Any of you modern guys run graffiti laden cars or consists?

That's the context I put it in when someone calls it 'ART'.

Is someone keying your car in a pretty pattern 'ART'???

Eh, vagrancy is also a crime but many of us have hobos on our layouts.

Exactly. I'd find it hard to believe that ONE person has been encouraged to participate in actually putting graffiti on something after seeing it on a model railroad. Just like how having a pub on my layout doesn't encourage anyone to drink.

My layout is 32" above floor level. That works out to 128 scale feet that O Scale vandalizing creatons fall after being caught by my O Scale railroad police force. Since it's my world, officers are rewarded for eliminating creatons. They get to hang out indefinitely with the hot chicks. The crime rate is low and incidence of repeat offenders is "0".

 

Gilly

 

I guess I didn't put as much thought into it as some of you.  I purchased the MTH subway cars with graffiti a while back and I love them.  I run them as part of a two track elevated subway loop.  I guess it just reminds me of old New York...at least those years are the old New York to me.  I don't condone it but in my youth that's what they looked like.  BigRail

 

 

I suspect that certain less favorable aspects of society such as hobos are more tolerant with modellers within the landscape they create because, just as in real life, their presence tends to be more subtle than a string of cars that were prominently tagged.

 "I really hope to see some pics or better a vid of some O gauge graffiti." 

 

  I've added graffiti to a lot of O models over the years, most have been sold since I've switched to S scale due to downsizing my house in the future. I'm glad the taggers showed up as the mergers began,their work replaces in a way the dozens of individual railroad paint schemes  we used to see. It would be very boring if only the remaining mega merger lines paint schemes were all we could see.......DaveB 

If I did modern-era I certainly would; often the most entertaining thing about a common car. I have put graffiti on one or two modern cars I have lettered - I would like to do

a few more, but haven't. A modern-era layout doesn't look quite right without it. 

Really, you think that vagrants walking around is more subtle than some spray paint on some train cars? 

Come on, how do you not love a boxcar with a picture of a UFO and "You Will Be Assimilated" written under it?

I guess some guys just don't want to be assimilated.  I can't imagine why.

I don't like to see it on the real trains, but I do have a couple MTH high cube box cars that I bought that were weathered and have some graffiti on them.  They were inexpensively priced, too, I might add.

 

Larry

Dave, great pics. What method did you use? They look so realistic. I'm guessing, not decals.

 

Which of the two scenarios stands out the most to you?  Are railroad hobos as mainstream in the public eye as graffiti?

 

There was a guy on this forum from NY several years ago that painted rolling stock with heavy graffiti on them. I don't recall his name (it may have been pitigo) and he has apparently lost interest, but he was quite good at his art. As for my layout, graffiti didn't come around until the popularity of the paint spray can came about The time period that I model is the 1950's and at that time chalk was the popular way to scribble. People back then generally had more respect for property.

One more for no, I don't have any cars with graffiti and don't want the look of it on my layout.

I like to wait at a road crossing and watch the trains go by just as much as many people on the forum do, and I usually see a lot of graffiti on cars in the "real" world, but that's not the look I remember growing up as a kid.

If you want it, go for it, they are your toy trains to enjoy however you want.

And I agree with the opinion that it's a lost opportunity of effort that could have been applied in a much more constructive manner for the good of people in need.

"Come on, how do you not love a boxcar with a picture of a UFO and "You Will Be Assimilated" written under it?"

 

  I doubt many SP fans  loved the assimilation :>     Here's the complete car and the other side. It is one of the old CMCC USH flat kit cars, probably some of the first modern era kits built.....DaveB

 "What method did you use? They look so realistic. I'm guessing, not decals."

 

    I don't think any of those O scale cars had decals but I do use them if I have them for certain spots. I don't like to put decals over ribs or other raised features so I'll use them on flat sided car mostly or cut them to fit between the ribs and then paint the ribs to match. These are two of my S scale cars. The SP boxcar is a Lionel O gauge hi cube converted to S scale, it has decals on the flat body panels and hand painted tag on the doors. The UP hopper has a decal cut to fit between the ribs with paint matching the ribs to the decal and some other small tags applied with sharpies. Depending on the car and the scale many different methods work best, the blue GE gondola is a TT scale car that was made by printing a photo out and then gluing it to a plastic body, then adding ribs and painting them to match the side photo artwork....DaveB   

Very nice daveb.

If one were modeling modern era and didn't like graffiti you could model "buffed out" cars which is the term for cars that had been graffitied but then painted over in a patched out manner. It is not graffiti but realistic I the since that you see cars like this every day in consists.

 

Here is a Youtube link to a tounge in cheek short documentary called The Subconcious Art of Graffiti Removal.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cv5JBpZPOl4

 

No Vandalism here

 

Clem

My thought is that graffiti on cars is like weathering.  If you like it go for it, if not then don't.  Personally, I would never tell anyone what belongs on their layout and what doesn't.

 

One reason that I don't have any graffiti on any of my cars is the same reason that nothing is weathered, I simply don't have the skills to do it well.  Another reason is that most of my stuff models the 40's, 50's, and 60's.

 

Jim

On one of our local freight yards they treat taggers with deadly force. The yards are surrounded by 10' chain-link with 4 rows of razor wire. During the daylight hours they have rolling security. At night and weekends it's doubled. BTW  Deadly Force is authorized, and posted as such. UP & BNSF pay top dollar to keep their premier customer cars unmarked (tag free) and the customers pay for this service, also.

The big roads pay hundreds of millions a year trying to keep their cars tag free. Part of the solution is to always send the tagged cars to the same areas. That's part of the reason behind your always seeing the same cars in the same area.

 

Let's not get started on the hobo population this time around. The ones out there now are trash for the most part. 

Think of the children!

I actually suggested it to my son when he was 12 and he was upset that we would put illegal stuff on the layout.  Didn't do it but still love this picture.

RichO,

Personally, I love the same picture as well, I'm not embarrassed. I have quite a few Thomas items in my trainroom. 

There is no art in graffitti causing the deaths of young children, ask the LAPD how many kids die from them tagging over some other kids so called art or someones personnel property.

Insanity

John P

Deadly force is authorized?  By whom?  For trespassing and vandalism?

 

Jim

  "By whom?"

 

   Warren Buffet?  :> 

I would go for the Thomas version if he had a black eye.  Just sayin...