Thankyou

Dear Tony,

Thanks for a well-researched and written article. "Can Control" and "Freight Train Graffiti" are very-much relevant and useful references to the "modern" (1980-now) modeller, and do give key insights as to the why/how/where of the graffiti we commonly see on the railroads. It was also good to see you dove deep-enough in to catch all the way back to "Boxo Texino", "Herbie", and the late "chalk writers" of their day...

For those driven to "model the contemporary prototype as it is",
this article is a good primer on the "heavy-weathering" graffiti prototype,
and I strongly reccomend picking up a copy of Gastman's "Freight Train Graffiti".

Happy Modelling,
Aiming to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

nice articel

im a modeler who loves all forms of graffiti. well covered article.  for those who are FB users, this group follows many of the artists and captures art from all over.   you will see people benching, that means to sit and watch for graffiti and watch for certain artists work.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/pa1nt0nfre1ght5/

Thank you for this article.

Thank you for this article. It is good to see some information that just goes beyond applying decalcs!

I question myself about differences I see in the article, between real cars and models. In the article, photos 7, 8, 9, 13 and 18 show real cars with graffiti, with the paint always applied from the very bottom of the car body to any at-reach space. This is the most common case that can be noticed on most trains, even if photos 26 and 30 show otherwise (but that's really minor). On the models used as examples (photos 21, 22, 24), there is a gap between the bottom of the car body and the beginning of the graffiti. This is particularly visible when you compare photos 18 (real car with Honi on it) and 22 (the model). I'm wondering why has it been done like this; technical reasons?

The graffiti of the past 25+

The graffiti of the past 25+ years is not the chalk graffiti of your daddy's yesteryear!  I'm not a fan of the graffiti we see these days but the old chalk markings are much easier on the eyes and kind of cool

ExactRail actually offers some of their freight cars with chalk graffiti and even did a blog about it.  I've got an ExactRail 65' Greenville MP gondola with a "Colossus of Roads" chalk graffiti.

Just a though on weathering ...

Interesting read, but I had a thought on weathering. Often times, I expect the graffiti is far newer than the car's paint job. Perhaps for maximal realism, the car should be weathered first, then the graffiti applied, and then perhaps weathered some more, depending on how old the graffiti should appear.

The modern railroad scene

I almost passed this article by, but your photos got me. This is a very interesting subject- In fact, a model railroad set in modern times really wouldn't be complete without some graffiti. Another way to eliminate the white paper edge is to color it with markers. Cut our your artwork and go over the edge with the side of a marker tip,  Change  color to match the front. I discovered that you don't need an exact match as long as the color is close. Sometimes a medium gray marker around the edge of the paper will work.  On a car with flat sides, you could cover the whole car side, reproducing the herald, reporting marks and even weathering.  Since the artwork is being printed with a home printer, why not use  decal film instead of paper.  White or clear film can be used for different applications. This will permit small details like rivets to show as the decal settles down.  Sometimes a thin white line  shows around dark colors printed on white decal film, but if it does, printing on paper may be the solution. Many camera lenses do not produce a rectilinear image, instead being concave or convex. Many lenses can be selected in Photoshop's list to make automatic correction, and other photo manipulation programs can do this either automatically or manually. A very interesting and well illustrated article, and I hope my addition is a help to modelers. -Victor Roseman

Photo-laminate graffiti

Great idea. Gonna order some canopy glue and give it a shot!

Good Article!

Good article! Now for a follow up I would like to read more about chalk marks that railroaders used. Also what sorts of things were tacked onto the tack boards? I seldom see anything modelled on those tack boards that box cars all had.

 "Also what sorts of things

I recall seeing "do not hump" and other content warnings like explosive, hazardous,etc. They were printed thin cardboard or heavy paper signs tacked on with a staples or tacks. 

Tack Boards

I also remember seeing bad order tags on tack boards. I've also seen "Unload this side" and "Unload other side."

With computer modernization, I suspect a lot of remarks that used to be on tack boards got printed on the switch list.

Just Can't Do It

While the modern scene has spray-can vandalism... er, graffiti I just can't stomach it on my layout. As a railfan it angers me to see rail equipment - especially fallen flag and other old cars - defaced by this so-called art work. I just won't have it in my idyllic miniature world where such crimes do not occur. If that distracts from the "realism" of my layout so be it.