Unforgettable story of 250,000 teenagers who rode the rails in America during the Great Depression in search of a better life
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โ๐๐จ๐ฎโ๐ซ๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ก ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐งโ๐ญ ๐ ๐จ ๐ก๐จ๐ฆ๐ ๐๐ซ๐ฒ๐ข๐ง๐ .โ
โThe damp smell of steam mixed with the acrid odor of hot oil drifted through the morning air. The train gained speed. My buddy Poke and I moved at precisely the same moment. Poke grabbed the handrail of the tender and leapt on.
I followed without missing a beat,โ said Jim Mitchell, recalling how he caught his freight when he ran away from home in 1933.
โOh, hell, I donโt think I was twenty miles down the road when I knew Iโd made a mistake. But youโre young and foolish and you donโt go home crying.โ
The road kidsโ first weeks away from home could be euphoric. โI experienced a feeling of freedom, such as Iโd never felt before,โ wrote Earnest L. Best.
Boys whoโd never left the town of their birth logged thousands of miles on the railroads and highways of America. They crossed the Continental Divide and thrilled at their first sight of the Rockies; they roared through the Sacramento Valley and down to the coast, many whoโd never seen the sea coming to gaze in wonder at the Pacific.
George Phillips rode the rails from the age of eleven until he reached seventeen, first catching local freights out of his home town of Princeton, Missouri, and later traveling by boxcar throughout the West.
โThere is no feeling in the world like sitting in a side-door Pullman and watching the world go by, listening to the clickety-clack of the wheels, hearing that old steam whistle blowing for crossings and towns,โ Phillips reminisces. Riding at night, in the pitch dark, heโd see the lights of farmhouses. โIโd imagine those lucky people sitting down to supper. I might have nothing but some dry doughnuts. It was no big deal because I was going somewhere. Wanderlust really had me.โ
Excerpt from my book ๐
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐
๐๐๐๐ : ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ท๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐บ๐๐๐๐ก ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ by Errol Lincoln Uys erroluys.com/frontpage.html
I am the author of Brazil and Golden City Boy: Born in South Africa *(Coming 2027)
#GreatDepression #1930s #AmericanHistory #RidingTheRails #LibraryOfCongress #Trains #HistoryInColor #VintageRailroad #Railroads #Trains
ALT A boy climbs onto a boxcar, Dubuque, Iowa, by John Vachon -- Library of Congress (colorized) During the Great Depression, our nation was, in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, โdying by inches.โ Economic calamity plunged the country into a decade of despair, leaving millions with little or no means to support themselves and their families. From these times emerged 250,000 young people who came to be known as โboxcar boys and girls,โ teenagers who shed their youth for a life on the rails, hopping trains in search of work and something -- anything โ better than what theyโd left behind. My book Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression is their remarkable story, a riveting document of hope and hardship during one of the nationโs bleakest eras. For all that has been written about the Depression, the travails of those under the age of eighteen have been sorely underrepresented.
Riding the Rails retweeted
Heโs got the kit. Heโs got the bow tie. Norway isn't ready for this level of composure.
Bring it on, says Larry the Cat!
#ENGNOR
#FIFAWorldCup
#WorldCup2026
#LarryTheCat
#ThreeLions
#FootballMemes
Riding the Rails retweeted
Three Larrys on my shirt... ๐ถ
England's permanent No. 10 is geared up.Heโs got the kit. Heโs got the bow tie. Norway isn't ready for this level of composure. Bring it on, says Larry the Cat! #ENGNOR #FIFAWorldCup #WorldCup2026 #LarryTheCat #ThreeLions๐ท #FootballMemes
"The lonesome wail at every whistle stop..."
Critics from the Chicago Tribune to the Boston Globe have called it "gripping," "riveting," and "remarkable."
Riding the Rails dispels the myths of the hobo existence and reveals the true story of a daring generation that survived the hardest times in our nation's history.
๐ Start the journey: Amazon -- ow.ly/WKVH3086f7R
#GreatDepression #HistoryMatters #Boxcar #TrueStory #Americana
ALT Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression
"There is a place inside my chest that still hurts."
That is how one rider recalled the search for the things they had lost during the 1930s. I spent years holding these handwritten letters in my hands, feeling a direct connection to lonely teenagers standing beside the railroad tracks 60 years ago.
Riding the Rails is more than just historyโit's a testament to the pluck, courage, and enduring faith of ordinary Americans. These teens learned lessons in self-reliance and compassion that stayed with them for 40 years.
๐ Discover this unforgettable narrative: Amazon --ow.ly/WKVH3086f7R
#OralHistory #Americana #HoboLife #Books #1930s #HistoryMatters
They grew up fast in speeding boxcars and hobo jungles.
