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Hobo Bills last ride
14 years 2 months ago #8278
by Kelley
Replied by Kelley on topic Re:Hobo Bills last ride
This one did 
Well I should let my German friends here answer this but I will try..and they can help me if I make mistakes..
Germany in the old old days, when railroads were first made, were little states..Barvaria,Prussia,Hessen,Baden, ect ect..You could pretty much walk from one town or village to the other pretty easy. The towns were there before the railroads.
The first railroad uniforms were pretty military, they even had swords! Wouldn't wanna hop a train with a swordsman around.
Railroads were important to the military and were watched over as they were used in 1864,1866,1871,1914,1939.. so rail yards would not be a place to play around in.
German trains are smaller and easier to control.
In US the towns stretch for miles and miles in between and along railroads. Trains longer and harder to control.
Yes there were railroad police and if one was loitering around the tracks in the US around 1864, 1917, or 1941, you would also have some explaining to do.
Germany had a long tradition of people who wandered the countryside doing odd jobs (same as hobos, who were looking for work, as opposed to just bums,but both counties have plenty of those)
There are even folk songs, Hobo songs of a sort, about people who wander the countryside, and a certain romance to it all.They were wandering around Germany long before there were railroads.
Bummy dudes that do nothing but drink beer and wander around do ride the rails, but not on boxcars. They either travel on weekends when the Bahn has a special cheap price where you can travel in a group, (or they ask to bum a ride off of your ticket or get one you wont use anymore)Ride free because the state gave them a ticket for whatever reason, or just take their chances and hope they don't get checked. I don't admit to riding the rails using any of the above methods but, I have done my share of rail travel, and I find the cheapest and LEGAL means of getting around, which is sometimes free.
So yes, I have traveled cheap, by rail, miles and miles, to do temporary work, in Germany (even rode a banana train to work once , but by invitation, that's another story for later)so I consider myself a quasi-Hobo.
Well I should let my German friends here answer this but I will try..and they can help me if I make mistakes..
Germany in the old old days, when railroads were first made, were little states..Barvaria,Prussia,Hessen,Baden, ect ect..You could pretty much walk from one town or village to the other pretty easy. The towns were there before the railroads.
The first railroad uniforms were pretty military, they even had swords! Wouldn't wanna hop a train with a swordsman around.
Railroads were important to the military and were watched over as they were used in 1864,1866,1871,1914,1939.. so rail yards would not be a place to play around in.
German trains are smaller and easier to control.
In US the towns stretch for miles and miles in between and along railroads. Trains longer and harder to control.
Yes there were railroad police and if one was loitering around the tracks in the US around 1864, 1917, or 1941, you would also have some explaining to do.
Germany had a long tradition of people who wandered the countryside doing odd jobs (same as hobos, who were looking for work, as opposed to just bums,but both counties have plenty of those)
There are even folk songs, Hobo songs of a sort, about people who wander the countryside, and a certain romance to it all.They were wandering around Germany long before there were railroads.
Bummy dudes that do nothing but drink beer and wander around do ride the rails, but not on boxcars. They either travel on weekends when the Bahn has a special cheap price where you can travel in a group, (or they ask to bum a ride off of your ticket or get one you wont use anymore)Ride free because the state gave them a ticket for whatever reason, or just take their chances and hope they don't get checked. I don't admit to riding the rails using any of the above methods but, I have done my share of rail travel, and I find the cheapest and LEGAL means of getting around, which is sometimes free.
So yes, I have traveled cheap, by rail, miles and miles, to do temporary work, in Germany (even rode a banana train to work once , but by invitation, that's another story for later)so I consider myself a quasi-Hobo.
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