Blame my 4-year hiatus of jumping trains on global warming but I’m back
The timeline of this 70-mile ride is as follows: I reach the yard at 11 a.m. The train arrives in
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Abdul Rahimov has a Ph.D. in Russian history from Stanford. He studied earlier at Harvard and grew up in Illinois in a railroad-dominated town.Rahimov prefers to use a pen name to avoid attracting unnecessary attention from railroads. He lives on the East Coast.
Author: Abdul Rahimov
Taking the plunge in Porto
PORTUGAL — Some of us don’t travel the world looking for bridges to jump from; it only works out that
Read moreMy jump into the freezing water in Bosnia
Some places enable you to mix history and reckless recreation. Mostar, Bosnia, is one of them. I was in Bosnia
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Detroit Revisited: Off the beaten path
Fifteen years later, I was back in Detroit. On my first, long-ago trip, two weeks before 9/11, I left my
Read moreBack on the rails – jumping trains in Baltimore
As December of another year squandered in the East loomed, the time came to pursue “rare miles” in a hyper-congested
Read moreJumping trains and riding the rails carries risks and scenic rewards
In another life I had time to ride freight trains around the West, through thousands of miles of scenery that
Read moreHobo Pride: Freight-train hopping to Lynchburg
Ernest Hemingway hopping a freight train between boxcars to get to Walloon Lake in 1916. (Wikipedia Commons) After 17 months
Read moreSightseeing in Camden – an unauthorized adventure
Not many tourists go sightseeing in Camden these days. I did on New Year’s Day, in pursuit of a public
Read moreWest Coast freight-jumping beats the East Coast (Cheyenne to Ogden)
It had been six years since my last long Western ride. Back in 2006, I’d ridden Elko-Salt Lake City and
Read moreCatching trains in Maryland and nearly blinded for life
This was one of the fastest, smoothest catch-outs ever. I dropped off my rental car at the Citgo station in
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