RAILROAD ART ON RAIL CARS

[Anonymous]

Can anyone tell me how the artwork comes to be placed on the sides of rail cars? I am not talking about ugly gang graffitti, this stuff I am asking about is really artistic and unique! It is ususally drawn in a white color like soapstone, but also is done with black marker and they are ususally dated with some going back several years! My favorite is the "Colossaus of Roads"! It depicts the head of a fast moving engineer with a cowboy hat and a cigarette drooping out of his mouth to make it look like smoke from a stack and he always a witty expression underneath the picture that seems to express his feelings at the time. Also, some of the art is just initials or nicknames like "The Rambler, Port of Beamont" with a date incribed on a champagne glass. "Bozo Tejano" inside a unique cowboy hat is another. One piece of rail art is drawn with great detail of a mountain/ prairie scene at dusk and it is sgined, but I haven't been able to read the name because it is drawn in a small scale relative to the seat of the truck I sit in while the fast moving freight is rumbling by.
Hope somebody else has notice thes pictures!

[Anonymous]

Can anyone tell me how the artwork comes to be placed on the sides of rail cars? I am not talking about ugly gang graffitti, this stuff I am asking about is really artistic and unique! It is ususally drawn in a white color like soapstone, but also is done with black marker and they are ususally dated with some going back several years! My favorite is the "Colossaus of Roads"! It depicts the head of a fast moving engineer with a cowboy hat and a cigarette drooping out of his mouth to make it look like smoke from a stack and he always a witty expression underneath the picture that seems to express his feelings at the time. Also, some of the art is just initials or nicknames like "The Rambler, Port of Beamont" with a date incribed on a champagne glass. "Bozo Tejano" inside a unique cowboy hat is another. One piece of rail art is drawn with great detail of a mountain/ prairie scene at dusk and it is sgined, but I haven't been able to read the name because it is drawn in a small scale relative to the seat of the truck I sit in while the fast moving freight is rumbling by.
Hope somebody else has notice thes pictures!

[edblysard]

Did you note the Ramblers martini glass? He has been in Houston, New Orleans, Beaumont and Port Arthur. Count on him being a railroad employee, most likely a boomer for UP. And he perfers tank cars to anything else.
Yes, I see a lot of pretty detailed sketchs and line art, makes me wonder where they find the time, and what they could accomplish if they applied their talents to paper, instead of steel.
Seen your mountain/sunset drawing, just cant remember who did it, if I see it again, I will let you know.
Stay Frosty,
Ed.

[edblysard]

Did you note the Ramblers martini glass? He has been in Houston, New Orleans, Beaumont and Port Arthur. Count on him being a railroad employee, most likely a boomer for UP. And he perfers tank cars to anything else.
Yes, I see a lot of pretty detailed sketchs and line art, makes me wonder where they find the time, and what they could accomplish if they applied their talents to paper, instead of steel.
Seen your mountain/sunset drawing, just cant remember who did it, if I see it again, I will let you know.
Stay Frosty,
Ed.

[Anonymous]

Yes, Ed. Rambler's trademark is the martini/champagne glass with the bubbles coming out of it. Others are "Big A" from Pasadena and "No Bids". I have alwasy thought the persons rendering this art work are railroad workers because it has to be done in the yards while the cars are stationary for a while. However, I had an occasion in my work for an engineering firm to go to the rail loading faciliytty at a local petrochem plant and a lot of hopper cars sit there for days on end waiting to be shuffled around the plant before they are filled or emptied and returned to the main lines. So artists could be at work at those private locations also. The really good ones have a good sense of perspective in order to get their work displayed in correct scale for viewing by the general public.

[Anonymous]

Yes, Ed. Rambler's trademark is the martini/champagne glass with the bubbles coming out of it. Others are "Big A" from Pasadena and "No Bids". I have alwasy thought the persons rendering this art work are railroad workers because it has to be done in the yards while the cars are stationary for a while. However, I had an occasion in my work for an engineering firm to go to the rail loading faciliytty at a local petrochem plant and a lot of hopper cars sit there for days on end waiting to be shuffled around the plant before they are filled or emptied and returned to the main lines. So artists could be at work at those private locations also. The really good ones have a good sense of perspective in order to get their work displayed in correct scale for viewing by the general public.

