I was curious if any of the gentlemen of the road still exist in the 21st, centaury? one doesn't hear about them. in the 1950's when I was a young kid we would see them going through my town in empty GONDOLA CARS, looking over the top of the car, and they would wave there caps to us kids and we would wave back at them. so it was such a long time ago, and no more freight's pass through my town just the BULLET passenger trains. just curious about them. those were the days for us kid's. toot.

They're still out there. Maybe not as in the classical sense but you get the illegal riders that occasionally show up in the news. Usually because they met their demise in some gruesome fashion.

Eric, thanks man for the come back to my question. when I was a kid after WW2, I guess that was the twilight of steam. we had a steep grade in my town and that is when the hoboes would mount & dismount freight in my town. there was even a hobo jungle down the rr embankment out side of town. it was abandoned in the early 60's, but there was still pots & pans, a shelter, and a fire pit, an old table & chaires still there, no longer in use at that date. the thought of falling under the wheels of a moving freight gives one the shivers. a son gone, never to return home. and you say hoboes still ride the rails today. not for the faint of heart!