Two Trains Running

by Lucius Shepard

This collection of fact and fiction was inspired by the time science fiction writer Lucius Shepard spent with Missoula Mike, Madcat, and other members of a controversial brotherhood known as the Freight Train Riders of America. Shepard rode the rails throughout the western half of the United States with the disenfranchised, the homeless, the punks, the gangs, and the joy riders for the magazine article "The FTRA Story." That original article is presented here, along with two new hobo novellas, "Over Yonder" and "Jailbait."
In "Over Yonder," alcoholic Billy Long Gone finds himself on an unusual train. As Billy travels his health improves and his thinking clears, and he arrives in Yonder-an unlikely paradise where a few hundred hobos live in apparent peace and tranquility. But every paradise has its price, and in Yonder, peace and tranquility breed complacency and startling deaths.
"Jailbait" is a hardcore tale of deception, lust, revenge, and murder in the seedy underbelly of rail yards and train hopping. Madcat, who functions best in a whiskey-induced haze, must decide between solitude and companionship when he meets up with Grace, an underaged runaway. Grace, in turn, seeks the security of an older man and the life about which only young girls can dream.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Collections

125 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Brief biographies are, like history texts, too organized to be other than orderly misrepresentations of the truth. So when it's written that Lucius Shepard was born in August of 1947 to Lucy and William Shepard in Lynchburg, Virginia, and raised thereafter in Daytona Beach, Florida, it provides a statistical hit and gives you nothing of the difficult childhood from which he frequently attempted to escape, eventually succeeding at the age of fifteen, when he traveled to Ireland aboard a freighter and thereafter spent several years in Europe, North Africa, and Asia, working in a cigarette factory in Germany, in the black market of Cairo's Khan al Khalili bazaar, as a night club bouncer in Spain, and in numerous other countries at numerous other occupations. On returning to the United States, Shepard entered the University of North Carolina, where for one semester he served as the co-editor of the Carolina Quarterly. Either he did not feel challenged by the curriculum, or else he found other pursuits more challenging. Whichever the case, he dropped out several times and traveled to Spain, Southeast Asia (at a time when tourism there was generally discouraged), and South and Central America. He ended his academic career as a tenth-semester sophomore with a heightened political sensibility, a fairly extensive knowledge of Latin American culture and some pleasant memories.

Toward the beginning of his stay at the university, Shepard met Joy Wolf, a fellow student, and they were married, a union that eventually produced one son, Gullivar, now an architect in New York City. While traveling cross-country to California, they had their car break down in Detroit and were forced to take jobs in order to pay for repairs. As fortune would have it, Shepard joined a band, and passed the better part of the 1970s playing rock and roll in the Midwest. When an opportunity presented itself, usually in the form of a band break-up, he would revisit Central America, developing a particular affection for the people of Honduras. He intermittently took odd jobs, working as a janitor, a laborer, a sealer of driveways, and, in a nearly soul-destroying few months, a correspondent for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, a position that compelled him to call the infirm and the terminally ill to inform them they had misfiled certain forms and so were being denied their benefits.

In 1980 Shepard attended the Clarion Writers’ Workshop at Michigan State University and thereafter embarked upon a writing career. He sold his first story, "Black Coral," in 1981 to New Dimensions, an anthology edited by Marta Randall. During a prolonged trip to Central America, covering a period from 1981-1982, he worked as a freelance journalist focusing on the civil war in El Salvador. Since that time he has mainly devoted himself to the writing of fiction. His novels and stories have earned numerous awards in both the genre and the mainstream.

Reviews

[Berengaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

short review for busy readers:
A gonzo journalism article for Spin magazine about the tramps who still (illegally) ride the rails in the US, and the two fiction pieces that research inspired are featured in this fiction/non-fiction selection. Extremely well-written, inventive, hyper realistic and oddly romantic, the article and stories illuminate an overlooked form of American homelessness and the world view of those rarely talked about today.

in detail:
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, a breed of drifter entered the American story and quickly advanced to mythological status: the hobo.

