Trains and Tramps

These "hobo signs" are from and excellent website called The American Hobo. It also contains the following glossary of hobo terms:
Ballast - The gravel used for rail beds.
Bay Horse - Brand name of rubbing liniment for horses. Similar to bay rum.
Bindle - A bedroll.
Blind - Front End of a baggage car.
Bridge and plank gang - A railroad maintenance crew.
Bridger - A hobo who rode both steam-powered and diesel powered trains.
Bull - A policeman.
Canned heat - Strained Sterno consumed for the alcohol content.
Catch the westbound - Die.
Cinder bull - A railroad policeman.
Consist - All the cars that make up a particular train.
Couplers - Fixtures at the ends of train cars used to connect one car to the other.
Courtesy call - A night's stay in the town jail without being arrested. An opportunity to get in out of the cold and to eat a meal.
Crummy - Caboose.
Dick - A detective.
Drag - A slow freight train.
Dumpster diving - Rummaging through dumpsters for food or other needed items.
Freddy - Flashing rear-end device on the train. It has taken the place of the caboose.
Gay cat - A person on the road who, when the going gets tough, can afford to purchase a ticket (Irwin 84).
Go in the hole - To pull onto a siding to allow another train of higher priority to pass by.
Gondola - A train car with low walls and no roof.
Gun boat - An empty can used for cooking. Usually a coffee can.
Harness bull - A policeman in uniform.
Helper - An extra engine added temporarily to a train to assist in pulling it up a steep grade.
High iron - The track in a railroad yard that serves as the main line or through line.
Hooverville - Shantytowns built of junk and cardboard by the poor. Named after Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States of America (1929-1933).
Hotshot - A fast train.
Jackrollers - Thieves who often targeted a hobo who had just received his pay.
Jocker - A man who travels the road with an underage boy.
Jungle - An encampment where hobos stayed for brief periods before moving on. "To jungle up" is to stay in a jungle.
Jungle buzzard - Someone in a hobo jungle who tries to avoid sharing in the work and expense.
Knee-shaker - A handout on a plate at the back door of a house. Eaten on the back steps while balancing the plate on one's knees.
Knuckle - A movable joint in the coupler.
Live train - A consist of railcars with engines hooked to it. A train that could move at any time.
Local - A train that makes many stops and does much work in a short distance.
Lump - A handout which is packaged to be taken along on the road.
Mission stiff - A bum that spends much time in missions.
Mixed freight - A train consisting of a variety of cars.
"P" farms - Farms where prisoners worked.
Pearl diver - A dishwasher.
Punk - A young boy travelling on the road with a younger man.
Rattler - A long train rattling along the tracks, resembling a rattlesnake.
Red cards - A membership card of the International Workers of the World (IWW).
Reefer - A refrigerated freight car.
Rods - The steel structural bars that were below the old boxcars. A very dangerous and difficult place for hobos to ride.
Rule of the match - An insulting gesture of handing a match to someone. It is the same as saying. "You are not welcome around this jungle fire. Go build your own someplace else".
Scoping the drag - Looking for a good ride on a freight train as it slows down.
Seam squirrels - Lice.
Sit-down - A meal given as a handout with the offer to eat it in the comfort at the kitchen table.
Specks - Fruit with spots beginning to form. Farmers and groceries were often willing to give it to hobos.
Stack train - A train made up of topless, low-sided cars which carry large containers sometimes stacked two high.
Streamliners - Railriders that travel with light gear and on fast freights.
Walking dandruff - Lice.
Wobblies - A short name for the International Workers of the World (IWW)
Yard dick - A railroad detective.

The essay, by Colin Beesley is excellent.