Hayden Steadman is a photographer and railroad enthusiast from Huntsville, Alabama.

I set out to do a big loop around the country from Decatur, Alabama. I knew I was gonna have to catch a specific intermodal train. It goes from Jacksonville, Florida to Chicago, Illinois. One of the midpoints is Decatur. That morning, I missed the train. The train had pulled up. The stacks were there, but I wasn’t. I was in a bad spot to grab one, so it left without me. 

Thankfully, one of my buddies was working for CSX. He’s a conductor. He said he was heading south towards Birmingham and that the engineer on his train was super cool. He suggested I ride in the second unit of his train. They pulled into Decatur and slowed the train enough to where I could grab onto the steps of the locomotive. He left a vest in the nose of the unit for me to throw on in case the interior cameras saw somebody weird. That was really cool, having the engineer seat and having the window open. I had unlimited access to water and got to charge my stuff up. I got to think about what I’m gonna do as far as the trip goes, because I’m going south, but I need to go north.

He slowed the train down enough to where I could get off. The northbound intermodal to Chicago pulled into Birmingham at three in the morning. I got on. I rode the train from Birmingham to Nashville. I’ve done the route so many times. I had to take care of my dental hygiene, so I’m sitting there brushing my teeth on the train in the middle of the night. Once I got past Nashville, I started to see a lot of things that I’ve never gotten to see. Indiana was awesome because we were just flying. The tracks out there are really flat. There’s not much but fields and farmland. 

I linked up with my buddy Jacob in Illinois. He offered me a place to stay to reset myself. We went to downtown Chicago, did some Urbex stuff, got on some rooftops. It’s a totally different world there, seeing all of the hustle and bustle of the city. Chicago is the first big city I got to explore. I was there for two days. 

We headed out to the Cicero Yard in Chicago. Jacob decided to bring along two of his friends, this guy and his girlfriend. We caught a BNSF train going west. We ended up getting different cars because we all got on at a different time. Nobody can get on at the same time while it's rolling. It was super late. I fell asleep. I remember waking up, and we were in Wisconsin, riding along the mighty Mississippi. It’s insane that you can cover so much distance in such little time on these trains. I think the train actually goes all the way towards Washington, but when we got to Minneapolis, we stepped off. 

After Minneapolis, everybody decided to split. It was just me and Jacob, stuck in Minneapolis for three days, because that Hi-Line train would not stop. That's a bucket list line running on through Montana, though I'm talking about the entire transcon, from Chicago to Seattle. Jacob had planned on riding it with me until the actual train showed up, and then he bailed. He was like, “Man, I don’t know about the Hi-Line.” He heard about the bull in Havre, so he psyched himself out of doing it. I’m like, “Dude, you just waited three days for this train. Now it’s here and you wanna bail?” 

We were studying the way the trains moved through the bridge. They were just flying. I said, “Man, I’m going in the yard and I’m getting the ride. I’m not gonna let this train go, because I’m so sick of being stuck.” When you’re sitting under a tree or under a bridge, it’s nice for a few hours, but after three days, it turns into a jail cell. You don’t want to leave because you don’t wanna miss the train, so you’re just sitting there and all you can do is sleep or eat. I hopped on a piggyback in the middle of the yard — floodlights everywhere, amateur hour, for sure, but I was just so ready to leave. It was just me. I had my bottle of wine with me. It was a celebration, drinking wine leaving Minneapolis under a freaking trailer on a train.

I had brought a little blanket because I knew I was gonna be going through the mountains. I set my pad out right on the center of the spine car. It was crazy sleeping in that position, because if I rolled over at any point, I would just fall off the train, but I actually slept really good. When I woke up, it was 6:30 in the morning. I don’t even know where I’m at anymore. My blanket is flying through the air, and the air is getting cooler because we’re getting further north. 

We get to a point called Fargo, North Dakota. The crew changes there. I decided to get off. What a terrible decision. I got off the train and I waited. I’m on the other side of the yard, and you have to cross these tracks to get into the town. There’s railroad police, bulls, everywhere. I walked down this little neighborhood road by the yard, and I remember seeing BNSF trucks driving down. They were on me so hard. With my pack, my hat on, I looked like I just got off a train. I went to the nearest railroad crossing right on the outside of the yard, and I remember locking eyes with these BNSF employees. I waved. I’m trying to be as friendly as possible. They just weren’t having it.

I walked to Walmart to get a $30 sleeping bag. There was a BNSF van following me through town. It was a lady driver. She just kept looking at me and following me. I would try to take a shortcut through some alleyway, but she just kept crossing paths with me. It was kind of sketchy. I’m like, “Don’t tell me I’m gonna get stuck here of all places.” 

I walked out of my way four miles just to avoid being detected by BNSF. I had to go through the southern part of town through the fields. The ticks in North Dakota, I didn’t even think they would exist there for some reason, but it was so terrible. My hiding spot was in a super grassy field. I laid my tarp out as wide as I could in the bushes. I’m in my sleeping bag and I see the ticks crawling everywhere. I zipped myself up all the way in the sleeping bag.

I woke to the horn of that westbound train. I can’t miss this, because I cannot spend another day here. There’s no way. The train pulled up. It stopped. The perfect well car was just parked right in front of me. I looked both ways and sprinted for the train. There’s nobody around, but for some reason, I just ran for it. I was that desperate.

Getting out of Fargo while the sun was coming up felt so good. It was chilly that night, but when that sun came up, you could see the moisture still on the ground. It’s flat out there, but as you start going west into North Dakota, the scenery almost resembles Ireland. Lots of fields and windmills. Big three-blade windmills. It was so green.

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