Read time: 4 min.

I thought the yard at work would be awash in colorful railcars this month, but I was wrong. For some reason, the ones we received were unusually clean! Only five managed to catch my eye, but that’s still plenty for the 15th edition of my railcar spotting series. So far, I’ve shared 105 of my favorite tags, and five new finds are about to join the collection! Welcome to the September, 2024, edition of railcar spotting.

I couldn’t decide what to share and what to forget of the first car that grabbed my attention, so I included the entire thing. It reminds me of a typical buffet plate. Back in the 1990s, places like Ryan’s, Golden Corral, and Old Country Buffet were top draws on Sunday mornings! Visits always included a daring mishmash of food genres all mushed up next to one another. Chicken parmesan with a side of nacho cheese and stir fry? Sign me up! This car reminds me a lot of those salad days which, ironically, included very little salad.

Aside from that first buffet plate of a car I featured, the rest of September’s offerings were among the most legible I’ve ever found. This “RISe” car stuck out to me because of its bold pallet of red, black, and gold. That’s a powerful color scheme! I wish some local high school basketball team would adopt it for its jerseys. The gold would really make them stand out!

The next tag that captured my attention was this RANE piece. This combination of blue and green always reminds me of the Toy Story aliens. The light blue highlights and accents really make the piece pop from the dull gray of the hopper car it adorns.

PiNCH sat right next to the RANE piece, and its yellow-orange-red gradient really makes it stick out from its neighbor! I assume RANE and PiNCH are the names of the artists who painted each tag, but a quick Google search didn’t reveal much. Neither did a search of Urban Dictionary. I wish I could provide some commentary on the merits of each piece, but I don’t know anything about graffiti or the artists who paint them.

This piece stood on the same car as RANE and PiNCH. It says “FRiED” in similar Toy Story alien hues like we saw in the RANE tag. Aside from that, these particular hues make me recall the heyday of the Charlotte Hornets, playing Sonic the Hedgehog on my old Sega Saturn, and the Baja Blast Zero I had with lunch at Taco Bell yesterday.

I fancy myself a bit of an artist, but I’ve never added to the collection of railroad tags myself. When it comes to the cars I see, just call me Potter Stewart. I don’t have any credibility when it comes to critiquing graffiti, but I know the good stuff when I see it. As always, it’s an honest mistake I’ve inadvertently shared something offensive. Nevertheless, September’s railyard art was colorful and legible! It stirred up some good memories. I’m excited to see what October brings. It’ll be time for my yearly round-up before we know it!