I see very little graffiti on tank cars, but box cars, and hoppers, that spend lots of time in remote sidings, yards and spurs get “hit” the most. Like others have said, there are decals all over the place. Just search it while in Ebay, in HO scale trains, or what ever scale you model in.
There are plenty of YouTube videos on doing your own with colored pencils and markers.
Have fun!
Mike
If you haven’t done so (as recommended earlier by another forum member), go read the Forum Rules and Policies, it’s YOUR responsibilty. Also, being a member of a forum is a privilege.
Here’s another site that provides decals, not just graffiti http://www.moondograilcars.com/category_s/106.htm
Some people actually hand paint their graffiti. If you choose to use paint pens, there are plenty of arts/craft stores that sell them, in multiple tip sizes. Beware…sharpies and dullcoat usually don’t play well together.
Who says? One of the cardinal rules of railroad modelling is that it’s your railroad and you can do what you want. If you don’t like graffitti then leave it off.
Of course that negates some of the aspects of prototypical modelling so if that aspect is important to you than you are correct. You have to have graffitti.
I’m modelling the late '50s so fortunately for me I can pretty much ignore the issue.
Dave
First, you need some really tiny cans of spray paint… 
OK Ray! That’s two April Fools jokes!! That’s your limit!!![(-D][(-D][(-D]
Cheers!!
Dave
A bit of history about the forum rules, in case anyone newish is interested:
About ten years ago, the forums were moderated by one staff member at trains.com. It was one of his secondary duties, and it was slowly getting past him because of a small number of posters who seemed to enjoy being ‘contrarian’, and a few of those could charitably be called mean-spirited and on-line bullies. Our hosts eventually decided to trial member-moderators who made it their task to attempt to improve the qaulity of discourse. It seemed reasonable, due to repeated locked threads, to prohibit discussions about hobos, graffiti, and some others I forget. Yes, it really was quite bad.
When that process of modifying the tone grew more evolved, say near 2010, Steve Otte came aboard and supervised the moderators, and it seemed that the whole idea came to a natural end…moderators’ duties and privileges with the forum software, including permanently banning some people and deleting entire threads, were curtailed.
Happily, the tenor of the threads since most of us left off being moderators has been good. I agree, for what it’s worth, with taking another look at some of the rules and lightening up a bit. Times change, and so does the culture here.
-Crandell
Since graffiti are not part of the culture I model, the only paint on my cars was put there by the manufacturer or the railroad’s painters.
That said, the real problem with making convincing models is that no two graffiti are identical - even if done by the same ‘artiste’ sequentially on two adjacent, identical cars. Therefore, to be convincing, each car needs an original design. Decorating an entire roster could end up taking almost as much time as building the layout they run on. Decals might be a starting point. They won’t be convincing by themselves.
Man, am I glad that I don’t have that problem!!!
Incidentally, ‘Bozo Texino’ (done in chalk on boxcar doors) was attributed to a MoPac engineman who retired in 1943.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - sans graffiti)
I would use colored sharpies, or very fine pointed paint pens, along with a couple of decals, if I were to model graffitti.
It, however, is prohibited on my layout, as my 1/87 police force do their jobs in preventing it well. [;)]
Since I am not an artist I will go the decal route. They look like they would be easy to apply and with some weathering I think they will work. I will have a very small layout with not many cars so I don’t have to worry too much about duplicate decals.
I have been watching Rochelle again and I actually saw some mixed freight without alot of graffiti. I saw a unit tank train with none at all, along with a coal train that was very clean. Hoppers and box cars however were loaded with it.
About 20 yrs ago while my son was back home for a visit he decorated a few pieces of my rolling stock with some fine-point Sharpies. At the time the loosely themed free-lanced layout we had built together when he was a teen was still up and running. Though the era of my current layout doesn’t really support such flamboyant graffiti, nor roof walks I still enjoy seeing the cars in service.
So, the “Bozo Texino” chalk marks that I saw on a couple LPG tank cars in the mid-80s must have been a copy-cat. Saw some “Water Bed Lou” chalk marks back then too.
Regards, Peter
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We have very few boxcars or hopper cars in trains way down here. We do have lots of tank cars. I guess that is why it seems more common on them to me. Our local trains are almost entirely flats, gondolas, and tanks.
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-Kevin
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Also, keep in mind that most graffiti is within 8 feet of ground level, unless the tagger had some sort of elevated platform from which to work.
Wow Peter (HO-velo) Now those taggers carried ladders with them! [(-D]
Mike.
In the 60’s, Lionel had a stock car with a giraffe, as it approached the tell-tales, it would duck down into the car. It came only in O Guage, and had awful looking actuators sticking out of the bottom of the car…Graffiti! Thats different, nevermind.
Sorry could not resist, Happy April Fools!
Microscale and Blair Line make graffiti decals. My problem with them is that they are pixelated/their screen-print dots show. This is really bad in N scale when seen up close. The pixelated decals might be better for a wall or bridge in the distance where it won’t be viewed up close, but for a railcar it might be problematic.
I recently found a set of graffiti decals in my LHS from a company called T2 Decals that make nice-quality decals (in N and HO scales) without the pixelization. I just might use these on my auto racks/reefers.
Also, the bottom of a piece is aligned with the bottom edge of the car, which gives a horizontal alignment reference. Too many times I see people put graffiti decals way high up on the car and it’s just not realistic.
I am interested in “BOZO TEXINO”, “J.B. King Esq.”, “WaterBed Low”, “Herby”, “Colossus of Roads”, etc. Will this book help me?
Mostly True: The West’s Most Popular Hobo Graffiti Magazine | Microcosm Publishing
Says right at the bottom that it will have “Bozo Texino”…
I think this book may be helpful in making decal plates and identifying the dates of their appearance. The author, Bill Daniel, can also be found at the following site:
Who Is Bozo Texino? — Bill Daniel
Why not look elsewhere about how to do it since the topic is quite sensitive to many?
There are even forums dedicated to scenery which probably have advice/tips.
