OK, something I’ve wondered for quite some time but more now that some of these newer autoracks that are shiny and with current railroad slogans are getting a grafitti tackling quicker now.
Most of these vandals I’ve always guessed used spray paints. How do the trucks and automobiles inside resist any kinds of paint vandalism? Or do they get grafitti as only empties?
A silly question but curiosity.
Bryan in Ogden UT
Have you noticed that the newest corrugated steel screens on auto racks have less perforations than the ones made in the 1960’s and 1970’s? This might be because of the dirt spray on rainy days and spray paint.
Andrew
Actually no I didn’t know of that. My railfanning is usually of riding the Northern Utah public train called the UTA frontrunner. Sometimes trains either pass too quickly or are of a bit too far away in distance to see something of that, but I’ll look next time for your point.
I wondered about those autoracks that have shown up for the Canadian Class 1’s, a gray looking car without it’s Class 1 logo or symbol anywhere on it, just some type of the reporting mark and car number etc. and if these were for the purpose of protection of it’s freight inside.
TTX has an interesting new model I saw on it’s website about 2 months ago.
Bryan
I once saw an autorack with at least one side completely covered with graffiti. And not just random graffiti, either - the tagging took up the entire side of the car. That’s a lot of spray cans (mostly the same color) and a lot of time…
There is/was a set of 5 autoracks done by someone that spelled out “STEEL”.
One letter for each car. And that letter covered the entire car. Every once in a while you’d see an E go by or something. A lot of paint. a LOT.
Most auto makers have applied a static cling type cover on the automobiles inside the auto racks, the VWs and Audis we pull from the dock all have hood and each quarter panel covered with a soft foam sheet.
And yes, to answer the original question, the cars inside get painted along with the auto rack.
Keep in mind the tagger has no respect for the private property that is the railcar, why should they worry about the contents of the rack?
Talked with a friend who accompanied her husband on a tour yesterday of the local dock and yard facility that unloads import cars from ships and then sticks them on auto racks. Besides being bored out of her tree (not nearly the rail fan her husband is, it would seem) she mentioned that all of the cars coming off the ship are well-wrapped in plastic. I guess they could wrap them in a manner that would allow some partial unwrapping to get the cars to the racks.
I notice that even on the freeways, often times, the new cars are nicely wrapped up. Mostly the north bound trucks, it seems.
I’ve seen some auto racks on the Union Pacific Sunset Route through SE Arizona that were completely covered with grafitti. The vandals must have had ladders to reach to the top.
Concerning grafitti, every once and while you see the work of a real artist,but most of the time they just paint useless and incomphrehensible garbage.
Freightcar America built the aluminum Auto Vehicle Carriers or AVC for CP and CN.
Those are gone from the page http://www.freightcaramerica.com/Intermodal-and-Automotive-Railcars.htm
Now they just offer Flat Cars for AutoRacks.
Andrew
Most cars are tagged while they are being stored on tracks located in urban areas…this is especially true when cars have spent anytime idle in Southern California. Last year quite of bit of autoracks were in storage all over the country due to the economic slowdown. Many were being stored in these urban areas where they were easily accessible to vandalism. I run trains out of Atlanta and I’m constantly noticing kids of all races leaving “their” mark on walls, bridges and trains.