{{Short description|Act of surreptitiously boarding and riding a railroad freight car}}
[[File:Bakersfield, California. On the Freights. Helping a newcomer hop a freight - NARA - 532069.tif|thumb|upright|Freight-hopping youth near Bakersfield, California (National Youth Administration, 1940)]] '''Freighthopping''' or '''trainhopping''' is the act of boarding and riding a freightcar without permission. This activity itself is often considered to be illegal, although this varies by jurisdiction. It may be associated with other illegal activities such as theft, vagrancy, or trespassing.
Train surfing is a similar activity that involves the act of riding on the outside of a moving train, tram or another rail transport, without paying a due fare.
==History== For a variety of reasons the practice is less common in the 21st century, although a community of freight-train riders still exists.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bbcrc.org/bib.html | title= Hobo Bibliography |publisher= Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture |access-date=2024-06-20}}</ref>
[[File:MKZD south and west part views from freight train before reconstruction.webm|thumb|thumbtime=60|Riding on the rooftop of a hopper car]]
Typically, hoppers will go to a rail yard where trains stop to pick up and unload freight and switch out crew. They will either board a freight car in some fashion unseen or "catch one on the fly" once it has begun to move.<ref>{{cite book | last=Iverson| first=Wayne| title=Hobo Sapien| year=2010| publisher=Robert Reed Publishers| isbn=978-1-934759-43-1}}</ref>
==Dangers== {{Main|List of train-surfing injuries and deaths}} [[File:Hemingway train surf restoration.png|thumb|upright|Ernest Hemingway hopping a freight train to get to Walloon Lake (1916)]]
Riding outside a freight car, whether atop or underneath, is dangerous.<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/105765-boy-critically-injured-trying-to-jump-train-in-northeast-philly| title=Boy Critically Injured Trying to Jump Train in Northeast Philly| agency=Associated Press| website=Newsworks.org| language=en-gb| access-date=2017-07-22| archive-date=2017-08-26| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826033609/http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/105765-boy-critically-injured-trying-to-jump-train-in-northeast-philly| url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Today== Hopping trains happens all over the world in various styles, and practices and legal penalties vary by region. Some places are more critical and consider freight hopping a crime, and other places are more lenient.
===Europe=== Freight-hopping exists in various countries and across borders, including the Eurostar<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/stowaways-make-240mile-journey-beneath-eurostar-1255463.html | title=Stowaways make 240-mile journey beneath Eurostar | website=Independent.co.uk | date=11 June 1997 }}</ref> and Eurotunnel Shuttle<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/apr/10/immigration.immigrationandpublicservices | title=Stowaways foil tunnel security | website=TheGuardian.com | date=10 April 2002 }}</ref> as a route for migrants to cross the English Channel from France into England.
===United States=== Union Pacific Railroad in the United States encourages people who witness transients on freight trains to report them to its dispatch center. According to a sheriff's deputy from Lincoln County, Nebraska, train hoppers no longer write symbols on trees and buildings, but there is still a network of train hoppers that occurs mostly online.<ref>{{Cite news | last=Johnson| first=Heather| url=https://www.nptelegraph.com/news/local_news/ridin-the-rails/article_93d2ca8b-f322-50a1-8439-a6bc42028bdf.html| title=Ridin' the rails| date=August 28, 2018| work=The North Platte Telegraph| quote= }}</ref>
===Australia=== Australia has a small community of freight-hoppers, consisting mainly of teens and young adults, who hop for various reasons, including family issues, and more. They are found mostly in the major cities, and lines, such as the Brisbane–Sydney line, and other major freight routes. The community is very tight, and difficult to get into. Most media regarding modern hopping in Australia is private, or hard to find.
===Mexico=== thumb|A freight train with freight hoppers in Mexico
It is estimated that yearly between 400,000 and 500,000 migrants—the majority of whom are from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—hop freight trains in the effort to reach the United States.<ref name="commonwealmagazine">{{cite web | last=Sorrentino| first=Joseph| title=Train of the Unknowns| date=26 November 2012| url=http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/train-unknowns| publisher=Commonweal| access-date=25 May 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Invisible Victims: Migrants on the Move in Mexico| date=28 April 2010| url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr41/014/2010/en/| publisher=Amnesty International Publishers| access-date=25 May 2013}}</ref> The freight trains are known as La Bestia.
===Mauritania=== In the Mauritania Railway, freighthoppers can ride with their cargo freely due to the lack of road between Zouérat and Nouadhibou.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.boredpanda.com/freight-train-hopping-in-mauritania-or-how-i-rode-4000-kilometers-in-a-cargo-carriage-with-iron-ore-local-shepherds-and-their-sheep/ |title=Freight Train Hopping In Mauritania: 4000 Kilometers In A Cargo Carriage With Local Shepherds And Their Sheep |last=Mykolas |first=Juodele |date=24 July 2017 |publisher=Bored Panda |access-date=2020-12-21 }}</ref>
==See also== * Mike Brodie, freighthopping photographer * W. H. Davies, the "tramp-poet" * Ben Reitman, the "hobo doctor"
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Uys, Errol Lincoln (2003). ''Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression'': Routledge. {{ISBN|0415945755}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20130505084138/http://www.erroluys.com/RidingtheRails.htm The Great Depression - The Story of 250,000 Teenagers Who Left Home and Ride the Rails] * [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/rails/ "Riding the Rails"], ''American Experience''. PBS series. * Conover, Ted (2001). ''Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America's Hoboes''. Vintage. {{ISBN|0375727868}} [http://tedconover.com/book-rolling-nowhere/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210218122829/http://tedconover.com/book-rolling-nowhere/ |date=2021-02-18 }}
==External links== {{Wikiquote|Freight-hopping}} * [http://erroluys.com/frontpage.html Hobo Letters] Letters from boxcar kids who rode the rails during the Great Depression
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Category:Articles containing video clips Category:Rail freight transport Category:Organized crime activity Category:Train surfing