Add all the engines of every freight railroad, freight cars of every freight railroad and track miles of every freight railroad in North America which would include Canada and Mexico which as we know does handle US freight cars. freight cars and engines have to add up to at least a hundred thousand. Miles i have no clue really now. Im basing that off of what a few other people told me but now i dont think they are that smart anyway. This being i dont really want to argue about that issue anymore
I dont really know what to say other than freight railroads must care about graffiti right? They arent making a great attempt to clean it up. Though i have to see it would be a massive cleanup if they did try. Like a miracle. To most railfans yes something must be done but i cant remember the last time a frieght railroad came out publicly and announced that something must be done immediately to stop this. The subway did and it turned out well for them…
Im done talkin, i dont want to turn this thread into a huge flame ware and most likely it would be sparked be me. Plus i ran out of ideas [:D]
I have mixed feelings about the subject, but I tend to feel negative about the act. In some ways it is a harmless form of expression, but it is more than that. It is a defacement for which permission was not given. Ethically, if the owner of a surface or item on which the surface is important for corporate purposes (image) would not in principle consent if asked for permission to do the defacing, then the act is trespass. In that respect, it shows a lack of respect for property. I would not want it done to myself, my children, my house, my car, and so forth…and fortunately these artists don’t take it to that extreme. But their act is almost always covert, which tells me something about the nature of the act and about the nature of those who commit it. I’m afraid, as I said, my view isn’t very positive.
I agree Jim. Way too much money poured into and resources wasted putting on a front in order to soothe our minds. Way too little concern with the real threats. Bulk HAZMAT on rail is a potential WMD if it falls into the wrong hands. More attention must be paid to places where bulk HAZMAT is unloaded and stored NOT just where it’s loaded.
I think that if you get caught doing ANYTHING to a railcar that has a HAZMAT placard on it or any adjoining car they should throw the book at you and treat you as a potential terrorist. That may curb the practice but enforcement is key. The way I see it local authorities need to take this threat seriously and not pass the buck to the railroads.
When I get approached by the R.R. cops, which is not very often, I remind them that I am armed with a cell phone ready to report anything suspicious I may see like say…someone tampering with a tank car. They’ve told me good…there’s only two or three of us for 300 miles and we can’t be everywhere. I’ve even gotten some of their cell phone numbers. The local cops (city, county) I talked with usually tell me that there’s very little time in their daily patrols to worry about what’s going on on the railroad. I can’t even recall the number of times I’ve witnessed traspassers within eyeshot of municipal officers and nothing being done about it.
I suppose the problem with graffiti down here doesn’
Not only is it ‘not very much’ but each of the cars passes through a service facility daily where action can be taken immediately.
Freight cars only go to a service facility when they have a actual mechanical defect or when their braking system is due for it’s statutory retesting, and with that being said those service facilities do not have the ability to repaint cars.
Well, I happen to think 6,000 cars is a lot to keep clean. It’s all about resources. I have no arguement with the fact that railroads don’t have the resources… and I never said that they did.
I stated, and I stand by this statment, that the solution (or best medicine) is to remove and repaint quickly.
Does that mean it can be done? Anything can be done… it might be cost prohibitive, but that doesn’t change the fact that it would work if it was afordable.
I know this, 30 years ago everyone in New York was saying nothing could be done about the subway graffiti. Sure glad some folks decided not to listen to them.
Its already happened out here, where a BNSF train was derailed and it turned out it was some little punka$$ who had broke the lock on a switch, waited and thru it as the train went by, he was GD lucky he wasnt crushed, but the train was going slow so the wreckage was limited. Needless to say the little punka$$ will have lots of time to contemplate his moronity rotting in prison.
But its sadly not hard at all to cause complete mayhem if your intent on doing so, the French Resistance caused tremendous headaches for the Nazies during the occupation by doing so with the railroads.
I wonder what a full graffiti cleanup program would cost us?
I mean, the railroads would have to hire a ton of new people and purchase a lot of new equipment for these cleanup shops. Not to mention relabeling the cars with all the required information. If they did that, they wouldn’t just absorb the costs. Likely they would increase the amount of money they charge to ship stuff. And if the suppliers have to pay more, they’re going to have to increase the price of their product. And if they increase the price of their product, the store will have to charge more.
In the end, it may only cost us consumers a few cents for each item we purchase. But with costs already going up across the board because of our bad energy policies, every cent counts.
They rack paint from the mom and pop stores because of little security. They buy from the big stores like walmart if they have to because of security cameras.
Otherwise the most of the time they buy graffiti paint which isnt really available to the general public
Just about the WORST grafitti job I ever saw was on an SP SD40T-2.The entire engine had been painted yellow,with the words “UNION PACIFIC” on the side.This looked quite proffesional,so must have taken quite a while to paint.Where was security?
[(-D]Seems to be common. That was done to every single CNW unit i have ever seen too.
Actually graffiti is on almost all rolling stock around here. The worst I’ve seen was on a CNW malt hopper. Someone put “SUX” under the big black “CNW” on the side. I’ve seen it on at least 3 too. Can’t you MILW heads keep your opinions to yourselves? [;)]
An IMRL conductor told me a story a long time ago (I think it would’ve been '97) about how he worked a yard in East St. Louis before he hired on with I&M Rail Link. He said a couple carmen reported some kids were spray-painting cars in one end of the yard and they caught them (I assume it was the railroad police/security). He said one of the morons tried to run, but his baggy pants tripped him up and when they wrestled him down his pants were down to his knees, underwear too.
As he related the story to me, the security guys administered their own sentence for his crime: They took the two cans he had on him and spray-painted his butt.
