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‘Hitching’ a Lift on Freight Trains — A Question

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Dr_Paul

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Arising from another thread here, I'd be interested to know whether it is known if people unofficially have boarded freight trains to travel in Britain, either historically or today. It was pretty commonplace in the USA for impoverished people to do so, and it features a bit in popular US culture -- for example, Jimmie Rodgers' song 'Waiting for a Train' -- but I've never heard of anyone doing it in Britain, and doesn't seem to be reflected in British popular culture (although it must be said that many British folk songs predate the railways).
 
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Highlandspring

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It does happen. I once saw a group of people sitting on a FLA container wagon trundling through Derby station and I’ve come across sporadic reports of it over the years. A while ago there was a video on Youtube of someone wandering round on board a loaded rake of STVA car carriers while it was in transit but it seems to have been removed now.
 

3141

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When I was much younger, say in about 1960, the idea of getting "the milk train" back from the sticks into London was quite widespread. There were milk trains in those days, but I don't remember anyone who actually been on one.
 

Gostav

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I hear in the old years of Europe when the freight train still had a brakevan, the traveller may be can asked the guard for travel by brakevan. Maybe it also happened in Britain.
 

DanDaDriver

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My Grandfather had stories of hitching a lift in the Guards van back to various RAF bases after leave during the war.
 

randyrippley

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When I was much younger, say in about 1960, the idea of getting "the milk train" back from the sticks into London was quite widespread. There were milk trains in those days, but I don't remember anyone who actually been on one.
they were mixed trains, including a coach or two, bit like the paper trains in reverse
 

Taunton

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When I was much younger, say in about 1960, the idea of getting "the milk train" back from the sticks into London was quite widespread. There were milk trains in those days, but I don't remember anyone who actually been on one.
The "Milk Train" was an old-style general public euphemism for a very early/late service, and/or one that stopped everywhere. Whether it carried any milk was by the by. In the early days of the railway such services would pick up milk churns at country stations, and the name stuck. Furthermore, milk churn traffic was always seen as "passenger rated" traffic (as opposed to the likes of coal), sent from passenger station platforms in vans similar to passenger coaches, and the train carried one or more vehicles with passenger accommodation, and were generally in the passenger timetable. Even when milk traffic moved on to bulk milk tankers (often 6-wheeled) being sent up to London, these were designed to be run as passenger vehicles. One or two were even attached to the early dmus on Westcountry branches.

In the opposite direction would go the "Newspaper Train", an equivalent operation, and I knew plenty who returned from London (wheer it left at about 2 am) to Taunton. Unlike the milk train, the Newspapers would be up there with daytime expresses for speed, and sometimes had the fastest timings of the day. Not in the timetable, but they always had one or more passenger vehicles, and if you were pleasant to the guard (a necessary prerequisite) you would be allowed in. Sailors in uniform returning to the Navy base in PLymouth (and as so many GWR men had once been in the Navy themselves the guards knew the score) were regulars on the fastest, which ran about an hour ahead of the one stopping at Taunton, hammering through there in the early 1960s in the middle of the night with a King ruunning at Cornish Riviera speed; flat out to make the charge at Wellington bank. All the heavy freight on that line, which mostly was run at night, was kept well out of the way for The Newspapers.
 

Mutant Lemming

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'Emperor of the North' with Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070030/
pitted the wits of train conductor and hobo.

it probably never caught on as much here as it did in the States because of the shorter distances, erratic nature of services (like not knowing where trains were going to and from) and it would probably be quicker to use other means to get from A to B.
 

big all

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in america distances are great freight trains are many passenger trains are often few outside main areas
line side demarcation is minimal where as in the uk its the exact opposite
in america you can go days weeks or indeed never have a passenger train for a journey so a freight or nothing
in the uk apart from quite short journeys passenger journeys are always possible within a few hours outside the overnight shut down
 

philabos

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Sadly it is an all too frequent occurrence in the US, and it not for lack of passenger trains true as that may be in this country. Equally tragic can be the result.
One night we had a load of pipe in a gondola come into the yard in a train. The pipe had shifted inside the car and crushed the occupant who thought they were getting a free ride. Trains have been stopped after leaving Laredo, a border crossing with Mexico, and as many as 40 or 50 people removed. Some have been found dead in covered hoppers.
Although songs may have been written glamorizing the practice, it is too often deadly.
 

