Black Cadilac Escalade with 22" chrome spinners. Big Santa Fe logo on the side with the words “The Chief Rules!!!” [:P]
Or “CSX WUZ HERE!” Then the railroad could send the vehicle owner a bill for the use of their logo. [:-,]
I was thinking about the “Welcome Back Kotter” theme as well. I think the modern style graffiti started as urban gang “art” on subways in the 70’s, and spread from there. NYC subway cars used to be plastered with it.
Wiki gives a date of 1970/1971 for Taki183 (which is consistant with what I have read over the ages) - famous subway tagger of that period. (On review, I see Jason-Train linked to this).
Wiki gives a date of 1975 for the ‘peak’ of Graffitti bombing, but then add a timeframe of late 1970-early 1980s as the ‘last true wave’ of NYC graffitti (having gone to college in NY during the 1980s, I will say nobody really divided this period into graffitti era, but I will vouch for the decline of graffitti as the 1980s progressed, as NYC experienced a serious rejuvanation under Koch in the 1980s, only to slide back under Dinkins during the 1990s and rebound again under Rudy). During the 1980s 10s of thousands of housing units were restored, parks rebuilt, roads repaved, and you all know about the subway system’s renewal - 'course, not everything was fixed, but along the major highways during the mid-late 1980s (such as the LIE or the BQE) any wall covered with graffitti (mostly bridge abutments and retaining walls) was repainted pretty quickly. Private property owners were quicker to repair/repaint their property too, but any stationary railcar in the area was liable to be graffitti’ed (however, just some tags, not a full mural like today, the thought process being that not as many people would view artwork on a freight car as they would on a subway car travelling along where 100s of thousands could view it). Hmm, don’t remember a wave of graffitti on the commuter rail (LIRR, Conrail/MetroNorth/NJT) at that time, although I do remember some ‘black scrawls’ on the old LIRR diesel fleet coaches.
Anyway, huge murals on freight cars, become common say late-1980s (even then most graffitti was the single color scrawls, not the complicated multicolor productions most commonly photographed and modeled)
Heh, for those of you who are world travels: graffitti on a Japanese Shinkansen train
It got even wierder than that. Those NYC subway cars came that way from the factory. It was sombody’s brilliant idea that if the cars were “pre-tagged”, the real vandals would be inclined to stay away from them. Don’t know if it really worked or not…
Maybe umm Tuesday? [:D]
I am glad I model the transition era and have no reason to desecrate my rolling stock with this trash. It would gaul me to dignify these criminals by replicating their garbage on my layout. There has always been graffiti around but in the 1950s, you saw it mostly on retaining walls or bridges and overpasses. I did put a smattering of graffiti on a retaining wall bordering my coach yard near the back of the layout. I did this just for a touch of realism but it isn’t really prominent and you can’t see it when the commuter coaches fill the yard. I don’t think I’m going to add it anywhere else on the layout. This is one detail I can do without.
10 to 12 years ago, Trains did a special issue about “UP, Super Railroad”. Inside was a four page centerfold with photos of every car of a 70 to 80 car freight train. IIRC, not a single car was tagged with graffiti. Judging from this, graffiti was not that common as recently as '95 but has become the norm in the last 10 years.
Jay
I have slides I took in 1973 of New York City subway cars covered with multi-colored large graffiti “art”. I thought the cars looked a little like a circus train because of the odd-shaped multi-color markings.
I also have a photo taken 1974 of a boxcar in Mexico with political slogans scrawled on it in paint-- didn’t look like spray paint, more like a brush. But stimm amateur.
I will agree with that timeline. When I look at photographs I took in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I see very little graffiti. It is more prominent in photographs from the mid 1990s, but not near as bad as today.
What does IIRC mean? Not to sound dense or anything. I don’t do text messaging.
I remember hearing about that brainstorm. It was entirely self-defeating, so it doesn’t matter if it worked or not.
If I recall correctly, it stands for “If I recall correctly.” [:-^]
loathar,
“IIRC” pre-dates text messaging. It’s old internet slang, along with several others:
BTW = By The Way
LOL = Laughing Out Loud
OTOH = On The Other Hand
YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary
And so on…
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_slang
learn it love it know it for if you have kids today this will be the lingo of choice it seems :).
EDIT, same goes for that other thread that I posted in but has since been deleted.
Leet speak is another form folks use more and more it seems, like this type stuff
3volv3 = evolve
l33t sp33k = leet speak (or geek speak is another analogy)
Sorry for the minor derailment just thought I’d share some good info that folks could use on these forums 
There is a very good book on freight car graffiti in USA, called
“Freight Train Graffiti”
Gives you a lot of history into the subjec. I have one and it is an interesting read. Also gives you more insight into who these guys are.
I can just picture it on the side of a low-rider HYDRA-CUSHIONED!!! or maybe a large WP with a feather painted across the hood!
Take for instance, a train rolls by and you’re waiting at a crossing…
An auto rack goes by. You see this huge, towering car almost 100 foot long and the sides seem to be perforated by little holes and you can barely see automobile silhouettes… okay, perhaps you just see that it is an enormous railcar with rounded roofs go by. Perhaps this car has added paint… known as “tagged” by a person who got hold of some paint. There is also art work on 50 foot grain cars.
(I have seen some very amazing work done to 60 foot freight cars… an entire winter sceen with snow flakes, snow covered trees, skiers, the sunny skies… you’d think someone was paid to do it.)
But, for an amazing sake of effort, multiply 86 x 15. You get almost 1300 square feet. That is the total area of this rail car side and there is someone’s art work. I say to this frame of mind…"this person has a lot of time on their hands. "
Q: How does one actually get the paint applied to this metal canvas?
Why the question?
1. This car i****s 15 foot high and 86 foot long.
2. It takes a lot of paint to cover such space. Never mind the time, geez!
3. The owner of this art may not see this art ever again once the train departs…
well, until he visits a hobbyshop and finds his painting being sold as a decal… and who’s gonna get the royalties, then? [soapbox]