November 1998 & mail train-hoppers@nw.com Subject: Back Units I think that I listed riding in the back units as one of the things that really pissed the bulls off. In fact back in the old days when no one "said anything" if you were riding in an empty box car, being caught in the back units by the Bulls used to mean instant jail. I did ride in a back unit on two different times, back when I was a kid, but in each case it was an act of desperation. One time it was when my dog fell off the train in a tunnel going over the questa grade on the coast line comming up out of SLO. That time I frantically ran up to the crew who was going back to town with the pushers, and ask them to take me back. At first they were pissed, "what were you doing with a dog on the god dam train?" But then they took me back, "your dog is probably dead" they explained as we rode back into the tunnel. They tried to explain it gently, now prepairing me for the enevitable truth. As we rode through the tunnel I was looking at the tracks expecting the worst but then when the train made it all the way out of the tunnel there was my dog. So my dog got a cab ride as well. The other time I was on this train on the was into seattle and as the train went along it stoped over and over to switch off cars till at the last stop, it was down to just the units, so we had to sneek onto the back unit. In this case the crew man came back and took us up into the cab to ride with them, I guess so that they could make sure we were not messing with the controls. A little outside of town they radioed in that they had to "stop and drop off some customers", they explained that the bulls did not like people rideing with them in the cabs and if were caught both us and they would be in trouble. One other time a friend of mine that did not have very good gear, and who was freezing got offered to chance to ride in the cab possibly due to his tender age, we were both just kids back then, but I was a little better equiped. Seems to me that getting caught riding in the back units is the exact thing that tends to piss the railroads off and make things harder for all the other tramps. I am not really sure if this is supposed to be cool these days, doing things calculated to piss off the railroads, unfortunately it does seem to be the fassion for some. Having some crazy guy riding in your rear unit is a saftey hazard and puts the life of the crew in danger if the guy decided to do something stupid. So if you think its cool to do things that piss the railroads off, then the back unit is your tickit. I also offered this early commentary on the subject. jaks