fred's website

freighthopping, hoboes, boxcar art

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One of my main interests, which will soon become painfully obvious, is photographing the chalk drawings left on freightcars by hoboes and rail workers. My "inspiration" for this odd hobby came mostly from these individuals:

buZ blurr
Sketches from the "master" (73 groups of 10 photos)
buZ blurr (the early years)
Seldom seen drawings from the master's formative years (3 groups of 10 photos)
buZ blurr (Mail Art)
Mail Art created by buZ blurr from stencils he created from photographs (25 images), and additional images can be seen at this site: "res.npcc.edu/bbutler/buz.htm"
Colossus of Roads
10 images of the "Master" by Chris Crook
Drummond Mansfield
Classic drawings of hoboes show life as it was before scanners and cell phones
Toby Hardman
Black & white photographs of sketches left by hoboes and railroad workers on freight cars
Khaze
Beginning with his "Traveling Blues Exhibit", done in oil pastels, of blues greats from a set of cards that R. Crumb did in the 80's
 

Below are many pages showing photographs of these drawings that I managed to glean from endless wanderings along the rails:

Monikers
Several pages of tags I thought to be noteworthy (17 groups of 10 photos)
Boxcar art
Some of my favorite drawings (139 groups of 10 photos)
My Oldest "Herby"
A tag of his dated 9-20-69
 

Below are some traditional train-related subjects - freight and passenger equipment:

Railfan corner
Photos of places and equipment long gone (5 groups of 10 photos)
Amtrak wreck
The "Cushions" take a tumble at Black Butte, CA on Dec. 7, 2000
Riding in Style
Photographs scanned from old Kodachrome slides showing what train travel was meant to look like (i.e. before Amtrak)
 

"Riding the Rails", an even more traditional part of railroading, is shown in the following pages:

Over the Cascades
Photos taken during a winter trip from Klamath Falls to Eugene by "sidedoor pullman"
People
Folks I've met along the tracks over the years (3 groups of 10 photos)
1999 West Coast Hobo Gathering
Photos from the first gathering, courtesy of West Coast Virginia Slim
2000 West Coast Hobo Gathering
Memories of a very cool weekend
2001 West Coast Hobo Gathering
The best one yet
2001 West Coast Hobo Gathering Revisited
Two pages of photographs taken by Dammit Ray during the 2001 West Coast Hobo Gathering in Dunsmuir
2002 West Coast Hobo Gathering
The most "eventful" one yet
2002 West Coast Hobo Gathering (part deux)
Photos taken by No Nuts during the gathering at Black Butte
2003 West Coast Hobo Gathering
There couldn't have been any tramps riding trains anywhere else in the country this weekend - they all seemed to be in Dunsmuir
2004 West Coast Hobo Gathering
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something black
2004 West Coast Hobo Gathering - the jungle
Photographs of "ground zero" by Chris
Dunsmuir Railroad Days trophy
The 2nd place trophy that our "Marching Band" won in Dunsmuir
2005 West Coast Hobo Gathering
We don't need no stinkin' Parade...
2005 Black Butte Hobo Gathering
Photographs of the gathering taken by Alex
2006 West Coast Hobo Gathering
We came, we saw, we gathered...
Bridges I Have Known
Vantage points for scenic views and shelter while we pay our dues... (3 groups of 10 photos)
1984 National Hobo Convention
13 photos that originally appeared in the Britt News-Tribune following the 1984 Convention
Riding in the Winter
Ahhh, Winter! No heat, no mosquitoes... what's not to like? 15 photos that I scanned from old prints showing scenes of Winter riding
The Formative Years
Photos from my early years of stumbling around freightyards, taken in the late 70's and early 80's (7 groups of 10 photos)
Black Butte in Winter
What I have to endure in order to get all of these silly photographs of "boxcar art" (4 groups of 10 photos)
A Ride Down the Hill
Photos from a ride down the hill into Dunsmuir
No Nuts' Birthday Party
Photos from this year's party at an "undisclosed location" in Northern California
Dunsmuir to Eugene Again
20 photos from a "railfanning" trip I took with "Short Track" and "Mr. Grinch" from Dunsmuir to Eugene
Travelling
Photos from train trips taken by Juliette
Points West & Littlest 'Bo on the train
6 photos from a train trip taken by Points West & Littlest 'Bo
Gallery 1
12 photos from the 70's showing early train trips
Gallery 2
12 photos from the 80's showing tramps
Gallery 3
12 photos from the 80's showing trains
Gallery 4
12 photos from the 90's showing trains, tramps, and scenics
Gallery 5
10 photos from the 70's and 80's taken on various train trips
Gallery 6
10 photos from the 70's and 80's taken on various train trips
Gallery 7
6 photos from the 70's taken on a train trip from Oroville to Klamath Falls, then back to Dunsmuir
Gallery 8
6 photos from the 80's taken on a train trip from Oakland to West Colton
Gallery 9
4 photos from the 80's taken on a train trip from Roseville to Oakland
Gallery 10
6 photos from the 80's taken on a train trip from Oakland to LA
Gallery 11
8 photos from the 80's taken on a train trip from Denver to Oakland
Gallery 12
4 photos from the 80's taken on a train trip from Roseville to LA
Gallery 13
8 photos from the 80's taken on a train trip from Roseville to LA
Gallery 14
postcards from Cardboard on a trip from Oroville to Britt in 1991
Black & White
4 photos from old black & white negatives taken on various train trips
Winter ride - 1996
6 photos from a winter ride in 1996
 

