I am going to build a 3x5’ HO switching layout set somewhere in the 1970s-today. I have some questions so I can choose an era:
When did running boards begin to be removed from cars?
When they were, were the steam-era type doors kept?
When did graffiti begin to appear on cars and structures?
Thanks for any help.
What’s a “steam era type door”?
Dave H.
Running boards were banned from cars without roof hatches placed in service after 1 Oct 1966; on cars blt before that date, running boards were to be removed by 1 April 1974 (date may have been extended).
Doors weren’t affected by rules applied to running boards. Sliding doors remained on equipment that had them; XMs built from the mid 60s on would more likely be equipped with 8ft or wider sliders or plug doors than the quasi-standard 6ft sliders popular before the 50s.
Depends on what you consider to be graffiti. Chalk marks were applied by railroad workers at least as early as the teens, probably before, and by knights of the road at least by the 20s. I recall seeing randomly tagged freight cars in the late 70s, more widespread and with the artists gaining proficiency in the 80s.
I understand there are walls that have been uncovered showing graffiti left by Roman soldiers from 2000 years ago. [:O]
Chalk marks made by RR employees would be common since at least the 1900’s, maybe earlier. Hobo scribblings (“Bozo Texino”, “J.B. King esq.”) also go back at least to the early part of the 20th century. Hoboes used the graffiti to leave messages on water tanks and such as to where they were going and also to indicate (in an elaborate code) where there were good places to mooch a meal or find day labor, and what areas should be avoided. The more modern “artistic” graffiti with elaborate spraycanned patterns wouldn’t become common until the 80’s IIRC.
Sliding door boxcars were never banned, but over time fewer of them were built compared to plug door cars, so you would see fewer of them in say 1980 than you would have in 1950. But they were still there - plus remember the “Railbox” cars of the seventies had sliding doors.
I meant a door like this one:
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/dh19516.jpg
Most modern cars that I have seen have plug doors or doors like this:
6ft wide 4/5/5 ‘Youngstown’ (or Camel) sliding door. Same door types 8 ft and wider applied to new equipment at least as late as 1968.
8- or 9-ft, 6-panel Superior sliding door. Superior doors were introduced at least as early as 1941, so it’s definitely a ‘steam-era’ door.
I visited Stonehenge a few years back and was able to participate in a “inner circle” tour. There is Roman graffiti gouged into several of the standing stones! The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Thanks for your help. I will probably pick somewhere in the early 80s
There’s graffiti inside Kofu’s Pyramid in the Giza Plateau of Egypt that dates three thousand years before that.
I lived in SE Florida in the 70’s and can remember southbound trains with chalk markings, jax/wpb, jax/ftl and jax/mia. One could see how the train was blocked. Sort of like a car forwarding system on the car side.
Rob
Throughout the 1970’s many cars that had been built with roof walks and high-mounted hand brake wheels retained their high brake wheels and the ladders at the “B” end to reach them. IIRC the ladders at the “A” end were shortened and the roof walks were either completely removed or just 6 or 8ft at each end was removed, leaving the center portion of the walk intact. I think there was stenciling near the ladders stating that the roof walks had been removed. There was usually a rusty area at every walk mounting point where they were just lopped off with a burning torch and never touched up.
I’d say - depending perhaps on where your layout is set - graffiti would be fairly rare on cars in that time. Of course, I do recall the opening credits to the old “Welcome Back Kotter” TV series from the mid-seventies showed New York subway cars covered in graffiti, but at least here in the Midwest seeing freight cars with the big ‘artistic’ (at least to some people) style graffiti wouldn’t be common til maybe the nineties. You’d see an occassional name or something written on a car, more likely you’d see graffiti on a railroad bridge over a road, or a rock outcropping near a road etc. I lived for many years across the street from Holy Angels high school, from maybe the late seventies on it was a tradition that around graduation someone would climb up the school’s chimney (highest point in town) and write “Class of 'XX Rules!!” or something similar high up on it.
As was stated earlier, various forms of graffiti have been around for a long time. It was in the mid to late '70s when I started noticing the particulars of freight cars (friction vs. roller bearing trucks etc.) here in Oregon. At that time the graffiti on freights was mostly the occasional chalk scrawls like Herby, Waterbed Lou and Coaltrain. At that time the larger and more colorful graffiti (Class of 76, I Love So&So, Rockin with Donkin etc.) was sprayed on structures and large boulders but I don’t remember the more “modern” graffiti style on freights until the very late '80s ('88-'89).
Just so you know, the Superior style door isn’t a plug door. The picture below is combo door (one plug and one sliding) boxcar built in the early '60s. Plug doors will have two vertical rods with actuating levers connecting them near the bottom.
Info on this car can be foud at http://www.wwvrailway.com/NP50’boxcars.htm
After the invention and wide spread accessibility of the aresol container in the mid 60’s. Along with hairspray, insect repellent and other propellants, paint became convenient, popular and economical to purchase in aeresol cans. It had been first developed by Ed Seymor in 1949, with ‘aluminum’ being the first color. See the 2nd site below.
How ‘artful’ to be noticed usually depends…mid to late 60’s, during times of urban unrest, during the PennCentral years, before the time New York City went bankrupt. Yes the NYC subway cars were covered (or Tagged to be PC) by the mi-seventies.
Whether it was protest, rage, anger, art, vandalism, or just being noticed, people were spraying things with paint.
You can read about it here and approximate the events with your own memories:
http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/aerosol.htm
and
http://www.qbyv.com/history_of_can.htm
Happy Railroading,
Mark Wallace
In reference to the chalk markings…
As I’m putting together my train and doing a brake test I mark on all the cars their destination and any special instructions. Why? Saves carrying paper lists around if I don’t have to.
In the era when they were chalking cars, the lists were handwritten. So it was easier to transfer the routing info from one list to the cars than to have to make up multiple lists for the crew members.
Also the car men chalk marked cars when they inspected the bearings. I remember up until the late 80’s, whenever there was a burnt off journal one of the pieces of information that had to be collected was the inspector’s marks from the car.
Dave H.
Here’s a few “chalked” graffiti shots I took at our local siding within the past month. The 1st is on on Columbus & Ohio River (Ohio Central) ex LEF&C Seico car & appears to be loading info:
The 2nd was on an NS waffle side boxcar & the 3rd of these I’ve found in the past couple years-“Conrail Twitty.”
Anyways, in this day of full side tagging, etc, the old style chalking is still alive & well.