Traveling light takes on new meaning when jumping trains, as does the limited battery life of mobile devices – just like the rest of us, hitchhikers and train hoppers these days increasingly see the web as as invaluable resource. The underlying story of nomadic life on the rails is surprisingly consistent in some ways: people, generally young, using the nation’s railways to travel the country. The details are, however, revealingly different – analog hobo codes have given way to digital hobo coders.

Like many 30-somethings, Huck has experienced life with and without a pervasive internet that answers all questions. This transitional generation knows to rely on conventional knowledge and hard research as much as spoon-fed answers. In the extended interview below, this reddit user (/u/huckstah) and long-time /r/vagabond participant shares stories from his nomadic lifestyle. Images here by Molly Steele illustrate some of the everyday wonders of illicit train travel as well. Per Hobos of Instagram , these travelers are trading their flip phones for iPhones, starting Instagram accounts … and bringing an age-old tradition of trainhopping and tramping into the Information Age.”

Online resources provide help in all kinds of ways, including some websites dedicated to helping the (often intentionally) homeless and misfit travelers as they hitchhike or dumpster dive. At the same time, there are many ways to also turn ordinary resources toward new ends, like using Google Maps to scout the layouts of train yards for security gaps and best access points.

Beyond transit, maps are also helpful for finding public restrooms, camp grounds, power outlets, showers and other essentials. Kindles (or other devices using less power than phones) are critical to stretching battery life, too. Ultimately, the information flows both ways: travelers turn around and share their adventures on Instagram, Vine, Facebook and other social media sites.

Those on the road more often than not find themselves looking for remote digital work or seasonal employment, again aided in part by websites like Craigslist and otherwise. YouTube videos help guide people through various processes of actually getting on and off trains, as well as finding the best boxcars on (or in) which to travel. Of course, none of these reduce the real, physical-world risks and dangers associated with train hopping, including but not limited to injury and arrest. Some naturally worry that the spread of this form of transit to the internet will increasingly lure people who are not equipped for the lifestyle to try things better off watched on Vimeo or read on reddit.

While many intermodal freight crate transformations turn steel boxes into comfortable spaces, this project goes a step further both by taking maximum advantage of its material origins while still making the aesthetic result more than the sum of its parts.

Repurposed as an office by and for architect Patrick Bradley, this 45-foot cargo container (re)creation makes use of existing openings on either end and requires as few cuts in the surface of the sides as possible (an energy- and cost-efficient approach). Each of these openings is in turn taken advantage of, in one case to create an entry sequence and, at the other end, to facilitate a lovely little balcony extension.

Further, the design leverages the strength of the container to cantilever it out over a steep-sloping cliff already on the site, saving money, time and energy landscaping the lot. Simple modular cladding manages to transform the exterior appearance with ease as well.

In the end, there is little about the project that screams ‘shipping container’ at first glance, yet the overall shape and structural advantages of that core element are maintained and utilized throughout – a brilliant blend of old and new.