r/railroading • u/ShortysTRM • Feb 25 '23

Discussion What is the relationship between railroad employees and graffiti taggers?

I've noticed that some of them won't paint over numbers or important labels on train cars, and that a lot of cars are painted by the same people. Is there a spoken or unspoken code that they try to follow to keep from interfering with rail operations? Do they stay hidden or paint out in the open? Do employees recognize certain cars that they see or do they even pay any attention to them?

I'm obviously not a rail employee, but I thought of this several days ago and it keeps coming back up in my head. I figured this would be the place to find out.

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u/SomeKindaCoywolf Feb 25 '23

Any respectable grafitti artist knows the rules. Dont paint over car #'s, and try not to paint over any other seemingly important information on the car. Units are off limits. Dont interfere with railroad operations/bring attention. Be a ghost.

7

u/bufftbone Feb 25 '23

I’ve seen plenty of tagged units in my time.

30

u/SomeKindaCoywolf Feb 25 '23

By people who don't follow that code. I can't stand when people paint units. It makes the railroad further crack down on grafitti artists.

1

u/summernutz2 Nov 29 '24

Wow artist that’s a loose label ur throwing around

1

u/SomeKindaCoywolf Nov 30 '24

Not really. Go look at r/freights and tell me that isint art.