[edblysard]

No bids works for the same railroad I do. Note the dates after his mark? He is low on the roster, and keeps getting forced to jobs, most often the really nasty ones.
A low seniority man gets forced to jobs that have gone "no bids" meaning no one bid on that job, for whatever reason, so the youngest guy on the extra board gets forced to it. He was the youngest here, so he kept getting forced to crud jobs.
He was upset about this for a long time, so he tagged cars with the date he got forced to that job as a way to get it out of his system.
Have you seen the Knuckle Man, a face shaped like a closed knuckle, with a cowboy hat?
Though that might be the face you were writing about. The person who draws that one often has a witty remark written under it.
Mine is SnakeCharmer, with a stylized snake for the S, followed by the date.
Big A works at Strang yard, in Pasadena Tx.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

QUOTE: Originally posted by duck49

Yes, Ed. Rambler's trademark is the martini/champagne glass with the bubbles coming out of it. Others are "Big A" from Pasadena and "No Bids". I have alwasy thought the persons rendering this art work are railroad workers because it has to be done in the yards while the cars are stationary for a while. However, I had an occasion in my work for an engineering firm to go to the rail loading faciliytty at a local petrochem plant and a lot of hopper cars sit there for days on end waiting to be shuffled around the plant before they are filled or emptied and returned to the main lines. So artists could be at work at those private locations also. The really good ones have a good sense of perspective in order to get their work displayed in correct scale for viewing by the general public.

[edblysard]

No bids works for the same railroad I do. Note the dates after his mark? He is low on the roster, and keeps getting forced to jobs, most often the really nasty ones.
A low seniority man gets forced to jobs that have gone "no bids" meaning no one bid on that job, for whatever reason, so the youngest guy on the extra board gets forced to it. He was the youngest here, so he kept getting forced to crud jobs.
He was upset about this for a long time, so he tagged cars with the date he got forced to that job as a way to get it out of his system.
Have you seen the Knuckle Man, a face shaped like a closed knuckle, with a cowboy hat?
Though that might be the face you were writing about. The person who draws that one often has a witty remark written under it.
Mine is SnakeCharmer, with a stylized snake for the S, followed by the date.
Big A works at Strang yard, in Pasadena Tx.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

QUOTE: Originally posted by duck49

Yes, Ed. Rambler's trademark is the martini/champagne glass with the bubbles coming out of it. Others are "Big A" from Pasadena and "No Bids". I have alwasy thought the persons rendering this art work are railroad workers because it has to be done in the yards while the cars are stationary for a while. However, I had an occasion in my work for an engineering firm to go to the rail loading faciliytty at a local petrochem plant and a lot of hopper cars sit there for days on end waiting to be shuffled around the plant before they are filled or emptied and returned to the main lines. So artists could be at work at those private locations also. The really good ones have a good sense of perspective in order to get their work displayed in correct scale for viewing by the general public.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if this is railroad "art", but raiolroaders have been marking cars with chalk or grease sticks at least since ralilroads started interchanging cars. The sunset you're thinking of is "The Solo Artist". A lot of them have disappeared over the years. Ed, remember "Radio Joe"? That was done by a trainman concerning the local yardmaster's habit of broadcasting on the radio ALL FRIGGING DAY! It was tough to work with a radio with him around. "J.B. King, Esq." was marked on hundreds of tankcars by a brakeman who has been fired some years now. I still see an occasional, badly faded "Water Bed Lou". There was "Speedy", a railroad rat with hands [paws?] in his pockets. Probably the most famous was "Herby", who was supposed to be a trainman on the MOP, but I saw Herbys dated the day I was seeing them in the east. [in other words, there could have been more that one] You still see some switching instructions in chalk, but not as much as in the past. Let's see, there's "Pancho of the Frisco", "Flow" with the snout of an F unit, I know I'll think of more later. I had a car mark, too, back in my braking days. And no, it wasn't "Skeets". Yeah, duck49, you hit a "hot button" for me on that.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if this is railroad "art", but raiolroaders have been marking cars with chalk or grease sticks at least since ralilroads started interchanging cars. The sunset you're thinking of is "The Solo Artist". A lot of them have disappeared over the years. Ed, remember "Radio Joe"? That was done by a trainman concerning the local yardmaster's habit of broadcasting on the radio ALL FRIGGING DAY! It was tough to work with a radio with him around. "J.B. King, Esq." was marked on hundreds of tankcars by a brakeman who has been fired some years now. I still see an occasional, badly faded "Water Bed Lou". There was "Speedy", a railroad rat with hands [paws?] in his pockets. Probably the most famous was "Herby", who was supposed to be a trainman on the MOP, but I saw Herbys dated the day I was seeing them in the east. [in other words, there could have been more that one] You still see some switching instructions in chalk, but not as much as in the past. Let's see, there's "Pancho of the Frisco", "Flow" with the snout of an F unit, I know I'll think of more later. I had a car mark, too, back in my braking days. And no, it wasn't "Skeets". Yeah, duck49, you hit a "hot button" for me on that.

