An idea for the Railroad Industry

From my understanding talking to friends who are railroad employees, I don't think they care too too much (other than the fact that they likely were tresspassing on private property to do it) as long as they don't cover up the reporting marks and numbers and important info like that. Some of the "art" is actually quite artistic and the "artists" usually respect not to cover up the reporting marks and so on because the railroad will paint over it and restencil it in.

I personally would say as a railroad, looks like a bunch of kids that might be picking an unusual method of applying to either the marketing department or the car paint shops.:hehe:
 
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Off topic but wow-I was following the maze of tracks in Chicago and boy oh boy-has anyone had the ambition to attempt to model Chicago Station and the yards and mainlines around the area?
 
ME!!! I got the yard and most of the station done, but then lost the computer (the techies still don't know whats up) I am currently working on millennium station, with hopes to do the rest of downtown chicago. for more info see the recent thread by Euphod for Chicagolanders.

peter
 
mjolnir said:
The ban on "billboard" rail cars applied only to non-owner advertising on carrier owned equipment. Privately owned railcars are still permitted to have billboard style graphics, and a few still do, though I haven't noted any new cars where the owner bothers, at least not since the 1970's and 1980's, when a number of grain elevators leased equipment, and painted their names on the side. Railroads are still permitted to advertise themselves on their cars, the way ATSF and CRIP did when they used their boxcars to advertise the routes of their passenger trains. The fact is, though, that railroads in general are not as visible to the general population as they once were--a fair amount of urban trackage has been pulled up, and most new trackage is a not easily seen by the general public, and in those cases where a public right of way parallels a railroad, the right of way is not generally very well traveled. Where a well traveled public highway does parallel a rail line with significant density, the traffic on both generally is moving fast enough that the car would not be as recognizable as a roadside sign, so in general, I doubt that the sides of freight cars will ever be viewed by those in charge of marketing as a cost effective means of promoting a product or service.

ns
Click to expand...

That was interesting to read, of course, the other problems are, that boxcars are bound to be stuck in someone's warehouse for a week or two, out of sight to the general public, being loaded and unloaded and they also become defective, for whatever reason, from time to time and may be stuck in some railroad companies' workshop for several weeks or months, being fixed, which would not help any high profile corporation if their "sponsored flagship" was tucked away from the world to see......

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.
 
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miraoister said:
SNIPPERS?! Come on we're not that bad!

http://i13.tinypic.com/6sg6iau.jpg

and as you can see from the link the concept of sniper and vandal go we'll together in Falujah!
Click to expand...

Give me a break!:o

I don't think snipers are necessary, just a team of "taggers" to deface the vandal's cars, houses, and maybe their mother's furniture as retribution. I wonder if that would deter them from future acts of vandalism.
Ed;)
 
I doubt railroads would bother washing or repainting defaced cars. They don't even necessarily repaint rolling stock into the colors of its new owner.

I can still see some boxcars sitting on a storage track in St. Paul with their Milwaukee Road heralds still on them. And, as of two years ago, the Canadian Pacific was using some old ex-Milwaukee Road switchers that are on their third owner, but are still in Milwaukee Road black and orange.

If painting locomotives and cars into their new colors is such a low priority, how important do you think railroads would consider removing graffiti to be?
 
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When one considers the amount of tagging of freight cars that occurs, the amount of profanity / obscenity seems to be quite low. In my own personal experience, the number of cars tagged with that type of material is quite low; I remember seeing only three or four in the case of a couple of decades, though I admit that I may have missed some. I suspect that, in fact, that tagging with obscenities is somewhat more frequent that it would seem, and that cars tagged with obvious obscenity get a rather quick trip to the paint shop.

And yes, repainting cars and locomotives is expensive, so it doesn't get done until it pretty much has to be done.

ns
 
It's also worth considering that various societies around the world have different attitudes towards graffiti and where their trackage is.

At the moment, I'm living in South Korea and from what I can see, most of the rolling stock is kept in fairly good condition. That may be because the freight shares the railroad with passenger subway/commuter traffic (so it's probably kept bordered/walled in). I notice on some of the buses here that there is some graffiti, but it's nothing like back home for me (in Canada).

I was rather shocked to see many billboards and public items that have hardly been vandalized here. I think it stems from something in the culture (although what that exactly is, I cannot tell you). Perhaps people in other countries could add what they think. What I do know is that many rail lines go through poor areas in North America and I think it's a safe generalization to say that poor areas tend to have more petty crimes (such as vandalism in this case) and crimes in general (I wont even begin to try to go into the why).

That woman suing the railroad? Ugh man...what a joke! I hope she lost that case and that it cost her a bundle! I wish people back home would get it into their heads that the way to get rich for most people is by working hard, saving money and climbing up the ladder, instead of inheritance, lotteries and suing others for wussy reasons.

Anyhow, it would be great to see these cars restored to their former glory but I just don't see it happening. Everything dilapates in time...but the good news is that some of the dirt gives it character and that some cars seem to magically escape that fate for a long time. :D

I completely and totally agree that if someone is caught tagging or vandalizing, not only should they be prosecuted, but they should have to clean some of the cars (even if they didn't tag them) as punishment, pay for the cleaning materials out of their own pocket and face a further fine made billable to their parents. It's needless, dangerous, selfish and disrespectful to say the least.

I know it might sound cruel to some of you guys, but afaik in Japan, some people who commit suicide on the raillines end up costing them a lot of money, so the company is allowed to bill the suicider's family for their losses. The threat of deterrance and accountability would do a lot to prevent such things in both cases...

There's my 2 cents for the day...

:wave:

Gisa ^^
 
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