Demonstrating an example setup of a Backbone app in a Rails project with Turbolinks, from https://medium.com/p/edf4849ddb73

Backbone_turbolinks_setup_2.coffee

# E.g. backbone.view.js.coffee
Backbone.View::close = (remove = true) ->
  if remove
    # Remove the view element, unbinding events and destroying data
    @remove()
  else
    # Undelegate events and stop listening without removing the view element
    @undelegateEvents()
    @stopListening()
  
  # Executes a callback called onClose on the view if it exists  
  @onClose() if @onClose()
  
# Your app setup
window.MyApp =
  Models: {}
  Collections: {}
  Views: {}
  Routers: {}
 
  initialize: ->
    
    # Optional: set up a pubSub object
    window.pubSub = _.extend({}, Backbone.Events)
    
    # An example jQuery plugin that triggers events on pubSub
    $(document).publishHotkeys(pubSub) 
    
    # Keep a reference to your router so you can release it later
    @router = new MyApp.Routers.Items()
    Backbone.history.start()
  
  teardown: ->
    
    # Stop jQuery plugin from publishing to pubSub
    $(document).stopPublishingHotkeys()
    
    # Clear the pubSub variable (optional)
    window.pubSub = undefined 
    
    # Close the router, closing all its views and their subviews
    @router.close()
    
    # Nullify the router variable
    @router = undefined

# Function determining whether the app should run on the current page
shouldLoadApp = -> $('#items').size() > 0

# Called during the page change lifecycle, before the current page is changed
$(document).on 'page:before-change', ->
  
  # If backbone is running and the browser supports Turbolinks
  if Backbone.History.started and Turbolinks?.supported
    
    # Replace the current state with one of Turbolinks format
    locHref = window.location.href
    title = window.title
    window.history.replaceState {turbolinks: true, url: locHref}, title, locHref

# Called during the page change lifecycle, after the page has changed
$(document).on 'page:change', ->
  
  # If the router is available the app needs to be torn down
  if MyApp.router?
    Backbone.history.stop()
    MyApp.teardown()
  
  # Initialize the app from scratch if the page requires it
  MyApp.initialize() if shouldLoadApp()