During the height of the Great Depression, a quarter of a million teenagersโthe "boxcar boys and girls"โleft their homes to hop freight trains. They weren't just looking for adventure; they were looking for a way to survive a country that was "dying by inches."
Drawing on 3,000 personal letters and 40 hours of filmed interviews, Riding the Rails brings this neglected saga to life. These are honest-to-God stories of "gaycats" and "dingbats" who saw a landscape of ruin and still held onto hope.
๐ Witness Americaโs bleakest era through the eyes of the young men and women who lived it: ow.ly/WKVH3086f7R
#GreatDepression #AmericanHistory #RidingTheRails #TrueStories #1930s #OralHistory #Resilience
They grew up fast in speeding boxcars and hobo jungles."
At the height of the Great Depression, 250,000 teenagers left home to hop freight trains, searching for a better life farther down the line. They were "gaycats" and "dingbats" surviving on breadlines and dodging railroad guards in a country "dying by inches."
Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression by Errol Lincoln Uys
"A riveting document of hope and hardship... a remarkable story." โ The Boston Globe
Witness the 1930s entirely through the eyes of the young men and women who lived it, drawn from 3,000 oral histories and rare archival photos.
Buy now on Amazon ow.ly/WKVH3086f7R
#GreatDepression #AmericanHistory #RidingTheRails #OralHistory #DustBowl #ArchivePhotography #HoboLife #Boxcar #Trains #Americana #TheRoad #LostGeneration #NonFiction #MustRead
#HistFic #SocialHistory #TrueStories #EduTwitter #BookDeal #AmazonBooks #KindleDeals #HistoryMatters
ALT Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression by Errol Lincoln Uys
ALT Teenagers hopping a freight train at the height of the Great Depression. -- "The end of the rainbow was always somewhere else and it kept us moving."
ALT What was she thinking? -- A child at the height of the Great Depression inn America from Riding the Rails:Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression by Errol Lincoln Uys
ALT A boy hops a freight train during the height of the Great Depression. --"We thought it was the magic carpet...the click of the rails... romance." From Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression by Errol Lincoln Uys
A daring generation of America's children
They grew up fast in speeding boxcars and hobo jungles. Witness the Great Depression entirely through the eyes of the young men and women who lived it.
During the Great Depression, more than a quarter of a million teenagers left their homes and hopped freight trains looking for work or adventure. This is their story.
In Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression I draw on 3,000 letters from boxcar boys and girls sent to the documentary makers. I had access to 40 hours of filmed interviews with 20 men and women chosen as potential candidates for the film.
Many letters are handwritten, as from old friends sharing honest-to-God stories. Time and again, I held a letter in my hand and felt a connection to a lonely boy or girl standing beside the railroad tracks 60 years ago. It left me with a deep sense of the inner strength and faith of ordinary Americans and their belief in this land.
We learn of their struggle to survive on the streets of America and know their bitter disappointments, their sense of loss of childhood, their frustrations at the lack of opportunity. โWhen I think of all this traveling across the land, searching for the things we had lost, there is a place inside my chest that still hurts,โ recalls one rider.
When they left the rails and got a hold on their lives, they never let go. Many tell of keeping the jobs they found for 30 or 40 years. And the girls they met, too: many write joyously of their enduring devotion to the sweethearts they married when they settled down. Their stories told in their own words resonate with the pluck and courage they showed in going to seek a better life.
Illustrated with rare archival photos and drawing primarily on letters and oral histories of three thousand men and women who hopped freight trains, Riding the Rails brings to life a neglected saga of America in the 1930s. Self-reliance, compassion, frugality, and a love of freedom and country are at the heart of the lessons these teens learned.
This unforgettable narrative of a daring generation of America's children who rode the rails in search of a better life is a powerful reminder of what might turn up around the next curve. They are an inspiration to all who share a nostalgia for the road and the freedoms sought there.
erroluys.com/frontpage.html
#GreatDepression #1930s #AmericanHistory #OralHistory #DustBowl #ArchivePhotography #HoboLife #Boxcar #Trains #Americana #TheRoad #LostGeneration #NonFiction #MustRead
#HistFic #SocialHistory #TrueStories #EduTwitter #BookDeal #AmazonBooks #KindleDeals #HistoryMatters
ALT Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move During the Great Depression by Errol Lincoln Uys
ALT Hobo Signs from the Great Depression
ALT Teenagers hopping a freight train during the Great Depression
ALT What is on the mind of this young girl in this photo from the Great Depression?
Riding the Rails retweeted
Brazil -- In Search of Green Gold
"A masterpiece! ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐๐ has the look and feel of an enchanted virgin forest, a totally new and original world for the reader-explorer to discover. Who can resist such an invitation?"
