Once I finally get one more ride in and call it a night\TRAIN movie, so far, there is only a 5% chance that this will ever happen. But I can assure you one thing. I had this idea in my head to tag Savannah, GA, Jacksonville, FL, Macon, GA, and Atlanta, GA in that order and sneak on the freight trains to reach those places. And I figured, what would be a better time to go out there and actually help out homeless people and/or volunteering at rescue shelters (along the way) than the Christmas season! If I do this, though, it will clearly involve budgeting.
Being that I live in Georgia, I am sure the cold weather won't be as worst as Canada. However, I am highly impressed with the way Wizehop survives even the harshest winter chills in the Winterlust series he did a few years back. Dave, I think you might have toughed it out up there, too.
There is no telling how good that the holiday theme would look in the world of modern day freight train hopping, but it doesn't hurt to figure it out and see how viewers would react. Being that Wizehop's Winterlust series is as close to the holiday-themed world of freight train hopping as it would go (due to massive snowfall), I never in my life imagined anything like this.
So far, I do have a few friends and former co-workers on social media (scattered throughout GA) that could provide me a place to crash and even take me to the nearby yards I have to stick around - in order to catch another train.
One more thing I also imagined. In order to accompany the freight hopping I would ever do on a December day, I would go back and feature Christmas carols played backwards!
Structure-wise, I would take one whole movie and split it into 5 segments. Each segment starts with a catch-out from where I started, about 20 to 30 minutes of brief freight train riding footage, where I end up destination-wise, helping out homeless people downtown and/or volunteering at rescue missions, optionally crashing at a friend-of-mine's to get some sleep, and then being dropped off by the next rail yard to await another train.
[1] Brunswick to Savannah
[2] Savannah to Jacksonville
[3] Jacksonville to Macon
[4] Macon to Atlanta
[5] Fairburn back to the GA coastline (CSX does have an IM facility a handful of clicks south of Atlanta)
When I return to the GA coastline, which stretches from Savannah past Brunswick, I will then call it a movie since I might already be tired before hand and I already took care of quite a handful of homeless people. As with everything I plan out, note that there is a 5% chance I will ever do this and the stuff I lay out is unofficial.
Being that I live in Georgia, I am sure the cold weather won't be as worst as Canada. However, I am highly impressed with the way Wizehop survives even the harshest winter chills in the Winterlust series he did a few years back. Dave, I think you might have toughed it out up there, too.
There is no telling how good that the holiday theme would look in the world of modern day freight train hopping, but it doesn't hurt to figure it out and see how viewers would react. Being that Wizehop's Winterlust series is as close to the holiday-themed world of freight train hopping as it would go (due to massive snowfall), I never in my life imagined anything like this.
So far, I do have a few friends and former co-workers on social media (scattered throughout GA) that could provide me a place to crash and even take me to the nearby yards I have to stick around - in order to catch another train.
One more thing I also imagined. In order to accompany the freight hopping I would ever do on a December day, I would go back and feature Christmas carols played backwards!
Structure-wise, I would take one whole movie and split it into 5 segments. Each segment starts with a catch-out from where I started, about 20 to 30 minutes of brief freight train riding footage, where I end up destination-wise, helping out homeless people downtown and/or volunteering at rescue missions, optionally crashing at a friend-of-mine's to get some sleep, and then being dropped off by the next rail yard to await another train.
[1] Brunswick to Savannah
[2] Savannah to Jacksonville
[3] Jacksonville to Macon
[4] Macon to Atlanta
[5] Fairburn back to the GA coastline (CSX does have an IM facility a handful of clicks south of Atlanta)
When I return to the GA coastline, which stretches from Savannah past Brunswick, I will then call it a movie since I might already be tired before hand and I already took care of quite a handful of homeless people. As with everything I plan out, note that there is a 5% chance I will ever do this and the stuff I lay out is unofficial.
The thought of freight hopping in the North American winter scares me. I was really lucky in Canada a few months ago as towards the end of my trip I was a day or two ahead of a snowstorm but had relatively good weather myself. The coldest night was from Calgary to the Rockies. When I woke up there was frost everywhere, but it wasn't snowing and that day was glorious sunshine (as you can see in Part 4).
But when I was coming back to Montreal on the passenger train I spent 2 days going through snow and ice. As much as I missed being on a freight (mainly because I could lie down on a freight rather than have to sit in a chair for 4 damn days) I was glad to be inside a heated train rather than facing the bitter cold. I don't know how Wizehop does it in Winterlust. He's made of some tough stuff, that's for sure.
If you're going to hop freights in winter all I can say is pack a LOT of layers and some quality insulation for sitting/lying on. And if you find yourself on the wrong sort of car then wind chill is a real danger, never mind the sub-zero temperatures.
Another thing I thought about when looking out the window whilst rolling through the snowy mountains was that freight hopping in winter would be harder due to leaving footprints in the snow wherever you go. That would make it much harder to sneak around and hide, I'm sure.
But when I was coming back to Montreal on the passenger train I spent 2 days going through snow and ice. As much as I missed being on a freight (mainly because I could lie down on a freight rather than have to sit in a chair for 4 damn days) I was glad to be inside a heated train rather than facing the bitter cold. I don't know how Wizehop does it in Winterlust. He's made of some tough stuff, that's for sure.
If you're going to hop freights in winter all I can say is pack a LOT of layers and some quality insulation for sitting/lying on. And if you find yourself on the wrong sort of car then wind chill is a real danger, never mind the sub-zero temperatures.
Another thing I thought about when looking out the window whilst rolling through the snowy mountains was that freight hopping in winter would be harder due to leaving footprints in the snow wherever you go. That would make it much harder to sneak around and hide, I'm sure.
