Freight train graffiti: love it or hate it?

[Gumboots]

Just wondering what people think about freight car graffiti. Apparently some train enthusiasts hate it. I can see why they wouldn't like some of it, but OTOH there's some that I think is genuinely artistic and looks a heck of a lot better than grotty old boxcars.

[Hawk]

Yep, some of it is pretty artistic. I don't really care for the gang markers though.

[obertran]

They can be artistic, the problem is when they do it to new cars and waggons, which are pretty as they are with its original colors. The worst ones are the ones that they stop the train with the alarm on a station to do them in seconds.

[Gumboots]

Yes setting off fake alarms is not a good thing. Anyone who does that should definitely be prosecuted if they're caught. And I agree that new or well-maintained passenger stock should be left alone.

I don't see much harm in painting old freight stock in a yard though. The sanest of the graffiti artists seem to have a sort of informal understanding with the railroad, and leave all the reporting marks uncovered so the company doesn't have to clean off graffiti to keep track of their cars. Some of them will actually mask the reporting marks before spraying. This works to their advantage, because with little incentive to clean it off their work stays on the cars longer.

[CeeBee]

Guess I'm the lone wolf but in my world mother nature is supposed to do the weathering, not some grade school dropout with a spray can. Yeah, I'm old school. :)

[Gumboots]

Graffiti is not weathering. They still weather the same as any other car.

[Gumboots]

CeeBee: take a look at the examples here: http://www.ekosystem.org/tag_big/aris/page/1

These are by an Italian graffiti artist who goes by the nickname of Aris. Nothing like the gang tag style, and IMO would not be out of place on the walls of a gallery.

[CeeBee]

Just doesn't belong on a RR car. Don't remember ever seeing graffiti back when I was a kid. Don't like it when it started, don't like it now. But to each their own I guess.

[CeeBee]

As to the weathering comment I made..... I was being facetious :) I think anyway

[Gumboots]

Hey this just turned up in the news over here. The artist in this case approached the train's owners first, and they were keen for him to do it.

Moveable art: Guido Van Helten paints train wagons with portraits of rural life



Before he approached the rail company, he had already done some work on some abandoned silos.

Brim silo artwork: the tall tales and colourful characters behind Guido van Helten's paintings