A review of my book, ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐๐, (published in France as ๐ฟ๐ ๐น๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ก๐) by Olivier Mauraisin, ๐ฟโ๐ธ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ ๐ :
"With its eight and a half million square kilometers and five centuries of history, Brazil was certainly worthy of a saga commensurate with its scale. Errol Lincoln Uys tackled this task with admirable tenacity. This American of South African origin is making his literary debut in the heavyweight category, and he comes by the title honestly. A former journalist, he served for two years as the assistant to James Michener, the emperor of the epic novel. Uys is now flying solo, single-handedly exploring the depths of Brazilian history. It is no small feat.
Faithful to the tried-and-tested methods of his spiritual father, Errol Lincoln Uys spent five years scouring American and Portuguese libraries and crisscrossing the Brazilian interior. There is nothing like a 20,000-kilometer trek to fire the imagination. While Brazil meticulously retraces the great moments of Brazilian history as taught in schools, the heroes summoned by Uys possess all the charm of grand, old-fashioned fiction.
Beyond the Postcard
Two families share the spotlight for generations: the Cavalcantis and the da Silvas. A shared ambition drives them to carve out a place for themselves in this gigantic country where everything is yet to be invented. The Brazil seen by Uys thankfully has nothing to do with the postcards from travel agencies. To hell with the endless carnival, the beaches of Copacabana, and other tourist traps! Far from the festivities and the sun, this Brazilian epic is steeped in sweat and bloodโcolonization being exactly what it is.
When the Portuguese landed at the dawn of the 16th century, following in the footsteps of Pedro รlvares Cabral, the unknown was heavy with both promise and threat. The first pioneers, led by Nicolau Cavalcanti, risked their lives to forge a path through this untouched land. If nature was not easily tamed, the indigenous peoples were not exactly known for their goodwill either. Too bad for them; it was primarily on their backs that Brazil would be built. Over the centuries, the Tupiniquins, Tupinambas, Caetรฉs, and so many other tribes of the "Green Fortress" would be written off as both winners and losers. The march of history shows no mercy.
The Compressor of History
On this land, more fertile than any other, discord and hatred flourish easily: between the Portuguese and the mazombos (whites born in Brazil); between colonists and Jesuitsโthose "black robes" who came to convert the pagans. "They are no longer content with harvesting souls," Uys writes, "and seek to establish a Jesuit paradise on earth." By wielding the sword as often as the aspergillum, they would eventually be banished from this "second Eden." Added to this were the Dutch ambitions and the age-old rivalry with Spain.
To conquer this gigantic, terrible countryโthe object of every nation's desireโrequired a massive dose of courage and tenacity. For the lucky few, the results were commensurate with the effort. Sugar cane and coffee plantations, immense cattle ranches, gold and diamond minesโfortune smiled on the bold. They almost forgot the population of some four million enslaved Africans imported to the landโten times more than were brought to the English colonies in North America.
Uys unfolds this history with a wealth of detail and great mastery. Brazilis a "crypto-encyclopedic" work that resembles the virgin forest itself: it demands the temperament of an explorer from its reader. And if El Dorado is not found at the end of the journey, the change of scenery is total. Who could resist such an invitation?
Review of Brazil (La Forteresse Verte) by Olivier Mauraisin, LโExpress (August 21, 1987)
erroluys.com/brazilpage1.htmโฆ
#Brazil #HistoryMatters #history #brazil #southamerica #epic #FamilyDrama #histfic #BookTok #historicalfiction #bookrecommendations #greatreads #EpicSaga #LatinAmericanHistory #amazonfinds #amazondeals #kindle
ALT Brazil by Errol Lincoln Uys
Riding the Rails retweeted
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ง ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐
"The first outsider to see Brazil with total honesty and sympathy and full empathy with the decisive moments in our history and their spiritual meaning."
A review of my historical novel, Brazil by Professor WIlson Martins, who was one of Brazil's most formidable critics, known for his "encyclopedic" memory and rigorous standards. Translated from the Portuguese.
"Just as the definitive novel of Canudos was written not by a Brazilian but by a Peruvian (referring to Mario Vargas Llosa), it has fallen to a South African to pen the great epic of our nation. This extraordinary story begins with indigenous tribes in the tropical rainforest and unfolds through hundreds of generationsโsymbolized by the recurring "Cavalcantis" and "Silvas"โwho built Brazil. It culminates in the metaphorical crowning of Brasรญlia: a transfiguration of the El Dorado myth we chased for five centuries, now transformed into an urban reality that is at once psychological, social, and political.
