Why have all the colors come? In my now fifteen hours of unadulterated joy at the Rochelle, IL, Train Watchers’ Park, I’ve seen all kinds of freight-car graffiti. That alone doesn’t surprise me; what did was the content and the color of it…in Chicago, city ordinance forbids selling any aerosol paint to a minor; and while I’m sure that won’t prevent spray paint falling into the hands of Juvies, it did seem to have cut 'way down.
On the other hand, I do know that rival gangs exist in neighborhoods and 'burbs close to UP’s Proviso Yard (I “think” it’s UP’s; please feel free to correct). And where rival gangs go, they incorporate taggers almost by definition.
I’m seeing some ‘way artsy stuff, multiple colors, vanishing point (illiusion of 3D) as well as the R. Crumb "truckin’" type of fat numerals and letters. And multiple shades of color in the paint. IIs there something going on elsewhere, perhaps at the end of the lines near L.A., that you’d like to comment on?
Sadly, the graffiti seems to have attacked not just the older boxcars but also covered hoppers, autoracks, and modulars of all kind (more on that later). I’m a newbie, so please forgive me if I’m lecturing to the choir. It just astonishes me, that’s all.
For the record, I think that kind of graffiti is vandalism and no kind of folk art. I think it’s deplorable. And I suspect it lessens people’s respect for the big RR companies when they see 120 mods. run by, with maybe a third or more bearing those tag-team exhalations. You won’t see THAT on a Pepsi truck! I suspect that the people who run the yards are doing their level best to prevent kids’ getting into their domain and messing with the merch; or am I being overly naive and optimistic about this? Again, I’m a newbie, so if I’m being excessively native about the “genre” along the lines of “Well, I guess rock’n’roll [or whatever] is here to stay,” please forgive. I seek your input.
Over here in the UK there have been stories of gangs waiting til a trains stopped at a red signal, appearing from the bushes and then graffitiing the train. That’s passenger trains too, which I think is just indicative of the absolute lack of respect some elements of society hold.
As for the UPS TOFCs, perhaps they’re loaded and unloaded onto the TTX cars in secure areas, and they’re presumably a pretty hot frieght so they wouldn’t spend much time in yards…that’s just a guess btw…
I do not believe the taggers hit the cars in yards, probably on a siding outisde the yard, or at a remote loading place. I to donot consider this art and really get upset at the lack of respect for others property.
Your analysis of where cars get their graffiti made perfect sense to me, addax.
Let’s hope the USA doesn’t import the drive-by sprayings that have taken place in England. Of course, if it’s Amtrak, well, gang-bangers are notoriously impatient…
And georgel, your information is most useful too.
Who else wants to sound out about the why, when, where and how this so-called “street art” now roams the USA…?
Wonder what kind of response I’d get if I e-mailed the seven Class One’s in search of a position on this problem. Assuming the Bigs admit there IS a problem…
During 2001I worked most of that summer in the Los Angeles basin. The graffiti artists were attacking just about anything standing still in downtown Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale, Torrance, Van Nuys, and Watts. Fences, walls, commercial, and retail structures were all fair game. Heck, they were even bold enough to spray-up the engines especially at the outlying yard locations where a unit or units might be shut down for a shift or a weekend. These days I’m appalled at the amount of tagged freight cars I see as I drive a couple of times a month on U.S. 30 between Pine Bluffs, Wyo. and Grand Island, Nebr., a.k.a. “The Lincoln Highway” that parallels Union Pacific’s traffic-saturated “Overland Route.”
Boxcars, reefers, and covered hoppers get tagged the most. Tank cars, trailers, and containers perhaps the least. I suspect the auto racks that get tagged are those that are placed in temporary storage such as during the model year change-over.
During the April meeting of The Rocky Mountain Railroad Club, member Joe McMillan presented a terrific slide show featuring the freight trains and varnish of The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway c.a. 1960s - early '90s. Slide after pristine slide featured graffiti-free images of power, trains, and structures that were 99-and-44/100s percent graffiti free. I just sat there in the audience and marveled at how wonderful everything looked with shiny stainless steel, maybe slightly weathered stainless steel, or just the right amount of Company paint - and Company paint only - on it. Those good old days really weren’t that long ago.
I’ll grant you, something less than 0.5% of the railroad graffiti we see today is colorful and/or clever, but nevertheless it’s still all vandalism.
