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Older News & Events ScrapBook . . . Page 19
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Leaf through OHNS ScrapBook... 
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Most photographs can be left-clicked on to view an enlargement.
The Road...
Holding Her Down
Confession
Holding Her Down
Pictures
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“Pinched”
The Pen
Hoboes That Pass in the Night
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Road-Kids and Gay-Cats
Two Thousand Stiffs
Bulls
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Most photographs can be left-clicked on to view an enlargement.
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529
Carving Chips.....
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Ribbon Rail Productions' Clip Art Collection
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Clip Art Collection
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“Hogger” (Train Engineer)
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Many of the images here have been made available through the courtesy of Ken Houghton of Houghton's Rail Images and are marked with a (KH). The other images are from the collection efforts of NMRA members Jack Pettee and Roger Hensley.
This collection will be updated periodically in an effort to keep the largest practical collection available.
All Clip Art is in GIF or JPG format.
 ~ My favorites! ~ V-Dubya
Please feel free to use any of the clip art here for personal use, on Web sites or modify them to suit your needs within the following limits; 1) If you wish to use any of Ken Houghton's clip art for a newsletter or other publication, please give credit to Ken Houghton Rail Images. 2) The Conrail registered service mark notice must remain with the Conrail logo. 3) Where there is a circle R (R) or (TM) Trade Mark symbol on or with the logo, please include it when using it. 4) No credit is necessary for any of the other images, however, a link back to www.rrhistorical.com or notice of this site would be appreciated.
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Most photographs can be left-clicked on to view an enlargement.
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528
10 March 2008
Round Trip In A Side-Door Pullman
−by John R. Niemi, Jr.
The following story is offered for its entertainment value only,
and in no way do we condone or encourage train hopping, since it is very dangerous.
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It was eleven o'clock on the night of August 15, 1932. I boarded my first side-door pullman (boxcar)
in the railroad yards of Superior, Wisconsin. I had three dollars in my pocket. I was going to look for work.
 Round Trip In A Side-Door Pullman
The Side-door Pullman excursion was started in Superior, Wis. Aug. 15, 1932 and completed in Duluth, Minn.
(across the bay from Superior) on Sept. 15, 1932. This story was written 15 years later (1947) in San Diego, Calif.
where the first person (the author) resided. John R. Niemi, Jr. passed away in 1989.
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527
10 March 2008
The boomers spoke a language of their own, and many of the terms these imaginative and romantic travelers invented still remain in railway parlance. The following is an attempt to establish a glossary of the terms used. It is by no means complete.
This glossary first appeared in the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh employee magazine, Railway Life in 1931. Note that seven decades later, many of the terms are still part of our everyday “slanguage.”
 Railroad Slanguage Glossary
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526
10 March 2008
John Francis O'Connor of Phoenix, 90, passed away February 8, 2008. John was perhaps better known as “The Sidedoor Pullman Kid” - a moniker earned by spending most of his life riding in boxcars of freight trains in search of work and adventure. John was possibly the last of the Great Depression-era hoboes alive, who strongly preferred the wanderlust of the open road to a settled and stable lifestyle. John was born in New Haven, CT on June 4th, 1917. He left home in 1930 as a teenager and started riding the rails to find work. Like other hoboes of the time, John did all sorts of temporary jobs - from picking fruit to washing dishes to working for the railroads themselves. “Sidedoor” crisscrossed the country working like this for the next 25 years - living in hobo camps called “jungles” located at the fringe of towns next to the tracks. In the mid 1950's, John married Florence Wyckoff and settled down in Syracuse, NY. There, he continued to work as a merchant marine and highway laborer. The couple never had children and later moved to Phoenix in 1977. When Florence died in 1985, “Sidedoor” resumed his hobo life, and at age 67 began to hop freight trains again. Only this time around, the rides were for pleasure and mostly limited to upper midwestern states. His independent character and life experiences got him elected King of the Hoboes in 1994 during their century-old annual convention in Britt, IA. John actively rode freights until he turned 82. Although no known blood relatives survive him, John left countless friends behind all over the country - including scores of modern day train riders who regard him as a Legend. A fiercely proud and honorable man, John harbored no regrets about the life he chose to live. Funeral services and burial for John are pending at the White Tanks Cemetery, 15926 W. Camelback Rd. in Litchfield Park.
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Published in The Arizona Republic on 2/19/2008
King of the Hobos laid to rest in West Valley
Lynn French ~ Mulitmedia Journalist ~ 12 News ~ Feb. 21, 2008 6:47pm
It is one of those obituaries that stops you in your tracks---an obituary for a hobo, one-time King of the Hobos to be exact.
John Francis O'Connor rode through life as “The Sidedoor Pullman Kid”, a moniker he earned while spending most of his life hopping freight trains in the pursuit of work and adventure. He started riding the rails at age 13. O'Connor passed away last week here in Phoenix at the age of 90. He was laid to rest today in a potter's grave at the White Tanks Cemetery (in Phoenix, Arizona ~ V-Dubya). This was not Sidedoor's final wish, but he may have been okay with it. Full Article
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Hobo king catches the westbound
The Arizona Republic ~ Valley & State online print edition ~ Feb. 23, 2008 6:35pm
It does not speak well of us when the passing of a man known as “the Sidedoor Pullman Kid” is noted on the obituary page of the local newspaper but nowhere else, as happened last week in The Arizona Republic.
John Francis O'Connor was 90 years old. In his final days he lived in a small Phoenix apartment, from which he sometimes ventured out on a bicycle to visit a local watering hole. But for much of his young life, and then again during his golden years, Sidedoor's wanderlust was bound only by the limits of North America's rail system and his ability to leap into a rolling boxcar. Full Article
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517
22 February 2008
