The rail yard at work was bleak, blank, and barren from my vantage point through most of the new year. After a mild start, things turned miserable during January’s third week! I knew I’d have to plod around in freezing windchills to find decent graffiti inside the yard, so I ran out just as the subzero forecasts came in. My trip didn’t reveal a lot, but what I found was diverse.
Welcome to railcar spotting! If you’re new, here’s the gist: the factory I work for receives raw materials by rail. Graffiti on the cars adds splashes of color to my day, so I take pictures of the pieces that catch my eye. Up to now, I’ve published photos of thirty-nine railcars in five monthly posts. Unexpectedly, railcar spotting has turned into a series!
Our rail yard holds about sixty cars at maximum capacity. I’m responsible for supplying our plant with raw materials, and CSX drops them off in cars they change about twice a week. I see one side of a third of them when I walk from the parking lot to my office, but none of the cars facing our driveway had any graffiti on them as the month kicked off.
Our stock remained static as we ramped production up during the first half of the month. Unfortunately for me, our last shipment must have consisted of new cars since none in my path had so much as a set of initials on them. After I heard that Indiana was destined to become a Siberian hellscape last week, I ducked under a car to take a closer look at our other rail lines. This “FRIKS” car was the first that stood out.
This weatherbeaten “EQUAL” railcar was in our second spur. All the live long day, CSX performs an intricate dance to position the cars so we can empty them out. Once stationed, we rely on a complicated system of pumps, pipes, hoses, and tubes to send their materials into our silos. One of our fixed pipes is there in the foreground corner; a plastic extension used to connect it to a car sits just behind.
More extensions sat near the “EIDER” car. It’s a striking piece that appears to have been painted over something else in camouflage. I have no idea what it means, but I applaud the guy who tagged it: the art spans nearly two-thirds of the forty-two foot covered hopper car! My photo doesn’t do it justice, but I’ll circle back on that.
The first real highlight of January’s quarry was this colorful piece on a railcar next to the EIDER art. My favorite tags are bold and full of color. This one would rank high on a new all-time list! That said, I have no idea what it means or says. I’ve made no effort to translate it, so I hope it doesn’t call out something nasty.
I’m always looking for “character cars” featuring art that depicts people, animals, and other stuff instead of block letters. I’ve seen anthropomorphic boomboxes and gaucho-wearing skulls, but I hadn’t noticed a character car since September. January came through in a big way! This piece depicts a pair of heads with eyes, ears, and gesturing hands. It’s one of the most unusual cars I’ve shared!
I saw this subversive fast-food scribble as I trudged back inside. I don’t usually feature scrawlings like this, but the piece made the perfect cap to my trek. I conducted a Google search for “adult crayons,” but it only revealed a lame set of sticks that included names like “Prancer’s Malignant Cancer” and “Soulless Ginger-bread men.” An Urban Dictionary search proved equally fruitless.
I called game early this month, but we’ve received new cars since then. It’s been too cold to venture out into the yard, but the EIDER car got moved to a new place and I can see more cars worth taking pictures of from the parking lot. I’ll include them in February’s post if they’re still here. I hope they are- some look really interesting from a distance.
