Frieight Hopping in Australia
spicy.mince...@gmail.com
freights in Australia these days? I've done a fair bit of reading
around the place about hopping but it mainly pertains to the US.
I live on the east coast of Australia and the main freights around
here are the coal ones moving up and down the Hunter Valley. From what
I can see they don't look very good for catching. That said I have to
admit I know nothing about trains beyond what any other layperson
might now know, and I certainly know very little about hopping a
freight one!
I've seen that a lot of people who talk about having tried hopping
said that they sought out a more experienced person first, and I
wouldn't really want to ever try hopping a freight unless I was with
someone who knew what they were on about. Also the coal hoppers seem
to have a lot of equipment and stuff at either end. I saw in one of
Ben Scaro's posts he said something about brake equipment, so I was
also just wondering if there is a lot of moving parts on each
individual carriage?
If anyone knows good stuff about hopping in Australia, including the
coal freights, let us know!
Thanks heaps,
Dave
a_a_a
> If anyone knows good stuff about hopping in Australia, including the
> coal freights, let us know!
You'll be detected and removed within 20 minutes unless you fall off first.
terryc
wrote:
> Hey everyone just posting to ask about the practicality of hopping
> freights in Australia these days?
Highly dangerous.
Freight hopping might have been practical when cargo was loaded
by hand into various vans. Nowadays it is coal wagons, open
container flat waggons or similar. No place to sit safely and exposed to
te elements. Very quickly spotted.
Also, we no longer have much the style of freight (all statins pick
up) that existed inthe past, nor the numbers.
Matthew Geier
Or fried - heard a radio call once that a crew in Enfield yard had
smoke coming off the top of one of their coal hoppers. They went back
to investigate and found a rather grizzly sight.
Some one had climbed onto the top of a loaded coal hopper. They were
not going to be doing it again.
Australia doesn't seem to have had much of a history of train hopping
- seems to have consisted of Aboriginals hopping trains in remote
areas - certainly not this entire sub-culture that sprang up in the
US. Geography probably had a lot to do with it as well as operation
style - in the era of the LCL louvre van stopping goods train there
was a good chance it was actually a mixed goods with a passenger car
anyway - and the trains were short and had a guards van swinging off
the rear - the 'guard' (Presume would be called a conductor in the US)
would be keeping an eye over his train.
David Malcolm
"Matthew Geier" <matthe...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:4e1451e9-2947-4869...@w24g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
and the trains were short and had a guards van swinging off
the rear - the 'guard' (Presume would be called a conductor in the US)
would be keeping an eye over his train.
Bwahhh, haaa,haaa. More likely the guard was in the van pissed with the
"passenger" as company.
Dave Malcolm
terryc
> Australia doesn't seem to have had much of a history of train hopping
Err, we did.
> - seems to have consisted of Aboriginals hopping trains in remote
> areas
Yep that Alice to Darwin link was rife with it.
David Bennetts
"Matthew Geier" <matthe...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:4e1451e9-2947-4869...@w24g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
Can't agree with you there. Back in the depression era it was very common
when the unemployed looked for work on country properties and vice versa.
Some railwaymen turned a blind eye to it but others were much less
foregiving and called the cops to remove the unauthorised passengers.
With modern day freight wagons it isn't as easy to hide, or shelter from the
weather as it once was. The trains don't slow down as often either to hop
on or off.
Regards
David Bennetts
Ray Murphy
"David Bennetts" <davibenn...@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:48ace4b1$0$1326$5a62...@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
> "Matthew Geier" <matthe...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:4e1451e9-2947-4869...@w24g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
> On Aug 17, 10:28 pm, a_a_a <a...@a.a.net> wrote:
>> spicy.minced.fruit....@gmail.com wrote:
> Can't agree with you there. Back in the depression era it was very
> common when the unemployed looked for work on country properties and
> vice versa. Some railwaymen turned a blind eye to it but others were
> much less foregiving and called the cops to remove the unauthorised
> passengers.
>
[....]
> David Bennetts
RM: In Victoria it was very common during the depression years and the
VR had RIO's riding trains as a part of their duties. They were always
working in the country areas anyway, doing anything to protect
railway revenue, but mostly to keep Claims down (for missing or
damaged parcels or goods etc).
Bob Sinclair was one I knew who rode the trains during that era.
Bill Dabb, Horrie Bell, Jack Loftus and Bert Strange probably did
it as well, but there would have been dozens of others.
They were armed so they worked alone ok if necessary.
I suppose the old time brake-men would have automatically seen any
unauthorised passengers too - and if they were fit enough to do a
remarkable job like that, they should have been able to chuck off any
passengers unless they felt sorry for them or thought it was no big
deal anyway.
Ray