Art Thieme
"Riding the Rods" is pretty well documented
for those not familiar
Derroll Adams reckoned that Woody Guthrie told him that hobos would hook their legs and hands over the axles of boxcars and travel un-noticed by the company henchmen
the point is this was a common practice during the depression
but how much earlier was it done?
when would the phrase be coined?
the "Riding the Rods" version has a twentieth century ring to it.

BTW Derroll Adams said the railroad henchmen had poles with iron spikes at right-angles which they poked under the boxcar from the roof, while in motion!
probably at slow speed but brutal times!

I like this background info, it helps my wish to sing a song, I sing the Ride the Rods version but the tune is very Irish. Is this surprising, it is probably the version with the Irish connection.