Railroad Man: The Legend of Lil' Jay

by Tina Wald

Lil Jay Litzner was a freight-train hopping musician, Woody Guthrie style. Jay traveled with his wife Rosie, singing his songs, helping clean up post-Katrina New Orleans, fighting for freedom from labor and political oppression, fighting a drug addiction, and making friends across the country. In 2006, while on his way to California for the winter, Jay fell to his death from a freight train. His friends made their way to his home town of Detroit for his memorial service, and they brought stories of their adventures with Jay, stories of what his friendship meant, and stories of what his loss meant. These stories are compiled in his biography, Railroad Man, The Legend of Lil Jay.

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2011

Reviews

[Kara Demetropoulos · Rating 5 out of 5]

My current roommate is one of the main characters in this book, her mom was the author. Very haunting tale of a boy taken much too early in life, as well as a beautiful testament to what it means to "live free."

[Melissa Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My opinion as a former traveler and someone who knows some of the people in this book is clearly biased. I've lost more friends than I should have at 28, the most recent of whom was killed while riding coal. The train entered the yard and dumped the coal car from the bottom and Chris and his girl were buried alive. I support this lifestyle and I love this book, but at the same time it's not for everyone. Particularly, impressionable imbeciles who will run out and purchase Train hopping for Dummies and get themselves killed. It's also not for the kind of people who flooded news stories on Chris's death and condemned his mother for buying him boots to travel with. However if you have an open heart and an appreciation for "living free", this is a story you won't soon forget.

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew Lil Jay

I remember Lil Jay at 12 years old. He was a S.H.A.R.P. at the time and we were at a Ramones concert in 1993 at the Michigan State Fair. I would have been 14 at the time. My older sister went to school with Elton. The pit at the show was full of punks, skins, sharps and blacks. It was quite a violent pit. This was a great read and took me back to hackeysack on the corner of 4th and Main and sleeping in an alley in Royal Oak, being "homeless by choice"

[Jody K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in Bluestockings bookshop in New York in the summer of 2012. It is a true account of a group of freight train-hopping kids and gives a really good glimpse into a subculture I find really intriguing. It is also terribly sad.

[Melissa Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My opinion as a former traveler and someone who knows some of the people in this book is clearly biased. I've lost more friends than I should have at 28, the most recent of whom was killed while riding coal. The train entered the yard and dumped the coal car from the bottom and Chris and his girl were buried alive. I support this lifestyle and I love this book, but at the same time it's not for everyone. Particularly, impressionable imbeciles who will run out and purchase Train hopping for Dummies and get themselves killed. It's also not for the kind of people who flooded news stories on Chris's death and condemned his mother for buying him boots to travel with. However if you have an open heart and an appreciation for "living free", this is a story you won't soon forget.

[Jennifer]

You may not even think about the large number of young people who are technically homeless, traveling from place to place within a different dimension of what we consider the conventional world. This true story gives you a look inside their lifestyle and its appeal, how the youth spend their time, and how they survive. Thank you to the author Tina Wald for including Project Lighthouse in Key West, one of several outreach programs for street youth referenced in the book. It's a love story, between two people and for life on the road.