Midnight Freight Train

Jimothy Dyck was asleep in the Trans-Canada Railyard, dreaming of anywhere but here. His dreams were too big for the small town he left behind. He was headed west, to make it big, with a train hopper named Laverne “Rail’n’Jail” Jenkins. But without any direction, he was just wandering aimlessly between endless rows of rail cars until, finally, the distant wail of a midnight freight train pulled Jimothy from his restless dreamland.   “Wake up, Jimothy!” Jenkins whispered, givi

Jimothy Dyck was headed west with a train hopper known as “Rail’n’Jail” Jenkins. They’d spent all night in the Trans-Canada Railyard, where abandoned warehouses with graffiti-stained walls decayed along Winnipeg’s forgotten streets of nowhere. As Jimothy contemplated the spray-painted designs, he couldn’t help but wonder what he was really doing with his life.   “This is bunk!” Jimothy complained, bored of his existence. “When is this train coming? It feels like we’ve been he

Jimothy Dyck was trying to run away from life, but his backpack was snagged on a branch.   “I can’t even get away from this stupid place!” Jimothy fumed in the Trans-Canada Railyard. “It just keeps holding me back!”   Jimothy was leavi ng home for the first time. His dreams were too big for the small town he grew up in. Jimothy was headed west, determined to make it big, despite his lack of talent. His big plan – hop a freight train out of town – if only he could escape this

Winnipeg’s Golden Boy slept beneath swollen clouds choked with tears the night Jimothy Dyck hopped a freight train out of town.   It was a grey summer in late June, 2010. Jimothy stepped off the #72 bus on his way to the Trans-Canada Railyard. He was all sweaty from lugging his backpack and camping gear across the city.   Jimothy, a somewhat misguided dreamer, was headed west because, “That’s where people go to rebrand their image,” he thought.   The only worldly possessions