Godspeed Mr. Nichols, We would like to Thank You for all you gave, and all you have given.. R.I.P. Shoestring, You will be greatly missed.. ✌

North American Rayon Company opened in 1929, because it was partially German owned during WW2 it was under US Government control until 1949. It finally declared bankruptcy and closed in 1973. The buildings are supposed to be haunted.

Loved the Song you Sang inside the Box Car. Nashville might be Looking for a New Country Star. ⭐️

Shoestring Abandoned Explore, proves you can make videos about anything and they are good.

Always nice when you take us exploring, Shoestring.

That bridge brought me flash backs of where hobeStobe was when he passed RIP Stobe. Stay safe out there Shoestring!

That was the Watauga Steam Plant, built in 1921 by the Tennessee Eastern Electric Company.

I’m hoping to someday get to the point of completely free-spirit-ism like Shoe. I just wish I knew the guy personally because I just enjoy people like him who live by their own drum in life. There are not enough people out there like him now days.

Shoestrings famous words “I forgot my paint pen!” Glad your feeling better buddy

Hey shoestring good to see you out there, I hope u find a train soon. Keep up the good work.👍☕🍩🇨🇦

Shoestring Patches! I want two. Count me in!

Hello Mark! I sure Hope you had a Great Christmas Holiday. You Deserve the Best because you’re a Great guy. 👍

When I was a kid in Michigan my buddies and I used to catch an open box car on the Ann Arbor or NY Central and wind up in Detroit sometimes. Your movies are a comfort; keep singing. We could usually pay a few dollars and ride the coach home, or catch up a gondola. I eventually joined the AF and fought wars instead. Love your videos and pray your medical problems don't slow you down.

I like messing around abandoned industrial sites too. There's an old paper mill abandoned along the UP line south of Portland on the Willamette by Oregon City. It's calling my name, lol. Good luck Thursday.

Hey shoestring it's good that your getting out and doing what you do best keep on hopping and filming and hope everything goes well on your doctor 's appt on Thursday so you can get back riding again will keep our prayers for you. Duane, Visalia,ca

I hope all is well Shoestring Take care buddy,nice to see you out n about

Gosh dang I love watching every single video !!!! Your personality and everything. Your knowledge of the rails.

Great Vid!..Looks like a dangerous place to be walking around!..Lots of hole to step in

Mr String: If your looking for items that your audience will be interested in and readily want to purchase………and I’m serious, when you sang in the box car, it was GOOD. It sounds great and shows your cheerful adventurist personality and you have a good singing voice.

youve got a pretty good voice, you know. Maybe record some whole songs? I bet you have some musician followers for encouragement, accompaniment. We need some contemporary hobo ballads! Love the echo inside the boxcar. Looking forward to merch! used to love smashing coins with my dad on steam excursions.

I'm a huge fan mr hobo and I love trains ever since I was little

Thanks a million Mr. Shoestring. And, I hope you make a million on your site. Happy New Year.

Hope ya had a great Holiday Shoestring ❣ Nice to see you out and about. Wish ya all the good luck when you see the Dr.

Hobo, I'm a train driver in Australia. You had me concerned, you need to be a little more careful, you weren't expecting that rake to move and not long before you were between the wagons looking at the coupling package. I know you've been doing this a long time, but wagons can be whispering death. Please be careful bud.

Bristol is a really cool place. I have been wanting to film there at the train station at the state line for a long time

Careful around those quarries! As my family leases granite land to the local rock quarry. These places have very DEEP water holes!! If you fall in, we won't get out ! The walls are too steep``! We keep fences up for a reason..

You scared me to death walking across that trestle! Then you walked back again. Please be careful. Hope your health issues resolve soon. Best, bob

My friends and I used to go to the old Army Navy Surplus Store in Sioux City, IA whenever we were in town, mostly just to see what new cool stuff the old guy had in there. There was one in Cedar Rapids when we moved here back on '09 but I think it's moved or maybe even closed down. My son liked to go in there and check out some of that old guy's cool stuff.

