Here’s the story: (Sean is from Asheville)
From road tripping to hitchhiking to rolling on the river, there’s certainly no shortage of iconic American modes of travel to celebrate. There’s one old stand-by that doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, though: the (almost) lost art of hopping freight trains. Shawn Lukitsch, train hopper, filmmaker and founder of the Hobo Film Festival, aims to change that.
Lukitsch has spent the past several weeks on the road, bringing a collection of 30 documentary films about rail-riding life to cities from Miami to Halifax. Part of his motivation in creating the festival is to preserve the memory of a fading subculture—its heroes, urban legends, and simply its sights and sounds. “Freight train riding is dying,” he told the New York Times in a recent interview.
But it’s not dead yet. Lukitsch himself has been hopping trains for 14 years, and estimates that he has ridden more than 120,000 miles around the lower 48 states, Canada and Mexico. I caught up with him to find out what it’s like to travel hobo-style.
You’ve spoken a lot about train hopping’s importance within American culture and history. How does it stack up as a form of travel? How does seeing the world pass by from a freight car change your experience of it?
Pure unadulterated, un-homogenized America. You are getting to see things (countryside, inner cities, the backyards of the surrounding communities) that no other will ever have a chance to see. Your experience of travel through the States or Canada or where have you is limited by having to always stay on the road, continue on the beaten path. Trains take you through amazing countryside that only the people that laid that track and ride that track will ever see.
Also, of course, there is the obvious difference in that there is no seat belt or traffic light or speed trap to deter you from the feeling of freedom that riding trains provides.