Althouse: Railroad grafitti.

October 21, 2019

Railroad grafitti.

22 comments:

rhhardin said...: There's no art on Vietnamese freight cars, at random, shot two days ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj9vtmTp2Ro; 10/21/19, 8:48 PM
D 2 said...: "Now I'm so sorry for what I've done, and I'm out here on my own.
It was a train that took me away from here but a train can't bring me home."

Tommy Waits sings about regret and humility as good as anyone.
Nighthawks at the Diner was released on this day in 1975 by the way.; 10/21/19, 8:49 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: That makes us all Russian assets.; 10/21/19, 9:01 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: railroad graffiti/grafitti can be cleaned off at the train yard

...a removable feast.; 10/21/19, 9:06 PM
Seeing Red said...: Talented people whose art gets to be seen by a lot of people.; 10/21/19, 9:16 PM
Milwaukie guy said...: I hate RR car graffiti. The N-S West Coast UP main line goes through my town. No artistic value.

Just a couple of days ago I said that I wasn't getting the fall colors yet [150' above sea level in the Willamette Valley]. We've been having a lot of 30°-ish nights and it seems like the switch has been tripped. Suddenly, the Japanese maples are going red and the aspens are going yellow. Every else is still waiting. It's a slow process. I'll be raking fresh leaves into December.; 10/21/19, 9:17 PM
mockturtle said...: Our train graffiti here in the West seems less talented but is a lot more colorful.; 10/21/19, 9:35 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Most boxcar tagging is rubbish and it seriously detracts from the romance of trains. Every night about 10PM, a time when I'm typically laying in bed reading with the bedroom window open, I hear the horns of freight trains across the wooded valley behind my house. It's a great elegiac note at the end of the day. So Paco II and Lady Tripps can kiss my ass.; 10/21/19, 9:55 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: I like the wizard though. If it was all that quality I could dig it.; 10/21/19, 9:57 PM
PluralThumb said...: Graffiti is illegal without concent.
That person needs to get a refund for the markers and put in jail for property damage. Preferably on a Friday night !
That should teach them not to distract my benzodiapemine dose to cope with my daily commute. And the messages are a blasphemy.
And some colour would not hurt the eyes.
Idiot artists.; 10/21/19, 9:58 PM
Anonymous said...: Milwaukie guy said...

I'm new to Oregon

what was it in the 19th century water that caused the pioneers to be so slavish in stealing place names

- Milwaukie
Salem
Albany
Springfield
Dallas
Dayton
Palestine?
monmouth
independence
sidney
fargo
aurora

all in the valley; 10/21/19, 10:30 PM
David Duffy said...: There it is, a picture, a beautiful framed photo of the West and the South. The symmetrical railroad ties and the symmetrical rectangles of the railroad car of man's machines against the asymmetrical barren landscape of the West and South where our forefathers settled in the desert and swamps and wilderness.

In rebellion against machines made of metal and boxes, is the art work, the graffiti of the rebel. The rebel Confederate who didn't give a damn about slavery was the true nonconformist of his day, a true hippie.

The delinquents who spray their graffiti art on railroad property should have had a good father. If the delinquents had a good father, they may have built railroads rather than tag them.; 10/21/19, 10:39 PM
Yancey Ward said...: One of the things I miss about Connecticut are the Fall colors. Here in Oak Ridge, TN you don't get those vibrant and varied colors- brown and light yellow is about the limit of it, and by the time you actually get even that, most of the leaves are off the trees. Even right now, the leaves are still mostly green, but coming off the trees everywhere.; 10/21/19, 11:21 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Looks like Trudeau will remain PM. The Liberals have lost their absolute majority, but will probably form a coalition with Bloc Quebecois.; 10/21/19, 11:24 PM
Sarthurk said...: Thanks for the Photo project idea! Seriously, living way out here to the end of the line on the central Oregon coast, we get wood chip cars from the valley, and there's some pretty awesome spray paint on some of them. I might have to find a good rail yard,in the valley too, and do some documentation. DSLR up front. .45 cal @ 4 'O' Clock. That's just the way it is. . .; 10/21/19, 11:36 PM
William said...: The HBO show Succession is pretty good. It's more of a parody than a soap opera, closer to Veep than to Dallas. I guess it was meant as a take down of the Murdoch or Trump family, but the dissolute son, the one with the coke problems, is a dead ringer for Hunter Biden.; 10/22/19, 12:31 AM
gadfly said...: It would seem that the practical solution to graffiti-covered rail cars would be Sherwin -Williams Anti-Graffiti Coating. It "is a cost-effective, ready-to-use solution intended for use over bare concrete or previously painted surfaces. It offers excellent graffiti resistance and ease of cleaning, without leaving any shadowing or staining. Anti-Graffiti Coating is a permanent solution that creates a nonstick surface to repel graffiti from paint, spray paint cans, and permanent markers without chemical cleaning, abrasives, repainting or reapplication."

But first consider how boring those rail crossing waits will be without the freight car graffiti.; 10/22/19, 2:41 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: In MT, we see whole BNSF trains covered with graffiti. I think that they are mostly east bound, which means that the graffiti was likely added somewhere on the west coast. It could have been in Seattle, but not enough trains so covered (most aren’t), which is why I expect it to have come from further south, maybe even LA. And you just don’t see any graffiti on top of graffiti, or even ore than one project per car. I think it is artistic. That seems to have been the goal. I find it interesting, since we just don’t see that much of it. More colorful than in Ann’s photograph, mostly in 2-3 primary colors. Recently a lot of blue and yellow. But the drawings don’t seem as complicated.; 10/22/19, 3:17 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “Just a couple of days ago I said that I wasn't getting the fall colors yet [150' above sea level in the Willamette Valley]. We've been having a lot of 30°-ish nights and it seems like the switch has been tripped. Suddenly, the Japanese maples are going red and the aspens are going yellow. Every else is still waiting. It's a slow process. I'll be raking fresh leaves into December.”

Winter came a couple weeks early this year in NW MT - first snow was at the end of Sept, and not mid October. Which was bad for the few deciduous trees in the area (mostly in the parks around town), some of which lost large branches as a result. Not horrible though, since evergreens are clearly very dominant.

We rented an RV by Missoula that week, and rushed back a day early to stay by that city to avoid having to put on chains. Except that they didn’t supply chains or even a snow brush. Not enough snow to have caused problems. Still I was glad that we had pushed to get back early.; 10/22/19, 3:28 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "I like the wizard though."

Yeah. And the "ralien."

I thought this was intriguing and high quality. I'm guessing it's the chalk-type marker than can be easily washed off.; 10/22/19, 5:26 AM
PM said...: Probably the work of the New Hoboes.; 10/22/19, 10:37 AM
FullMoon said...: Hear, Hear!

"SECRETARY CARSON: Our kind Father in Heaven, we’re so thankful for the many blessings that you have bestowed upon us in this country. And we’re thankful for the people of courage who have been here before us, who have fought hard for the rights of our country.

And we thank you for President Donald Trump, who also exhibits great courage in face of constant criticism. And we ask that you would give him strength to endure and the wisdom lead, and to recognize you as the sovereigns of the universe with the solution to everything."; 10/22/19, 12:02 PM