Brian's right on riding the blinds vs. riding the rods. The blind is the front end of the formost car behind the engine. The fireman can't see you over the back of the tender and the brakeman never comes up there because the handbrakes are on the back end of the car.

On the blind was Hobo John;
He's a good old hobo, but he's dead and gone.

--Any railroad song you want.

And yes, the rods are underneath the cars, where you're one short slip from death.

Jay Gould's daughter, just before she died,
Said, "Daddy, fix the blind so the bums can't ride.
If ride they must, let'em ride the rods,
And put their trust in the hands of God.

--Jay Gould's Daughter, also adapted for Casey Jones and "Charley Snyder Was a Brave Engineer."

There have been two fairly recent threads on C.C. Rider, formerly "Easy Rider." Look at Charley Noble's posts and you'll get the straight skinny on that one.

CC