If you're considering hopping freight trains (legal disclaimer: don't, it's dangerous and illegal) read What to know before you hobo and check out A Modern Hobo Story
When I get off a train, usually the first thing I wanna do is get off of railroad property, especially if I'm rolling into a yard in broad daylight or anywhere that I know or expect to have high security.
When coming up on my stop, I prepare by packing up anything out, like my tarp and sleeping bag, and get ready to toss my stuff off, climb/jump off (don't ever get on or off a moving train if you don't know what you're doing, they stop all the time and if you do get caught it's not that big of a deal, definitely less so than losing your life or a limb), and make a beeline for the nearest bridge, railroad crossing, fence I can hop, other side of the road, whatever gets me back off railroad property ASAP, preferably without being seen.
However, sometimes when I roll in at night and feel like I'm somewhere I won't be messed with, either because the yard is small and enough in the sticks or because I'm in a big city with enough of a homeless problem, I've been know to just say screw it and sleep right there in the train yard, usually under a bridge or down an obviously less or unused section of track.
In the above picture, I had rolled into the Atlanta area from Chattanooga, arriving in the middle of the night in a wooded area where I noticed an abandoned offshoot track, wandered down it a brief way, and just slept there. I don't recommend anyone take this risk on the assumption that a track is abandoned, because sometimes it looks that way, but then the railroad will run a train over it anyway. But I felt I was relatively safe considering how overgrown it was, as you can see in the picture I took as the sun was coming up.
In Chattanooga before that, when I rolled in there at night, I followed a sidetrack that crossed the road and went into a side yard area that was clearly less used and slept in the shadows of some of the railcars over there.
But once the sun starts coming up or is up already, then it's time for me to find some breakfast and coffee somewhere with wifi and a place I can charge my phone and load maps for the city so I know where everything is. I love supporting local coffee shops all over!
Hopefully I was able to save enough money from the last town to pay for food right away, but in the instances I roll into town broke I'll usually start by asking the restaurants if I can trade a little work, such as sweeping the parking lot or changing trash bags that aren't behind the counter, in exchange for some food. Often times this works, and sometimes the place won't even have me do any work and will just give me food for free, especially after mentioning I just got off a freight train.
In the case that doesn't work, then I'll have to spange (spare change) first. I usually do this by playing music, but in some desperate situations will crack spange (going up to people and directly asking them for money) by offering to trade an item (usually something like a gemstone or knife) for enough money to get what I need.
After food, then it's more spanging, busking my music wherever nearby I think I'll get enough traffic to make enough money for more food and coffee later, along with hopefully enough to get a little bit of weed (I don't drink) to help relax while I'm waiting on the next train, and maybe also a new change of clothes from a thrift store.
Sometimes I may hang around an area for at least a couple days or more and go sightseeing, visit museums, parks, etc. In this case, I'll also have to find a place to camp for my duration of stay. I'll go more into that in another post.
Then it's time to decide what the plan is from there, if I'm hitchhiking or going to the train yard, replenishing road/train snacks and my water jug, and going to find somewhere to wait on the next ride.
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