Word: rails
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Almost all the traffic is by rail, along a line that Czarist Russia helped build in the late 19th century from Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, to the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, more than 300 miles to the southeast. The principal border-crossing point for the region is Suifenhe, five hours by the daily milk train from Mudanjiang, near the Ussuri River, scene of some of the fiercest fighting in 1969. Here too there are plenty of reminders of potential trouble. Green military staff cars dart about the streets, their horns blowing at pedestrians and the occasional horse-drawn...
Approaching Yuma at midmorning, the freight slows to a crawl to accommodate track workers laying ties. Fearful the workers will throw rocks, a constant terror, the riders hide and jump off in a remote rail yard. Campground "jungles" located in trackside patches of scrub and a riverside park for relaxing and washing clothes are nearby. A notable addition to the hobo community this weekend is Tudor Williams, 44, former chef to Movie Director Steven Spielberg. A tramp's poem recommends making mulligan stew by putting "Whatever you've got/ In the pot/ Heat...
...running from the law. They constantly exchange weather advisories, news of police activity and bulletins on available work. Jungles often have chairs, kitchenware and neat stone-edged fireplaces. One even has the beginnings of a library, a copy of Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King resting on a rail spike driven into a tree...
...backup strategy requires sneaking near the rail yard to board in darkness. Railroad police are everywhere with spotlights. No sleep again. Just after midnight they find a grain car with a narrow porch. Twenty minutes later, the freight pauses to add an engine, and aliens from the Mexican border clamber aboard frantically. Finally, the clickety-clack commences for the last time. A hobbyist road-named the "Gentle Giant" defines this moment. "You face nature, and the train is your friend," he says. "All your senses are alive. You'll love your wife, your children and your home better." Three weary...
...down the tracks of Paris' Gare de Lyon and screamed in horror: another train was bearing down on him at high speed. Seconds later, the runaway train rammed 153951 at more than 50 m.p.h., turning it into a maze of shredded steel. The collision last week was the worst rail accident in Paris history and one of the worst ever in France. The toll: 56 dead and 13 seriously injured...