A Glossary of Common Freight Hopping Words

Crew change: A scheduled stop every freight train makes to rotate crews and replenish supplies.

Crew Change Guide (CCG): An annual updated paper guide to almost every train yard and crew change stop in the United States and Canada. Never sold in stores or online, it is usually photocopied and only passed amongst friends.

Catch out: Hopping a train; a place where you can easily hop trains.

On the fly: Getting on a train while it’s moving.

Highline: An old but very much in use freight route in the northern US, stretching from Seattle or Portland to Chicago, freight capital of the US.

Bull: Railroad special police. They usually drive white Chevy Broncos and are too lazy to get out of their car to chase you.

*The bull, aka those fuckfaces in the Chevys*

FRED: ‘Flashing rear end device’, it’s a little red blinky light at the end of active trains. Sends signals to the engineer that the back of their train is still there.

Scanner: A portable radio receiver many train hoppers carry. If you know what frequencies to tune into you can eavesdrop on railroad operations and figure out train call numbers, destinations, listen in on dispatchers, and overhear bulls talking about trespassers, allowing you to escape before they catch you.

Grainer: A cylindrical-shaped railroad car that usually carries grain or other agricultural products. As long as the ends have floors (some of them are floorless), one of my favorite rides. They usually have little cubby holes at each end that you can hide or sleep in.

IM/Doublestack: Intermodal trains, i.e. trains made up of different length cars (42’, 48’, 53’) holding shipping containers. Some have floors and are good rides (see ‘48’), some don’t. With practice you can tell at a glance which ones are ridable or not, but to the common observer they all look the same. IM trains are generally fast and cover long distances. Doublestacks are IM trains with two shipping containers in each car, stacked one on top of each other.

48: A type of intermodal railroad car that usually has a well at either end that you can ride inside. The walls are tall enough to conceal you, but the top is open to the elements. Becoming less and less common as most railroads switch to newer, floorless cars.

*A 48 (aka a 48’ long container in a 53’ car) with rideable wells at each end*

Pigs/Piggybacks: Truck trailers on flat cars. Hiding under the greasy axle is dirty, windy, and uncomfortable, but these trains are usually the fastest of them all. Also a type of IM train.

Suicide: An IM car with no floor, just thin cross beams to support shipping containers. If you’re desperate and stupid you can ride one carefully, which is called ‘riding suicide’.

Unit: Train engine.

DPU: Aka ‘dupe’, a type of train engine that’s not on the front of the train, but either at the end or in the middle. Provides extra power for trains that are especially heavy or going up steep grades. Usually unmanned and unlocked.