History and Background
The FTRA is believed to have been founded in the early 1980s in Montana with the original name "Fuck The Reagan Administration", but through the years had become, Freight Train Riders of America.
Members of the FTRA claim to be a loosely knit club of homeless people organized for mutual support. Believed to number as many as 1,000 FTRA started with 12 original members then grew., FTRA members are most frequently encountered along the BNSF Railway's Hi-Line, which stretches from Chicago to Seattle, often sleeping in switching yards, bridge underpasses and boxcars along the route. While the "elite" of the FTRA ride the hi-line and are recognized by the color black worn in a bandanna usually with a conch for a slide, the mid-line wears a blue bandanna, and those who ride the Union Pacific line from Southern California to Fort Worth wear either a red or desert camouflage-colored one.
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