is opening and closing. When it's fully open or fully closed, the bell doesn't ring. It's not only to prevent it from being annoying as hell when you're sitting there stuck at a crossing like anyone would be with this train blocking the way, but also as more at grade crossings get full signals and gates, they often rely on solar power and batteries instead of having power lines ran all the way out to every single crossing. The less things you have running, the longer everything works before the batteries die. Many crossings with newer LED lights don't flash as slowly as they appear, they're acting flashing 20+ times a second when the light is "on". This is fast enough that our brains just see the light as on, but in reality it's saving power by being off for half of the time that it appears to be on. (Some digital cameras record at just the right speed that crossings appear to be off. Jawtooth has a camera that is like this and many of his videos look like the signals are malfunctioning and dying repeatedly, but he'll tell you they're working just fine the whole time.) This also helps save on power with crossings that are grid powered reducing the costs to the railroad there as well, so while it's almost a necessity when the crossing is on solar, it's a big cost savings on the monthly electric bill.
Hobo Shoestring:. My grandmother who was born in 1905 used to make us take a spoonful of sulfur before we went blackberry picking. When you sweated the sulfur through your pores it made you less palatable to the chiggers. I don't know if it worked but that stuff was dry and tasted horrible and it was hard to swallow.
It’s the lost verse to the ‘Mary Poppins’ “Spoonful of Sugar” song… “🎼a spoon full of sulfur 🎵makes the children obey! keeps the bug bites away! makes their vision go gray🎵!”
@@swainscheps My grandmother didn't use that sulfur to make us obey, it was purely to keep the chiggers away. Now she would use castor oil for that purpose. If she caught you eating fruit that wasn't ripe she would give you a dose of castor oil.
I always loved trains as a kid. I still have my conductors hat from when I was little. I love the videos and your work. Thank you Shoestring for teaching us all so much about trains. As well as for showing us a really rare glimpse into this realm. You're in my thoughts and prayers. If you ever come through Chicago let me know. You'd have a safe place to stay and a hot meal. Stay well Shoestring!!! Much love and respect!!!
Good to see you again! Where you belong on the rails talking about trains! Great knowledge as usual, god bless you, can’t wait to see you riding again where you belong 👏
Hi shoe string this is Ron I see you getting around much much better loved to see that And it's a beautiful country beautiful train I wish I was there with you
I have been binge watching your videos over the past few months. Your presentation skills have dramatically improved. Your story telling is great, I really enjoy them. Cheers
Piney Flats is a really cool area. I like the old post office and general store there. Those are my kind of areas. I use to go just north of there to the Natural Tunnel area until they stopped running trains. Theres only one a day through the tunnel and its at night
Your videos are amazing, i live close to conway railyard in Pennsylvania, one of the largest yards on the planet. I always wondered if there was a stowaway on any of the passing trains. Thank you for keeping that curiosity alive for me! Best wishes in your travels sir.
Several yesrs ago we would occasionally backhaul wine in our tank trucks out of California. Depending on the alcohol content we had to have 3065 placards on them.
But I doubt you would have to have the placard labeled beneath with a shipping name under the placard (alc. beverages) as Mark even comments at approx 17:45, one is just asking for someone to mess with it by having the name out in the open and I 100% agree with him. Not many would be bothered to look up 3065 on the CFR website(s) to identify the PSN. Cannot put radio active, even though I get where Shoestring was going with that, whatever DOT equivalent agency who overseas rairoads would have a field-day on handing the charges over for mis-placarding a railcar, especially heaven forbid a fire or accident occurred and a fire department stood down and allowed casualties being unable to battle a radioactive blaze or reaction, whereas most FD presumably can handle combustible or flammable liquids.👾
Just came across your RU-vid channel and started watching your videos a couple weeks ago. Good luck with your surgery and thank you for your service. Sending prayers, God bless.
@@BaltimoreAndOhioRR where are you located? On the ns and csx we see heritage units, fnbs (Stobe), up, cn, cp, occasionally kcs, and lease locos, and older pool locos still used when they're short on power. We just never know what we'll see in the Marion/ Mansfield, port Clinton/ Sandusky, or Ashtabula/ conneaut areas where I spend a significant amount of time.
@@BaltimoreAndOhioRR I try to spend more time on the water and in the woods these days. Have a place on Catawba, family in extreme Northeast Ohio, and family property down on the lower Eastern Shore. Miss seeing Bay Shores Alcos and trainmaster. There is an Operation Lifesaver geep regularly on the local servicing the gypsum mine in Gypsum. Caught one of the last Barnum and Bailey circus trains running across the water level route on the causeway and drawbridge between Bay Point and Gypsum, and saw 10 or so F40PH's in metra livery deadheading West. Not sure if they were going out to Morse and Knudson's shops or getting shipped elsewhere.
