Graffiti That Made Me Look Twice (Pictures) - Trains Magazine

What I don't understand is why some people go ballistic when this type of graffiti is brought up.  This is urban art folks.

It's only urban art until they paint your house - then it becomes vandalism.

Regardless of the original condition of the paint on the car - from a fan's point of view it's still a railroad car.  Graffiti obscures our view of the otherwise pristine world of railroading - which is to say locomotives and cars doing the work they were designed for.

That said, I think most of us are amazed at the quality of some of the work.  It's just a shame to see such artistic ability expended on railroad cars using (most likely) stolen materials.  If these minds are that bright, imagine what they could do for the world if their creative skills were to be directed toward something that would benefit someone.

And not for nothin' here - The taggers have found that if they leave the reporting marks and other such data intact, their artwork lasts a lot longer...

In some respects, we're probably lamenting the state of society that places us in this position.