[edblysard]

So thats the goods on Radio Joe...always wondered what that was about, only seen it twice in 7 years.
We have a yardmaster who fits thats description, we call him "microphone mike" because mike never has the mike away from his mouth.
Still see some switching marks, but not as much as I used to.
There is someone doing a stylized version of the rear window sticker kid peeing on a ford or chevy emblem, with UP instead of a car name.
We mark a few cars when we are training new guys, when they havent figured out what the spot numbers are on switch list.
Will keep a eye peeled for the "Solo Artist" to see if its signed.
By the way, your mark was?
Stay Frosty,
Ed

QUOTE: Originally posted by skeets

I don't know if this is railroad "art", but raiolroaders have been marking cars with chalk or grease sticks at least since ralilroads started interchanging cars. The sunset you're thinking of is "The Solo Artist". A lot of them have disappeared over the years. Ed, remember "Radio Joe"? That was done by a trainman concerning the local yardmaster's habit of broadcasting on the radio ALL FRIGGING DAY! It was tough to work with a radio with him around. "J.B. King, Esq." was marked on hundreds of tankcars by a brakeman who has been fired some years now. I still see an occasional, badly faded "Water Bed Lou". There was "Speedy", a railroad rat with hands [paws?] in his pockets. Probably the most famous was "Herby", who was supposed to be a trainman on the MOP, but I saw Herbys dated the day I was seeing them in the east. [in other words, there could have been more that one] You still see some switching instructions in chalk, but not as much as in the past. Let's see, there's "Pancho of the Frisco", "Flow" with the snout of an F unit, I know I'll think of more later. I had a car mark, too, back in my braking days. And no, it wasn't "Skeets". Yeah, duck49, you hit a "hot button" for me on that.

[edblysard]

So thats the goods on Radio Joe...always wondered what that was about, only seen it twice in 7 years.
We have a yardmaster who fits thats description, we call him "microphone mike" because mike never has the mike away from his mouth.
Still see some switching marks, but not as much as I used to.
There is someone doing a stylized version of the rear window sticker kid peeing on a ford or chevy emblem, with UP instead of a car name.
We mark a few cars when we are training new guys, when they havent figured out what the spot numbers are on switch list.
Will keep a eye peeled for the "Solo Artist" to see if its signed.
By the way, your mark was?
Stay Frosty,
Ed

QUOTE: Originally posted by skeets

I don't know if this is railroad "art", but raiolroaders have been marking cars with chalk or grease sticks at least since ralilroads started interchanging cars. The sunset you're thinking of is "The Solo Artist". A lot of them have disappeared over the years. Ed, remember "Radio Joe"? That was done by a trainman concerning the local yardmaster's habit of broadcasting on the radio ALL FRIGGING DAY! It was tough to work with a radio with him around. "J.B. King, Esq." was marked on hundreds of tankcars by a brakeman who has been fired some years now. I still see an occasional, badly faded "Water Bed Lou". There was "Speedy", a railroad rat with hands [paws?] in his pockets. Probably the most famous was "Herby", who was supposed to be a trainman on the MOP, but I saw Herbys dated the day I was seeing them in the east. [in other words, there could have been more that one] You still see some switching instructions in chalk, but not as much as in the past. Let's see, there's "Pancho of the Frisco", "Flow" with the snout of an F unit, I know I'll think of more later. I had a car mark, too, back in my braking days. And no, it wasn't "Skeets". Yeah, duck49, you hit a "hot button" for me on that.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by edblysard

So thats the goods on Radio Joe...always wondered what that was about, only seen it twice in 7 years.
We have a yardmaster who fits thats description, we call him "microphone mike" because mike never has the mike away from his mouth.
Still see some switching marks, but not as much as I used to.
There is someone doing a stylized version of the rear window sticker kid peeing on a ford or chevy emblem, with UP instead of a car name.
We mark a few cars when we are training new guys, when they havent figured out what the spot numbers are on switch list.
Will keep a eye peeled for the "Solo Artist" to see if its signed.
By the way, your mark was?
Stay Frosty,
Ed
I'm certain no one remembers, I was "Zimmie" with a head-on view of a steam engine with the engineer hanging out of the cab. It wasn't fancy, because the idea was to do a lot of them quickly. I did the last one about '73. No time for that stuff as an engineman. Ed, remember "Willy the Weeper"? Actually, Radio Joe and Willy the Weeper were done by the same trainman to tweak two different guys.. You know about Joe, let me tell you about the Weeper. He was named that by one of his drinking buddies because when they were drinking beer together, Willy's eyes would start watering. The day before they started alcohol testing, the Weeper laid off. He came back to work "on the wagon" and stayed there. He got rolled several years ago, and part of the settlement was to retire. He was 67 at the time. There were hundreds of cars marked for Joe or Willy by a trainman who now works for the commuter road in Miami. I haven't seen one of them for some years, as they have faded or been obliterated by the "taggers". [who I detest, by the way.]

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