Information Sources

Books

Hopping Freight Trains in America

by Duffy Littlejohn, 1993. 354 pages. ISBN 0-944627-34-X.

This is a great book for those interested in hopping, and even for those just wanting to know how railroads work. For a copy, send $13.95+$1.70s/h to: Zephyr Rhoades Press; 868 Center Street; San Luis Obispo, CA 93405-2314; Telephone: (805) 546-9332

The Freighthopper's Manual for North America: Hoboing in the 21st Century

by and available from Daniel Leen, 1928 S. Graham St., Seattle, WA 98108 for $8.95 postpaid.

The Trainwatchers Guide to North America

Provides good info about individual roads including major yards, some frequencies, primary commodities carried. [available in many hobby and train shops]

The Compendium of American Railroad Radio Frequencies

A must for those with scanners. Shows freqs for each road and at what point they change. [available in many hobby and train shops]

Railroad Radio: Hearing and Understanding Railroad Radio Communications & Systems.

by Vincent Reh. Can be ordered from Altamont Press, or contact: Byron Hill Publishing Co.; PO Box 197; Grand Isle, Vt. 05458; (802) 893-1315; email: rehvince@together.net

Altamont Press Timetables

Altamont Press produces railroad timetables. Don't let the name confuse you, they don't list train schedules. These are handy little pocket guidebooks that list all railroad routes in a particular area. They show mileposts and station names, speed limits, siding lengths, yard locations, tunnels, and scanner frequencies. They also contain some small maps, engine rosters, and train route symbols. Orders can be sent to Altamont Press; PO Box 754-A; Modesto, CA 95353. See their web site for more info.

Mailing List

Train-Hoppers@nw.com

Join the train-hoppers mailing list! Discussions about how to hop, where to catch out, hopping stories, etc. Send a message to train-hoppers-request@nw.com to be added.

Newsgroups

misc.transport.rail.americas and misc.transport.rail.misc

These Usenet newsgroups occasionally contains articles of interest to train-hoppers. These include monthly reports from some railroads regarding freight movement, status on new tracks and yards, etc. The railfans on this group do not like to discuss freight train hopping.

Associations

National Hobo Association

"Become a member of the National Hobo Association (NHA). We are a nationwide group of men and woman who share the love of the open road, a fascination with railroads and a deep interest in preserving the traditions of the American hobo. We have regional festivals and get-togethers all year long where we celebrate these traditions through songs, poetry and just plain fun. NHA membership also includes your personal copy of the Hobo Times, the only national magazine that brings you news from the world of wanderlust."

The Hobo Times is bimonthly, full of color photos, and the last issue was 46 pages. It has interesting train hopping stories, ads, and other stuff.

To join, send $21 (1 year) or $50 (3 years) to the National Hobo Association; PO Box 706; Nisswa, MN 56468.

Maps

Railroad Atlas of North America

Steam Powered Video's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America.
This is a great large format book/map. It shows all tracks past and present, which railroad owns them and has track rights, where yards and division points are, mile posts, track detectors, and more. You can find these books at RR oriented hobby shops and also through mail order bookstores listed in magazines such as Trains.

Railroads of the Continental United States

A complete and current wall size map of all the railroads in the U.S. It is 30"x48", 4-colors, shows railroads, ownerships, towns, stations, interchange points, intermodal yard locations, and rivers. $18 + $4s/h from Railroad Information Service at (512) 863-6886.

US Geological Survey Maps

Available at most large libraries (also the USGS Map Store in Menlo Park, CA), these usually provide the best layout of yards if you can pinpoint the region of the yard. These maps are also good for prechecking the size of yards along a route. However, they are usually 10-20 years out of date.

Magazines

Trains

Trains magazine is available at good newstands each month. It contains useful articles on how and where railroads operate. It also contains many ads for mail order bookstores and other info.

Railfan & Railroad

Railfan magazine is another good source of info on operating railroads. At your newsstand.

Railpace

For the northeast, Railpace often supplies topo maps of rail, yards and surrounding region, they also update RR schedules (ie. saying that Conrail TV SENJ leaves Selkirk at 4am, etc).

Pacific Rail News

Current news, opinion, and photos from western railroads like SP, UP, BN C&NW and more. A Railpace for the west with less of an emphasis on railfanning and more business and operating data. Subscriptions from Pentrex at 800-210-2211 (2652 East Walnut; Pasadena, CA 91107).

The Official Railway Guide: Freight Service edition

This is a publication for RRindustry execs and shippers. It provides maps of varying detail of each RR in the country along with pertinent phone numbers, some timetables (not schedules), and maps by region with major transfer points and some crew change points. The Guide is published bi-monthly by K-III Directory Corp., 424 West 33rd St., 11th Flr., NY, NY 10001. Phone 212-714-3100 or 1-800-221-5488. The also produce a passenger service edition, the Pocket List of Railway Officials, and several other freight shipping guides. The prices are a hefty $30 to $60, but you may be able to talk them out of an old issue (they don't change much month to month.). Also available in business section of most major libraries.