Absolutely 💯 your knowledge is amazing you can tell you have many years riding the rails and paying attention be well ny friend your a good man Mark !!@
Awesome video Shoestring! Great when you show and explain how things work! I've learned alot more about railroading watching your videos! Thanks for sharing!
I just happened across your channel..I have watched a few videos so far. I sure hope everything goes good for you with the upcoming surgery amd everything. Much love sir.
Thank you Shoestring for another great video . It's amazing how much knowledge you have about train's . Stay safe . Look forward to seeing the next one .
Shoestring my man , hope all goes well with your surgery . I've been on that journey myself . It will be ok , I had colorectal cancer and ended up with colostomy . Your case may be different than mine but you can make it through . Praying for you my guy . Would love to meet you and maybe hop a ride with you and hang out . Looks like a lot of fun . Good luck and let me know next time you pass through Memphis by that Elvis Presley stop I will come see you ,
Love what your doing. I grew up in Tunnel Hill Ga. On the tracks where the Civil War happened. I'm in Muncie now and would be honored to meet you iffin you ever pass by
Another really interesting video Mark. You always relax me when I'm listening to your stories and all the interesting rambling you can do. informative and entertaining at the same time. Thank you, and good luck with your upcoming surgery.
Evening Shoestring. Sure you have rode thru Troy, OH. on a train. Saw you mentioned riding thru near New Carlisle too. Know you're happiest at train tracks and being around the trains too. Glad to see you adventure out, and enjoy doing a video about them again. There's a train passing thru in Dayton now, as it does every night. Love hearing the train wheels rolling on the tracks, and the train whistle blowing in the distance. It's a beautiful sound, and you're a beautiful soul Shoestring. You take care, and I'm keeping you in my prayers.🙏🚂
How the heck do you know so much about railroads? I just found your channel a couple weeks ago but love your videos, you do a great job describing things.
It's amazing how much I learned from watching. I'm so glad this popped up in my recommendation months ago. You have so much knowledge of everything. Stay safe sir
Hello from Ames, Iowa Shoestring. They actually took those speakers down, so now you here the real horns blowing. Love hearing them a lot better. Thanks for the video.
Hobo Shoestring, is more than a train rider by far he is a Encyclopedia of railway information simply amazing how much he know about the operation of trains. They should let him retire from the rail road with full benefits. I have never seen anyone who knows so much about trains.👍
13:42 ONE (Ocean Network Express) decided to paint all its newly launched containers in a recognizable "magenta shade". The magenta color scheme was inspired by the cherry blossom trees, one of the national symbols of Japan, where the ONE companies are located.
That ONE pink container is Ocean Network Express, a Japanese shipping company. They are fairly new, at least in the United States anyway. Its always good to see our friend Hobo Shoestring along the mighty high iron!
If they did that, the railcars would just get broken into by Abdul rather than Bob the Boozer. Or Greenpeace would sabotage the car to cause a nasty accident.
Boy"Shoestring just having a Great Day 😎I love the sound of metal grinding and squeaking down the tracks love this video Thank you" Stay safe read your bible brother- we're praying for you!!!💖
Thank you for your documentation and insight on rail riding. It was always a dream of mine to do what you are doing. Love trains, love adventure, love traveling. A Road Less Traveled
Great video, lots of cool information. I have to admit, though, you kept me chuckling by playing with that crossing gate... and talking about Massengill road. 😂
ChainsawN&W1218, Your probably right about one of those situations, noticed when You looked inside that auto rack car is was loaded, hoping for the best with Your surgery 😊 🇺🇸, take care Brother.
Good to see you out and about again Shoestring. You're looking brighter and talking trains and riding them so that's good! Yeah, both lines blocked! That is not a good sign usually. Mind you, the train Tour at halt like that is rare and it's nice to see what's usually flashing by, a bit more up-close and how-it-works. I heard there was a derailment few days back up in Ohio(Jaw Tooth got the clean-up on film). I dunno if it was a cracked track/blocked track in a crossing or a bad expansion with the heat now, or both! Maybe what's going on with those two trains too, waiting on clean-up!. I just hope nobody got hurt, whatever the hold order is about. Well, summer's here this side of the Atlantic(the 4-4-0) too and I hope you get good weather all the way. Keep Safe and Keep Well, Shoestring. Cheers, now! (PS. Could ya keep us posted on what has caused the halt to rail traffic there? Cheers!)
Well S.S. Am glad you up and about,i have been thinking about you and happy that you getting fresh air and cleaning out the cobwebs up stairs. As allways I look forward to your flicks, can u point out the car ulike to ride, Happy Rail and good thoughts and healing prayer headed your way. 🐈🐩themt-1
The Railroad Bridge is a sad song in the air - everytime the trains pass I want to go somewhere - I went down to the station, my heart was in my mouth - looking for a boxcar to roll me to the south - the homesick blues is a terrible thing to have - to keep from crying I open my mouth and laugh............Langston Hughes(homesick blues)