In the video, I mention that Graffiti is much older than what we see today. Do any of your steam-era modelers represent either railworker graffiti or hobo symbols on your layout? For those of you who do modern stuff, do you have a "golden ratio" of graffiti'd cars to non graffiti'd cars?
For interest, in the video I have an excerpt from some video I shot with my phone in Airdrie, Alberta. In all, the raw tally of grafitt'd cars to non-graffiti cars was 4 out of 7 had some kind of graffiti. Most of them were basic tags, but of the cars counted, 4 of those graffiti'd cars out of 21 had major pieces on them. So that gives another idea.
I love graffiti and regularly do photography of it in the real world to get ideas for my rolling stock. I have always seen it as a form of artistic expression, not vandalism like most.
I'm about as far removed from street art culture as you can get, so my take on it is more curiosity, and learning about it. Believe it or not, there are websites and even youtube channels that graffiti writers put out. I've deliberately not linked to them for what I hope are obvious reasons, but it is interesting that they fully acknowledge that the practice is both illegal and dangerous. I guess it's part of culture...
Personally, I use some graffiti, but I research to try to make sure I'm not using gang graffiti, and I'm not artist enough to hand paint it. All decals for me. Patches are great ways to nod to graffiti without using graffiti. I totally understand and respect those who don't use graffiti in principle. Thanks, John.
Living where I do, gang graffiti is less an issue... short of maybe a tag here or there. At N-Scale most of my tags are just scribbles anyway. :) I'd be curious about the microscale and other decal companies to see if any of the examples on their sheets actually are gang graffiti. You make a really great point Ron.
Gang graffiti is actually rare on trains, because its purpose is to mark gang turf (when done on walls/buildings) to warn rival gangs to stay away or else they'll get beat up or killed.. A railcar moves around the country so it's impractical to mark a gang's turf on an object that moves around a lot. Graffiti on trains is always done by taggers (who desire to have their name scrawled in as many places as possible to win admiration/respect from other taggers) or graffiti artists (people who start off as taggers but develop artistic skills and paint elaborate murals ("pieces") which is what you see on many railcars. In between is the most common form of graffiti, which is a combination of both - a tagger's name written in a large, colorful lettering style. Because gang graffiti comes from the same design roots as tagger graffiti, it's easy to confuse the two if you're not familiar with them. Gang graffiti is always monochromatic (in black or in the gang's color). Taggers start off with monochromatic lettering but as they develop skills they'll add colors, and with more skills they become actual artists. Some taggers have actually become legitimate artists being paid (and even making a living) for their work and have since stopped vandalizing property.
Thanks for the additional info metroedline! I think one is more likely to find or perhaps model gang graffiti on a model railroad on a fixed structure rather than rollingstock, but that is entirely dependent upon where one chooses to model. If someone is doing more urban settings, then it's possible that one might encounter it. In my case, since my railroad is small town Canadian maritimes, it's highly unlikely. The only graffiti that I've seen in either Truro or Stellarton has been on the cars.
Just watched the series about the weathering of rail cars and the graffiti, love it real nice and clear explanation is definitely going to try thanks for sharing....Remco
Glad you like it, and glad to offer it. There's one more to go in this series that I hope to get out next week. I also have an update coming that touches on a few things that I have on deck. :)
JC I hate Graffiti. But I do think it's art. and I do have it on my railroad. I got a book that is called Freight train graffiti by Rodger Gastman, Darin Rowland, and Ian Sattler. It's 340+ pages of the history and photos, It's a wealth of information. I also like to make my own graffiti and decals. Even though I don't like Graffiti it is part of the world these days, and makes our models look more like the real thing. Loving you videos and your spin on weathering. keep up the great work brother.
+Andrew Quartararo I had some major issues this time around, and did my best to fix them, but not without consequence. They’ve been fixed for the next video, and all future videos moving forward as I’m handling the audio differently from here on in. Things I’m learning on the fly. Thanks for sticking with it, and I appreciate the feedback.
JC, Have you done your video on decals yet? Curious on your thoughts as to what stage (in your 1-8) that you would recommend using decal graffiti or does it even matter. Thanks. Rick
Hi Rick, yes, I have a few decal videos, including one on salvaging a busted decal (which happens to be a graffiti one). Here are the links: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lJP36YkSaCg.html (Tips for Awesome Decals) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ux1vBeltkJ4.html (Weathering Decals on Model Trains) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vWq7LLQlj6A.html (Decal Disasters and How to Fix Them) Hopefully this helps! Decal (or painted on) graffiti, depending on how new it is, usually comes later in the process. There's only been a few places where I've applied it early, with the intention of wearing it off or patching it over. Usually, I'd recommend it around Step 7, but it needs to be weathered back a bit after it is applied. Decal graffiti can look very obvious if you don't take steps to integrated it into the surface of the model. Hopefully my videos links can give you some tips on how to do it.
I have only recently found your channel. While I have no interest in adding big graffiti to my cars I would be interested in the hobo signs and the messages they left. I have a few books that reference hobo activities from the 40s and 50s, and I knew they left each other messages but I have not seen anything about the language. Do you have any insight to this and examples of it from the past?
+Joe G Depends on where you’re modelling and what. Up here, most covered grain hoppers have *something* because many of them have been in service for a while. Other cars it’s not as prevalent, but graffiti can appear on pretty much any type of car. I even have one example on my prototype where someone attempted to put graffiti on a locomotive.
If you're doing a Japan layout, be sparing with the graffiti. Graffiti is ridiculously rare in Japan. It exists, sometimes on structures tucked out of sight, but almost never on the cars. And most patches are fairly carefully color-matched by the company, except on the most utilitarian assets like modular containers.
+Ed Halley Great point Ed. The last bit in the video talks about the importance of one’s context and location. Since modular containers also travel through areas that are more “graffiti prone,” they may be the rare example in Japan. Also, one point I didn’t add is the ratio of graffiti on car types is also important. In the example in the video, the ratio of tank cars with graffiti is lower than say the gondolas or covered hoppers.
Graffiti on intermodal containers is very rare and if it does exist, it doesn't last long. The shipping companies make sure to paint out any graffiti eventually. Plus, most containers spend most of their time on a ship in the middle of the ocean, so there isn't much opportunity to tag them up.
Again, thanks for this great clarification. I've seen graffiti on the intermodal cars, but you're right, most of the containers I've seen are patched up rather than have something stay on them. The only containers that I have seen that retain graffiti are ones that have been parked and repurposed for something local.