Shoestring you can sing! Thank you for the mini concert! 🎶💞

Very cool video Shoestring! I love these types of videos! Old abandoned places from the past and trestles and such are so interesting to me! Awesome place! Thanks for sharing it with us! I'll be glad when you get your surgery behind you and get back on the rails! Prayers for the best for you!

interesting about the noise the ground rail makes - never even thought about that

I've kayaked down that river many times, and took out at that parking lot you showed.

"Oh well thats the good thing about being blind" 😆 10:34 Thanks Hobo! 👍👍👍

Take it easy for awhile. You got that upcoming appointment & I know all your fans want to see you back on the rails & giving us those great stories but health has be priority #1. Nice seeing you out though doing what you do best. Minnesota.

Had to laugh when you mentioned the Armey/Navy store in JCT. My wallet has my P-38 bought there, OMG over 20 years ago, Still have it.

Shoestring. I love your interesting facts.

Thank you for teleporting me back in time to my train hopping days. The 60s were the best of times, thanks again, Sterno Stan

That was a special day for sure Crossing the trestle was exciting and fun and scary too Your okay Shuestrig

Good luck with your Dr's appointment Brother. Iam 🙏 4U.

The building with the smokestack is called the Watauga Steam Plant. It's an old power plant

Yep .He Can Sing ! Petty good Too 4_17

Sell flat railroad coins & stamp hobo shoestring =$ i'd buy that for a dollar . Have a great new year Cheers

I've explored a lot of these places over my life, a lot of people do. its almost as if you can feel the ghosts of the workers from the past. the lockers, the chairs. they worked here and fed their families, came home to the wife and kids. and then one day it was all gone. some of those ghosts are angry still.

Shoestring Army!!! I like that

when i was a kid a messed around in abandon industrial areas. when i watch your video i keep thinking about how compelling the hobby is but i also wonder about all the poison ivy i ended up getting into, especially in winter when it was harder to spot.

Love the personalized extra verse to the song!

Shoestring - One of a kind! Part mountain goat, part Troubadour

Shoestring your vidoes are the shit , I like watching you do all sorts of different things its always something new , its honestly an escape for me I cant explain it but i'm so at peace every time I watch your videos

Hi Mark!! Happy New Year from Ireland. Long time viewer, first time commenting!!! Thinking of you and wishing you a speedy recovery. There will be plenty of trainers and boxcars waiting for you when you are up and running. Your videos and the commentary you provide are simply unique entertainment and a wonderful account of your adventures. Keep well, stay safe and best of luck from Ireland!!!! M.S.

Shoestring Army patch sounds great! Sign me up!

Shoestring Army patch would be fuggin great, man!!

Be well Shoestring, God bless you!

That box car at the end you showed with the pait job that was really cool.😍😍😍🤩🤩🤩🤩

I found this bridge you crossed on Google Maps. That stack is actually a different one than the bigger plant in the drone video in Elizabethton. You're in Watuga, TN, nearby.

Thanks for another awesome video Shoestring, hope you're doing well!

Thanks Shoestring, good luck Thursday. Central California Watching

Thanks for another amazing video. I wish you and all your followers an amazing 2022. Can’t wait for the merch (hopefully you’ll ship to UK) Stay safe and keep up the amazing videos

Great to see you out there Shoestring. Thank you for the video. Another good one. Happy New Year . Everything is going to be looking up for you in 2022. God bless you. Love and good wishes being sent. 🙂

Shoestring my heart dropped when you were in between the two trains and I could hear the brakes releasing on one of them. I was yelling at the screen hurry up and get out of there! lol Glad it was the IM and not the GM. That wouldn't have been good to be between those cars climbing over the coupler and he starts pullin. Be careful out there

That's the old Bemberg Plant. Love exploring with you Shoestring. Thank you for taking us along.

A small flat car and Southern Pacific. That's a rare site.

Good luck to your operation I We'll be thinking about you you will come out strong So you can get the riding And a happy New Year This is Ron from Florida

Have a happy and healthy new year hobo shoestring. Stay safe out there in your travels. Let the rails guide you home. 🛤

Keeping your mind active! I will be praying for you, Shoestring on the day of your surgery! May it be successful and may you heal fast! God bless and keep on!! Loved the video!