axlecounter

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The "Milk Train" was an old-style general public euphemism for a very early/late service, and/or one that stopped everywhere. Whether it carried any milk was by the by. In the early days of the railway such services would pick up milk churns at country stations, and the name stuck. Furthermore, milk churn traffic was always seen as "passenger rated" traffic (as opposed to the likes of coal), sent from passenger station platforms in vans similar to passenger coaches, and the train carried one or more vehicles with passenger accommodation, and were generally in the passenger timetable. Even when milk traffic moved on to bulk milk tankers (often 6-wheeled) being sent up to London, these were designed to be run as passenger vehicles. One or two were even attached to the early dmus on Westcountry branches.

Interesting. The “Milk Train” was and sometimes still is a definition used in Switzerland too.
 

edwin_m

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hammering through there in the early 1960s in the middle of the night with a King ruunning at Cornish Riviera speed; flat out to make the charge at Wellington bank. All the heavy freight on that line, which mostly was run at night, was kept well out of the way for The Newspapers.
Was that the one that narrowly avoided being wrecked at Norton Fitzwarren during WW2 when the train it was overtaking ran out of track?

Apologies for digression.
 

ChiefPlanner

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Odd instances have happened - we had a desperatly cold vagrant arrive at Cardiff Flt one December morning on a coil container on the inwards Dudley (ex Newcastle) - Cardiff liner , he had boarded at Gloucester in the small hours , unaware of a non-stop run to Cardiff , another one where the northbound Dagenham - Bathgate car train had a runaway teen found sitting inside a Ford. Both handed over to the medics and the Police.

In the South Wales Valleys , especially with slow moving coal trains , it was not unknown for young teens to jump onto the hopper wagons , especially the HTV type where there was a convenient foot step and a recess at the end.

Generally , these so and so's were fairly quickly spotted by either signal staff or passing train crew. A very dangerous action.
 

Steamysandy

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I've heard "milchkammer " ( milk train) used for a local passenger train on an Eisenbahn Kurier DVD of the Mosel Valley line in Germany
 

LowLevel

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Two were killed yesterday having been electrocuted riding on top of a wagon. Not that unusual either, I can remember a couple of them fairly recently. One bloke fell off at East Midlands Parkway and lost a limb but lived and another was noted passing Manchester Piccadilly on fire.

Not the most sensible thing to do
 

ChiefPlanner

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Two were killed yesterday having been electrocuted riding on top of a wagon. Not that unusual either, I can remember a couple of them fairly recently. One bloke fell off at East Midlands Parkway and lost a limb but lived and another was noted passing Manchester Piccadilly on fire.

Not the most sensible thing to do

Another "Darwin Award" candidate a few years ago was "found" inside a stone or coal hopper , unable to climb up the smoothed interior. You really have to wonder about some people.
 

Domeyhead

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Nippers in Holbury and Hythe would occasionally jump onto the oil trains running from Fawley up to Totton. These would trundle at no more than 25mph and I think there were compulsory stops at some points for authority tp proceed etc. I seem to recall there were no guards vans on these trains so clambering onto the wagons would have been easy. This was more of a prank or a dare than anything because nobody goes to Totton without very good reason - and then of course you have to get back.
 

matchmaker

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I seem to remember that in the 1960's there was an early morning mail train from Glasgow to Oban that also conveyed passengers.
 

Spartacus

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Back in the days of loose couple freights there may often have been little point in it as average speeds were so low, and you might never know where you were going to end up with wagons often shunted between trains in goods yards.
 

