Have you ever walked along the railroad tracks?

Ummm….I definitely have crossed them, and I definitely have walked alongside. Have I walked right down the middle? I…. don’t remember. Certainly not recently.

When I was a kid there was a rail line that later was turned into a bike trail that ran by my neighborhood. We definitely walked it at times. It was long since not in use. There was talk about turning it into a light-rail commuter line, but that never happened…or got close to happening.

My grandmother had an in-use rail line through a large field beside her house. I played in that field when i visited…but I doubt I ever walked down the track. It’s possible. I’m old enough though that I can’t remember. But it just doesn’t seem like a thing I’d do. I’m not a daredevil and never was.

Oh yeah! We did it all the time as kids. One time we even jumped up on a slow moving train and rode it about 5 blocks and then jumped off. This was in our early teens.

Sure. Lots of train tracks around here, walking them was like a rite of passage for us as kids.

Side note: the Rails to Trails group had turned many of them into bicycle/walking paths. Will use them often.

Sure. Always had a thing about trains anyway.

I don’t think so. I would have my mom in my head telling me it’s dangerous.

I remember walking down the tracks in 1958, on the RR line parallel to Jefferson it went to Hughes Aircraft, from Sepulveda Boulevard.

Back in the 1960’s we used to regularly walk the “Seven Arches” which carried a railway line over a small burn. Trains were very far and few between but we panicked and ran if we heard a train coming. It was the best way of getting across the water. I think it is now a cycle track.

Oh yes, Me and a friend of mine walked on them for a long way. We came upon a rail-car and it was open and we both climbed in. We pretended to be hobo’s “riding the rails” lol then we started to get scared thinking “what if a real hobo came along” so we got out of there real quick and ran back home.

Yes. I got trapped in a train yard with the only way out was to climb a barb wire fence. I was 6’5” so wasn’t a big deal.

Why?

I was going to a job interview in the commercial district in an old warehouse. Turns out that I was too smelly from wearing a slik shirt, and being all sweaty from the long walk and climbing up barb wire fences. I did not get the job. Was selling knifes anyway.

A friend and I once did it back in 1968 for 6 miles.

Many times. Played on them too. In first grade we lived right next to tracks. We kids did so many dangerous things it takes my breath when I think about it. Adults are miracles!

The movie vibes aside, RR tracks have always seemed kind of mysterious to me. You find them in so many remote places, connecting small towns or just endless empty landscape.

And yes I was actually a “cross-tie walker” once, but not something I planned. A few years back I was river rafting a section of the Snake with friends & on the 3rd day we were deep in the canyon when the raft hit a big tree snag and capsized. We nearly drowned & lost everything.

The river was running too deep & fast and we had to climb up and out over 500 ft. When we got to the top rim there was nothing. No trail, no landmaks or signs, and no town in sight. But we found rusted railroad tracks and strarted following them – for hours and hours and hours. Just before dark we saw a ranchouse about a mile off got a warm place for the night, and a ride into town the next morning.

Thank Burlington Northern, and bless you ruthless empire building Robber Barrons.

All the time back when I was a teenager. My older sister showed me how to hop onto a slow-moving train. We’d ride into the next city over. (Which sounds far. But was really only a few blocks away.)

There was a pier, a comic book shop and a bunch of thrift stores.

Besides walking along the track, we’d always cross it too to get to the beach. And had this tradition to leave a penny on the tracks on the way to the beach. And collect the flattened penny on the way home from the beach.

Core memory unlocked.

Many times in my life. Most recently was a couple years ago. I used to walk my dog down by the tracks and he loved to walk on them. Yes, they were still in use for trains, but trains never went fast as there was a fairly sharp turn a little bit up the line. A train coming from either way would be moving slow so as to stay on the tracks.

Yes. But the older I get the more paranoid I get about trains.

I hope it was okay to say hobo? yikes.

@Dutchess_III, paranoid about trains? What do you mean? You think they’re out to get you?

Just….freaked out at railroad crossings and stuff.

When I was a kid I used to ride my bike alongside the tracks, off the gravel and in the dirt, it was a great way to ride without having to deal with traffic.

I went with my girlfriend to a wedding in Bellingham WA a few years back. The next day four of us walked on the tracks for about three miles each way from Fairhaven through Edgemoor, because the tracks are right along the water and had the best view of Lummi Island.

1)
Teen years, one of our swimming holes was jumping off a local railroad trestle. Twice I was there when a train approached, and staying on the trestle until the last moment was the goal. Good times.

2)
For the past decade or so, my buddies and I have fished a lot on the Arkansas river in Colorado. Walking the rails alongside is the quick way to get upriver or downriver.

Photo 1

Photo 2

Doesn’t look like the same Arkansas River we converted in in Kansas!

@Dutchess_III my Colorado grandfather, born and raised in Lawrence, KS called it the Ar-Kansas river.

Well that’s how it’s pronounced!

In the 1950’s there were two railroads that came through or near the small town where I was growing up. I was always fascinated by trains. I was a trainspotter long before I knew there was a name for it.

The line that ran through was the Rock Island Lines. The other was a smaller regional industrial line that ran to the west of town. There was an overpass (or underpass, depending on your vantage point). We would not only walk down the track, we would climb on the trestle-like structure of the overpass, play on railcars on the siding, and other dangerous stuff.