Shoestring!! Love your videos!

The good thing about being blind HA HA HA is you don't see the No Trespassing signs. You're the greatest Shoestring ... made me giggle.

You have to be careful about trespassing in quarries. Federal offense if caught in most cases particularly active ones due to explosives either in use, stored onsite or the potential for lost items like blasting caps and det cord scraps. In my wayward nerdy youth I used to scour quarries around where I lived in Texas and and later in Indiana just for those items to play with. Me and some buddies found a half of a case of some old school dynamite the nitro clay kind that you can't get anymore. We were digging pea sized blobs of it out and taking turns hitting it with a sledgehammer for fun. Later I found an electric blasting cap and modified it for fuse with some crushed match heads and hobby store cannon fuse and used what was left of the dynamite to make my own crater with. Fun stuff. Yeah I'm surprised that I am still alive and pushing 60 now and no felonies on my record..

Every time I watch one of Your videos I learn something new about Trains! We wish You a very Blessed New Years. Keep up the great work!!!😎👍

Awesome episode Shoe . I got a bit of vertigo watching you walk that bridge though 😂. That plant was cool and the scenery is beautiful. Take care buddy and Happy New Year 👍👌🚂🛤

we miss you Shoestring, had to hear your voice

Coins great idea . How about autographed rail spikes with your pens signed by you . I seen in River old Southern trestle pier or part of old highway bridge . Be in my prayers this Friday for your surgery . Taking my dad to have his surgery 6:25 in morning .

You are a blessing to us all thank u.

Too bad you could not get into the old textile mill. I don't think that was a house in there, just a storage building. If it was a dwelling, it was probably not occupied. I don't think there has been any active human activity other than dumping crap around that place in decades. I enjoyed your tour of the train cars. You are an encyclopedia of knowledge about everything to do with trains. I've learned a lot in watching your videos like this. Professor Shoestring, Doctor of Train Hopping.

Good to see ya. Thanks, for the video.

Boxcar Shoewilly String!

Great video

Shoestring, your videos make my day!! ❤

"Get me a nice fat juicy boxcar". That's poetic.

We hope you had a real nice Christmas. You look like you’re doing better. You had us laughing so much in this video. All the songs you were making up and singing. Then the one you sang into that boxcar and it was echoing. Lol. Cool video. We really enjoyed it. Take care and have a good one. 👍👍👍❤️🙏

Next video show how to set up a camp spot next to the tracks

When you mentioned folks for other videos and stuff be sure and mention it in the drawdown of the description stuff so is that people can remember to click on and check out those other contributors you described thanks for your input oh, you're the blue-collar ish budget e-version of Rick Steves Europe keep up the great work

In the cold weather if you wet the coins and stick them to the track before the train runs over them they say they don't fly around I found that out sometimes you have to go looking for the coins.

Crossing the bridge reminds me of the Movie Stand by Me

Good to see you again brother

I’m drawn to these videos. We played in the train yards as kids and hopped trains. Takes me back to my good ol’ days. Thank you for this.

Thank you for putting up a video Mark

I absolutely love Shoestrings videos, He's one awesome video maker!

Good luck with the surgery Shoestring. Hope you're feeling better & back riding the rails soon. Happy New Year!

Cool video brother, stay safe … loved your debut song in the box car…. Next stop….. Nashville ☺️

Happy Holidays SS Blessings and good luck with your tests 🎉❤️

Another great video!.

Cool shirt! Man, you made me nervous up on that trestle. Good to see you out. Great video!

It's an FRA violation to run a plug door box with the door open as it makes the car a high/wide. They'll stop trains for that on any road if someone who cares or an FRA agent sees it. ✌️✌️

That's also similar to where the fascination for pipes and culverts comes from.

Always good to see you with your tails above the rails,Happy Healthy New Year to Ya

Your like a college professor with train knowledge. At Princeton to. 👍

Great video!! That old factory is creepy for sure. Hope you can get out soon.

I'd rather have a 3" round Hobo Shoestring sticker.

Loved the little sing song as you walked across bridge; post factory explore! 😆🎶

I enjoy the video