Re: 488 and caboose in the snow 55 years ago

Back in the 1960s most railroaders seemed to be pretty easy going and friendly, and riding on a freight train was generally not a problem if one avoided certain locations. One notorious location was Eugene , Oregon on Southern Pacific and much of the Union Pacific main line that had a heavy presence of RR police. Other railroads were pretty accommodating such as the Milwaukee Road in the west, the Northern Pacific, as well as the UP on branch lines. Certainly the Rio Grande crews were very friendly and it was sometimes easy to get cab rides or rides in the caboose. Some of my most memorable railroad experiences have been on freight trains with accommodating crews both in the USA and in foreign countries. As passenger trains vanished on many rail lines, freight trains were the only way to experience many rail routes, including many that have since been abandoned, such as the Rio Grande's Monarch branch (by caboose); the Milwaukee mainline from Renton, Washington over the Cascades and the Bitter Root mountains to Deerlodge, Montana;; various long gone UP, NP, and GN branches in the Pacific Northwest, to name just a few. In at least one instance being offered a ride in the caboose saved my life when the only other riding option would have been on a freight car that was sent tumbling off the track by a cattle truck at a RR crossing. Of course some of these adventures happened on the standard gauge, but perhaps a selection of the most unusual could be related here at some time. I think that today riding on freight trains would be much more challenging, especially on main lines.