Read time: 3 min.

I work at the only factory in my company equipped to send and receive materials by rail. I love seeing all the graffiti as it comes and goes! Fortunately, our yard gets enough traffic to turn my favorite tags into a blog post every month. I’m on my fourteenth edition of railcar spotting! Including today’s, I’ve shared a hundred and five of my favorite pieces since I started last year. Can you believe it?

August brought an array of challenges for our operations team at work. One was the amount of railcars we received. Fortunately, that made the railyard vibrant with color. The burst of blue behind this EQUAL piece added a striking contrast to the northern stretches of our property. I’ve seen other EQUAL cars show up before, most recently in January, and I was glad to find another.

This car sat behind the EQUAL piece on an adjacent spur. Although it featured two adjacent pieces, I like to think they were part of some greater message. Who’s Emjay? Why do they need woken up? I have so many questions. If you squint, the text around the “WaKe” segment almost implies waking them up with a brick, a hookah, or a drill! Each option would be sufficient to rouse me; maybe Emjay is a sound sleeper.

I’m an unabashed fan of the color pink. When it’s mixed with green, I think of peonies, tulips, and hibiscus. I’m not a big flower guy with much horticultural knowledge, but I know the good stuff when I see it. Unfortunately, I don’t know where to start when it comes to trying to read this car!

This piece pretty clearly reads FLAME. If the text didn’t make it clear, the orange and yellow background certainly should! The bright blue L and lilac M stood out to me as a unique color combination I don’t often see, and I see a lot of cars. Our yard can hold about sixty at a time, but only the most interesting make the cut for railcar spotting.

The FLORA car was painted right next to FLAME and it became my hands-down favorite of the month. It’s actually sprouting leaves! I expected more art given all the cars we received this August, but it’s still been an unquestionably colorful month down at the railyard. I hope September keeps up the trend!