Read time: 5 min.

2024 has proven a banner year for railcar spotting so far. January kicked things off with a diverse slate of art, and February brought a kaleidoscope of color. March brought triumph and tragedy, but the provocative parade of pieces persisted.

Let’s get the tragedy out of the way. This “ZUKA” car showed up in the far reaches of the yard just before I took three days off work. The view was clear, but the wind was fierce. I’d have liked nothing more than to grab a picture of the gigantic, brazen piece, but I figured it’d still be perfectly posed for a portrait when I returned. Sure enough, it wasn’t.

I noticed the car had been moved when I returned. Unfortunately, its new location led to a sobering realization: capturing the entire “ZUKA” piece in a single, head-on frame was impossible! Fifteen-foot tags don’t show up in our yard all that often, though, so settled for the header image and this three-quarters view. Hopefully, I’ll be able to snag a better picture as CSX drags it away.

“ZUKA” aside, I was pleasantly surprised by how the rest of the month unfolded. The sun poked through here and there, but the blue and tan colors of this car brightened my Monday. I love how those colors interact! Unfortunately, I’m unable to decipher what this piece actually says. “CEIVSE?” “CEIVnbE?” I don’t have any credibility in reading graffiti. Really, I shouldn’t bother, since the art itself is what captures my attention. As always, it’s an honest mistake if I’ve featured something blatantly antagonistic here.

Sometimes I can read the art I come across. When I do, I google it to see if it’s been catalogued elsewhere. This piece says “SiKER.” Turns out, that’s the name of a French street artist credited with introducing graffiti into the city of Montreal! I’ll let you decide whether that’s good or bad, but the international flair of this piece made it cool to see. Welcome to Anderson, SiKER, and thanks for gracing the railyard at work with your distinctive tag.

The next piece I saw struck a personal chord. When I was in middle school, my parents let us repaint our rooms in any color we wanted. I opted for the exact shade of seafoam green that adorns this railcar! The walls really popped with my black comforter and the warm orange tones of my desk and bed, and I loved it. Combined with the car’s amber reflectors, the black characters and greenish background of this tag reminded me of home.

Blues and greens are common features of most of the art I find. Sometimes, they’re blended together, as seen here. The “HATERs” tag appeared to be the second part of a larger piece, but its car was parked on our middle track like the “ZUKA.”

I couldn’t back up far enough to capture the entire thing, but both tags were compelling on their own. Here’s the first half of the ‘HATERs” car. It says “SPEAK.” “SPEAK, HATERs,” sounds like a provocative invitation! Maybe that’s what the artist intended.

Even though I couldn’t get a better photo of the “ZUKA” car, I saved the best car art for last. It’s this agitated snowman! I’ve encountered a variety of imaginative anthropomorphic pieces I call “character cars” over the past year, but none have been as fantastic as a snowman with a spray can! Coupled with a pine tree and Christmas lights, he infused my mid-March morning with a dash of holiday cheer.

Snowmen traditionally feature carrot noses, coal eyes, and a corncob pipe, but the spray can -a modern tool of urban expression- is a unique addition to Frosty’s grip. I’ve never graffitied anything more than a triscuit, but I love it. The snowman on this car instantly took ownership of my top-five! The best graffiti I’ve found during this series has transformed my everyday surroundings into extraordinary works of art. I’m excited to see what April brings.