From Josรฉ de Alencar to Joรฃo Ubaldo Ribeiroโincluding Bernardo Guimarรฃes, Jorge Amado, Haroldo Maranhรฃo, and Herberto Salesโthis has always been our most ambitious literary project. Yet, until now, it was only realized in fragments. Whatever the reasons for our previous failures to capture the "Brazilian essence" in its total organic form, the answer to why a foreigner succeeded where we struggled is found in a simple truth:
Errol Lincoln Uys possessed the necessary talent and the unique advantage of the outsider. He was able to view us "from the outside" while maintaining a deep, empathetic connection to the material. He "understood" Brazil as an imaginary creationโcoherent despite its apparent inconsistencies, organic in its historical growth, and unified through its very contradictions. He captured that "will to be a nation" which philosopher Julien Benda once described as the hidden engine of history.
๐
๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ฅ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐๐๐จ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ขฬ๐ฅ๐ข๐
The Imperial era, the Paraguayan War, the Abolition of slavery, and the birth of the Republicโall these events converge like the segments of a rose window toward the myth of a reborn El Dorado: Brasรญlia. The city stands as a symbol of territorial integration, the final destination of those early expeditions that pushed south and west under the "pretext" of hunting Indians while actually searching for a New World "Golden Fleece."
The publishers claim this book is destined to sit alongside the sweeping bestsellers of James Clavell and James Michener. On that point, there is no doubt. It is easy to envision the film or television series this book will almost certainly inspire.
If one were to offer a strictly literary critique, it would be that the author occasionally relies on the mechanical tropes of popular fictionโmelodramatic "last-minute" happy endings or slightly simplified character archetypes.
๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ฉ๐ข๐๐๐ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐
๐จ๐ซ๐๐
However, these minor flaws dissolve in the heat of Uysโs vigorous narrative art. He is an author perfectly at home within the massive historical mural he has created. His descriptions of the Paraguayan Warโspecifically the Battle of Tuiutiโfind no rival in our own literature. These scenes evoke the grandeur of War and Peace rather than a standard commercial bestseller.
Throughout the book, from 1491 onward, Uys demonstrates a profound empathy for the turning points of our history. Whether writing of the indigenous peoples, the Portuguese, the mamelucos, or the pioneers from Pernambuco and Sรฃo Paulo, he identifies the "Brazilian" as a figure that is not just historical, but psychological and sentimental. As one character notes in the 18th century, the past served as the "affective inspiration" for the bandeirantes as they ventured into the wilderness, seeking both gold and the future of a nation.
JORNAL DO BRASIL Book Review by Wilson Martins, ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐๐ by Errol Lincoln Uys (July 1987)
erroluys.com/brazilpage1.htmโฆ
#Brazil #HistoryMatters #history #brazil #southamerica #epic #FamilyDrama #histfic #BookTok #historicalfiction #bookrecommendations #greatreads #EpicSaga #LatinAmericanHistory #amazonfinds #amazondeals
#Amazon #histfic #Brasilia #LatinAmericaHistory #kindle
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ALT Brazil, a Novel by Errol Lincoln Uys
During the Great Depression our nation was, in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, โdying by inches.โ From these times emerged 250,000 young people known as โboxcar boys and girls,โ teenagers who shed their youth for a life on the rails. -- BOSTON GLOBE
โRiding the Railsโ is a remarkable story, a riveting document of hope and hardship during one of the nationโs bleakest eras. For all that has been written about. the Depression, the travails of those under the age of 18 have been sorely underrepresented." -- KANSAS CITY STAR
"Go fend for yourself," Lee's father said. "I can't afford to have you around any longer." Like hundreds of thousands of youth across the country during the Great Depression, the 16-year-old left home, hopped a freight train, and started riding the rails. With more than 500 interviews, Uys so thoroughly re-creates the wretched conditions the boxcar boys and girls endured that the reader can all but hear the cadence of the trains on the tracks and the lonesome wail at every whistle-stop." -- DENVER POST
"One of the most poignant memories of the wandering youth of the Great Depression. They were among 4 million people to taste the bitterness of hobo life. A remarkable story, as gripping as it is well-researched." -- CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Errol Lincoln Uys (pronounced "Ace") has collected thousands of letters written by boxcar boys and girls about their experiences, and peppers his chapters on the various aspects of hobo life with lengthy quotations, allowing the riders to speak for themselves. ย Whether you're a "gaycat" (novice rider) or a "dingbat" (seasoned hobo), Riding the Rails is entertaining and inspiring, recapturing a time when the country was "dying by inches." -- ย Sunny Delaney, AMAZON History Editor
ow.ly/WKVH3086f7R
#USHistory #railroad #train #teenagers #kindle #books #booklovers #America #boxcar #GreatDepression #kids