Landscape photographs taken at various places in and around Northern California:

Scenics
Photos of (and from) trains, taken with Nikon cameras (5 groups of 10 photos)
Digital photographs
...along the same lines, taken with a Kodak DC260 (4 groups of 10 photos)
MP345
Scenic photos garnished from the vicinity of Milepost 345, the Black Butte siding (15 groups of 10 photos)
Castle Crags
Photos I took on a recent hike up to Castle Dome in Castle Crags State Park
Cement Bluff Lake
Photos I took on a drive up to Cement Bluff Lake
An afternoon at Black Butte
Photos from an average day of wandering around aimlessly at my "office"
Mussolini Fire
Photos from the 3,200 acre fire that started near my home
Around Black Butte
Photos from a hike around the north side of Black Butte (5 groups of 10 photos)
Local Happenings
"This" and "that" occuring in the 'hood (4 groups of 10 photos)
Mumbo Lake
Photographs I took on a hike around, you guessed it, Mumbo Lake
Ney Springs
Photos taken on a hike (and wade) from Cantara Loop up to Ney Springs and again from there up the Sacramento River to Box Canyon dam on Lake Siskiyou
the Storm
Photos taken during a period of stormy weather between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, 2004
Winter Walkabout
9 photos taken on a walk to alleviate the boredom of sitting around the house during a long spell of crappy weather
October in the Railroad Earth
Photos taken locally as Summer turns to Fall (6 groups of 10 photos)
Whitney Creek Falls
5 photos taken on a hike up to the overlook to Whitney Creek Falls on Mt. Shasta
UP Challenger #3985
2 photos of the big steam engine when it came through over Labor Day weekend, 2005
Pluto's Cave
Photos from a local lava tube
Siskiyou County
Photos from various places in Siskiyou County (Northern California)
Miscellaneous images
Photos that just seem to fall into the "miscellaneous" catagory
Irongate Reservoir
Photos from a drive up to Irongate Reservoir
Parks Creek
Photos from a walk around the area where a tributary of Parks Creek empties into the Shasta River
Sheep Rock
Photos from a hike below Sheep Rock
 

The obligatory travel photos taken whilst "on vacation":

My Summer Vacation
I couldn't resist adding photos from several days spent driving around the Oregon Cascades (2 groups of 10 photos)
Stranger in a Stranger Land
Photographs from several days of traveling through southern Utah in the Spring of 2000 (3 groups of 10 photos)
Miles & Miles of Miles
My wanderings in southern Utah and northern Arizona in the Spring of 2001
My Own Private Utah
The Spring 2002 tour of the "Beehive State"
Utah Revisited
Additional photographs from my 2002 vacation
Utah Revisited - part 2
Yes, more photographs from vacations in Utah