GRALISTAIR

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Arising from another thread here, I'd be interested to know whether it is known if people unofficially have boarded freight trains to travel in Britain, either historically or today. It was pretty commonplace in the USA for impoverished people to do so, and it features a bit in popular US culture -- for example, Jimmie Rodgers' song 'Waiting for a Train' -- but I've never heard of anyone doing it in Britain, and doesn't seem to be reflected in British popular culture (although it must be said that many British folk songs predate the railways).

My father and his best man did in their teens - used to hitch a ride from about Fulwood and Cadley into Preston Station then jump off and wave cheekily to the man in the guard wagon
 

hawk1911

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I remember, back in the 1970s, travelling on the last train of the night, from Ipswich back into London. Somewhere en route the train was 'attacked' (lots of windows put through). Our train was taken out of service and we were transferred onto another train consisting of empty parcel vans for the remainder of the journey. No windows and standing room only back into London. Couldn't see anything like that happening nowadays.

In the 1980s I was friends with a group of people who worked the London-Weymouth Travelling Post Office and, as they were working the very last service ever out of Weymouth, they kindly offered me a 'lift'. Not much mail got sorted (well not properly) that night, but I did get to postmark my very own postcards.
 

sw1ller

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May I recommend a series by "Brave Dave" on youtube where Dave travels 4900km across Canada on freight trains. The listing of the four parts on youtube are here https://www.freighthopping.com/big-fat-freight-hop-2016/ (4 parts as the whole thing is about 2 hours). There are similar videos on youtube, but I find this one particularly well made.

His 2nd series wasn’t quite as good. Arrested as he got to the airport then given the option to either go home, never come back or go to jail. Needless to say, he went home and now spends his days taking people up snowdon.

It was a very good first series though. Only learned today that his mate from Canada died freight hopping. Got his back pack caught in a passing train. Just not worth it is it.
 

Y Ddraig Coch

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Lots of freight trains have / had containers or the like which have a veranda/ balcony type thing at either end with a white chain safety fence thing as they sometimes could be very long indeed and they trundle through stations at sometimes barely 15mph and at usually very quiet times of day or on very lightly used platforms so not many passengers about it would be very easy to just step on and enjoy the wind in your hair. Not that I would ever do such a thing.... very very dangerous and only some silly teenage minds who don't think far enough ahead as consequences would do such a thing!
 

Taunton

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Was that the one that narrowly avoided being wrecked at Norton Fitzwarren during WW2 when the train it was overtaking ran out of track?
Yes it was. Our old family doctor was called out to the scene and had distressing memories of it.
 

James James

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I don't know just how common it is, but quite a few refugees are apparently catching freight trains from Italy to Germany.
 

Jonny

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Two were killed yesterday having been electrocuted riding on top of a wagon. Not that unusual either, I can remember a couple of them fairly recently. One bloke fell off at East Midlands Parkway and lost a limb but lived and another was noted passing Manchester Piccadilly on fire.

Not the most sensible thing to do

I remember reading about the Manchester one in the local news - would have been about the mid 2000s IIRC (when I was a student in Manchester).
 

xotGD

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There used to be a late night van train from Newcastle to Carlisle that was often a 37....

...No, I never did!
 

TUC

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My parents ended up on a milk train on the way to their honeymoon, and attracted much jokes and comments from other passengers as they were very visibly still in wedding garb.
 

ChiefPlanner

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I am reminded of an unfortunate magistrates case in a South West Wales newspaper of a somewhat inebriated Llandeilo local gent , who had missed the last passenger train to Ammanford on the eve of D-Day.

He saw a freight train , heavily sheeted flat wagons about to depart so he hopped on board. He was spotted by a signalman at Llandybie - 6 bells sent and the train was stopped and surrounded by armed troops and armed local police.

He was treated as a potential saboteur - the train was loaded with armoured vehicles for Swansea Docks , enroute for D-Day plus 3 for the Normandy Beaches. Shall we say he got more than the standadrd 40/- fine for drunk and disorderly and not having a ticket. I suspect he came close to being dispatched by the armed forces.
 
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