The clean train movement in the uk is much, much different than the freight car movement in the us.
The word gang is thrown left and right, like these people painting train cars are out killing people in their off time from painting cars. I dont want to give the impression that I paint train cars, because I do not. However, the interesting pieces and artwork on rail cars is simply amazing to me.
I am torn between the two sides, yes, it is very disrespectful of the owners of cars, engines, or whatever gets painted. But on the other hand, how is what these people are doing, different than say, billboards? Money?
If I am driving down the interstate, or the mountains, a billboard is an eye sore, therefore, 20, or 50, or 200 billboards are much more of an eye sore. I enjoy railfaning, while I also enjoy taking pictures of graffiti on rail cars.
I see the graffiti as art, very talented art, that I do not have to pay a museum to see, but is free to the world to see. It is kind of upsetting to think that some of the art that I enjoy is illegal, but thats just my thoughts on it.
Oh, for the days of Bozo Texino and the like. A little chalk on an oxide red boxcar.
Pretty sad, though - I was just thinking that at least they aren’t out doing truly destructive stuff - causing loss of life and limb for bragging rights. You can use your imagination.
i feel the same way, it makes me a touch perturbed to see people with no regard to others property. Ive seen a pile of people who paint around, tape around, or go to the side of numbers, which, still may be vandalism, is a move toward consideration.
I’ve noticed at Rochelle that most TOFC’s (a lot of BNSF freight) and COFC (both BNSF and UP) are pretty much free of graffiti. What shows the most are the fallen-flag rolling stock and examples of “basic” train cars that are no longer so basic (the oil car that holds oil and not corn syrup; the any-load general purpose boxcar). Auto carriers really get hammered, too, and I’m not enough of an expert to tell which are the oldest except for fortuitous graphics (it’s hard to get people to believe that “CP Rail” could be thirty-plus years old while “Canadian Pacific Railway” is pretty new).
I’m not sure what this means. Are UP trains heading west thru Rochelle to Clinton necessarily exposed to a greater chance of graffiti in Proviso or wherever the train is put together? On the other hand, are BNSF trains coming out of (I’m not sure–Eola? Aurora?) on the way to Savanna possibly marshalled in more rural or low-crime areas? Will UP trains tend to more cleanliness now that so much marshalling is being done in Global III (that very high-tech, extremely public-inaccessible yard just west of the Rochelle diamond) – what’s y’all’s opinion?
I’m not out to blame people, groups or yards but I am curious. Do the Class One’s EVER try to efface graffiti other than when they are obliterating a fallen-flag logo??
Finally, what would be the correct official at BNSF or UP to contact about the problem–and I think we agree that is is a problem at least on some level. Some executive whose responsibility the rolling stock really is–not just some PR flack. What would such titles be called, to whom I could send a concerned but non-threatening email?
Seems like the “cover the rail cars with graffiti” movement came into force in the last twenty years or so. I can remember seeing trains in the mid 1980’s that were reasonably graffiti free. I’d like to get my hands on the sucker that tagged the former Rio Grande caboose the UP uses in local service in Salt Lake City. [|(][|(][:(!][:(!]
I recently saw a covered hopper car with one side completely covered by the word “AWARE.” The “artist” even repainted the reporting marks (NAHX) and car number in one corner.
Mayb it’s caus i’m younger(I don’t do graffeti), but I have seen some great stuff http://www.sisterbetty.org/graffiti/#pieces There are different types, tags is what I hate, but stencils, signatures, and pieces are ok.[;)] I even have some on my wagons. Some equipment can get really shabby lookin and the graff makes it individualistic and colourful. As for misdirected tallent, I would guess from my own experience that a lot of them would like to go to art school, but can’t afford it.[banghead][^]
it’s still illegal[oX)]
As I said he last time this issue came up I wi***he painters would put on where they did the deed & month & year. Like Portland OR 06/30/05. It would be interesting to see where the car has been as the years progress. [:o)][:p][:)]
How many of you modelers out there model the graffiti? I have several cars that I have graffitied up with a combination of paint and decals. I think it does a lot for making my trains look realistic.
Bozo Texino is the pseudo-poet-laureate Confucius of the railroad as Kilroy was to the Army and others.
Let’s make tagging a sport! - Put out a federal bounty on the carcasses of these sub-human clowns![}:)][}:)][}:)]…extra point$ if you catch them “in the act”[:(!]