riding rails
Freight car stowing
Riding rails is traveling by hopping freight trains without paying, associated with hobos, drifters, and the Depression era.
The phrase evokes a romanticized image of rootless freedom—sleeping in boxcars, jumping on and off moving trains: He spent a summer riding rails across the Midwest.
Also called riding the rails.
- hoboItinerant without fixed address
- freightGoods being transported
- trainRail vehicle or instruct
- boxcarEnclosed rail freight carrier
- box carEnclosed railway cargo carrier
train yard · tracks · tramp · wandering · steel · locomotive · vagrant · drifter · down and out · jumping · open road · clattering · wheels · ties · gravel · switchyard · journey · freedom
- Depression survivalbread lines, soup kitchens, Hoovervilles, making do, scrimping
mode of transportation
riding railsflying
Moving through air
driving · sailing · walking · hitchhiking · air travel
riding, rails, ride, rail, rider, riders, rides, ridden, railing