He appeared in novels, movies and had a number of songs written about him and by him, eulogising his life hopping empty box cars on freight trains, sleeping under bushes, bumming cigs and finding stoggies and enjoying the freedom of the open country.

I grew up hearing songs like "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" (1928) which shows the hobo's version of paradise while giving insight into his daily life and problems.

You can hear it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqowm...

It didn't surprise me at all that this song (and the Big Rock Candy Mountain itself) were mentioned and played a role in this book, and that hobo slang terms like "railroad bulls" (= railroad police) and "jungle" (= an ad hoc camp) are still used today, even if modern hobos prefer the term "tramp".

Back in the '90s, Lucius Shepard went out on the rails himself in the wake of some mysterious rail yard murders making headlines to see what modern tramp life was really like. What he found had changed little in about 100 years, but perhaps the biggest differences in comparison are these:

🚂 the stereotypical tramp is male, but there are many female tramps today.

🚂 "tramping" isn't always permanent. There are those who spend years on the rails, and then years off.

🚂 virtually all tramps have mental health issues, substance use problems and histories of abuse and abandonment. They aren't economic refugees any more, as much as they are those who fell through the cracks in the system

🚂 many long-term tramps are spiritual in an animist fashion. They ascribe personhood to not only landscapes and geographical features, esp in the American west, but also to train engines and specific rail routes. (I found this spirituality absolutely fascinating and would have liked to have read more about it.)

From his research, Shepard wrote two fiction stories that follow the origin article.

"Over Yonder" is a fantasy/sci-fi story about a mysterious black train made of living tissue that transports unsuspecting tramps into a different reality that may, or may not, be the Big Rock Candy Mountain. While wonderfully done, what that different reality actually turns out to be, is not too unique to today's sci-fi/fantasy stories and will possibly seem a bit of a let down to genre readers. I also found it overly long.

"Jailbait" is a fabulous, realistic story about a lone and lonely tramp with neurological issues. Out of nowhere, an underage runaway attaches herself to him claiming she's just witnessed a murder. They decide to catch out immediately and tramp together to Arizona for the winter.

Here Shepard shows the dangers and sudden violence that can befall anyone on the rails, as well as how intense relationships are formed on the road, masterfully rendering reality into fiction. This one should be anthologised somewhere!

"Two Trains Running" is well worth the read for anyone interested in trains and railways, American mythology, splendid "sourced fiction" (fiction based on interviews with people involved in the event/lifestyle) and unique forms of homelessness and poverty. Thanks to my GR buddy Paul A for putting Shepard on my radar!

[hawk · Rating 3 out of 5]

(review to come)

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, Shepard sure could write well. This is a mix of three short pieces about the lives of hobos riding the rails:

FTRA Story - great nonfiction article about life on the rails. Shepard lived the life for a while in order to write about it. Sympathetic but not romanticized. Pretty much everyone seems to have serious substance abuse issues.

Over Yonder - a fantasy about riding a strange living train that takes you to a strange place that at first looks like a paradise - but isn't. This novella earned the 4 stars from me.

Jailbait - a well written short story that made me uncomfortable. It reminded me a bit of Lolita. We see a teenage girl purely from an older alcoholic hobo's point of view. He projects all kinds of meanings on her, until she seems almost mythological, a fury or some kind of demon. I think the audience is supposed to see past those to the teenage girl's reality, but that's not clear.

[Brown Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I recommend reading the fiction first. The star of the show is Over Yonder, a story I loved when it appeared in scifiction, but my second reading reveals some issues. It's still worth checking out. The shorter story, Jailbait, is okay, but the presence of the Spin article that opens the book reveals a bit too much of the fictioneer's alchemical techniques.

The article is fun and revealing. Shepard is not playing poker here. I do enjoy his light touch, giving the reader the gist without so many specifics that he might bring harm to his informants.

I can definitively assert the train tramp life holds no appeal for me.

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been several years since I read Vaachs. This is good read. I like the way he ties everything up in the end. His hero? reads like something out of Elmore Leonard and would like to see him featured again.

[Mike Bodak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. I Plan to reread it. This is a completely is a unique book.

[Gregor Xane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rather enjoyable, but too short.