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Sensing that he was not "one of them" I told him how I'd ended up there, to which he replied, "Shit! We've got to get you out of here or you'll be arrested! They think you're here for an interview like the rest of us!

European Tales: Hitch-Hiking by Freight Train

Joseph Tame
2006-06-30 17:26:24

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in the local area.

Despite having sent six letters out, I only had one reply. However, that was enough. The manager of Abergavenny station had kindly provided me with all the information that I needed to carry out my plan.

It was a cold night in late February 1995 when I led a group of ten college kids through a tiny hole in the steel mesh fence that surrounded Hereford Railway Station. I vividly remember us all huddled out of site under a bridge, waiting, waiting, waiting for the train that never came. I can still feel the dissapointment and pangs of guilt as we returned to Darren's bedsit, my friends all mumbling about what a crazy plan it had been in any case.

Two hours later, I could stand it no more - the thought of all that preperation going to waste was too much to bear - and so it was that 3am saw me back under the bridge, this time only having to wait thirty minutes before the train arrived. I watched the driver step out of his cab for a cup of tea in the station office, before jumping up and racing across the tracks. I headed for an empty open-topped skip and somehow managed to climb into it, falling a metre or two to the bottom where I lay huddled waiting for the train to depart.

It was then that the strangest thing happened. The train had been at Hereford a lot longer than I'd expected when I started to hear a noise that sounded like someone putting a step-ladder up against the trucks, it seemed that one by one they were being checked.

Well, I thought my adventure would be over before it had started as the driver wouldn't fail to see me - and I swear that he did when he checked my skip - but he moved on without saying a word. Shortly afterwards the train pulled off, and so began my long journey north.

The overwelming feelings that I had were of excitement, fear and coldness! I slept for a few hours and awoke as the train finally stopped in what I thought was Liverpool, my ...