Life changing travel experiences: Jumping freight trains in the Pacific NW

“He gave us five rules for jumping freight trains, and we broke every one of those rules once the adventure began.” –Brian Hartenstein

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and his longtime friend Brian recall their old ambition to jump freight trains across the Pacific Northwest, and what factors inspired it (4:00); what kinds of research and preparation they did to make the train-jumping experience possible (16:30); the early hours of their attempt to reach Canada by catching a boxcar from the Vancouver, Washington rail yard, and the dangers of challenges that awaited them (28:30); their unanticipated detour through the Columbia Gorge to Pasco, and their experience of getting detained by railroad police in Spokane (35:00); making the decision to escape Spokane by retracing their route, and getting stuck in a “hobo jungle” in the town of Wishram (56:30); making sense of the adventure afterwards, and how train-jumping has (and has not) changed in the social-media age (1:15:30).

Brian Hartenstein is an English-teacher-at-large, and the author of Me Gook, a Korean memoir.

Notable links:

• Van Life before #VanLife (Deviate episode)
• Jack Kerouac (American novelist)
• “Travel,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay (poem)
• The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, W. H. Davies (1908 memoir)
• Chris McCandless (traveler, subject of Into the Wild)
• Hero’s journey (narrative template)
• Dr. Giggles (1992 horror movie Rolf appeared in as an extra)
• Emperor of the North Pole (1973 movie)
• Wishram, Washington (freight-depot town)
• Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison (1952 novel)
• Rainbow Family (counterculture group)

Freight-jumping links:

• Freight jumping (train-travel method)
• Burlington Northern (railroad company)
• Freight Train Riders of America (criminal gang)
• Boxcar Killer (serial killer, a.k.a. Robert Joseph Silveria Jr.)
• Boxcar (type of freight car)
• Covered hopper (type of freight car)
• Flatcar (type of freight car)
• Gondola (type of freight car)
• Stobe the Hobo (YouTube playlist)
• Remembering Stobe the Hobo (Facebook group)

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber. 

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