Western Railroad Discussion > Colossus of Roads

Donning my flame retardant suit, I have recently taken a liking to finding and photographing certain types of graffiti or markings on freight cars. The markings I have been on the look out for lately aren't gang related or some bored teenager with a can of spray paint, but rather hobo graffiti and monikers. My interest in them started this past summer when I noticed the shape of a bat with the initials 'TG' inside of it on a majority of grain hoppers coming into Cargill from the Houston, TX area. After doing an internet search I discovered that these markings have a giant underground following and discovered the artist that I had been seeing was known as 'Texican Gothic'. Another interesting fact about these monikers and chalk drawings are that they are done by railroaders and modern day hobos a like. Today, while taking pictures of a Cotton Belt grain car the siding at Ellis I noticed that the car featured the well known Texican Gothic marking and beside it an even more well known Colossus of Roads marking. This was my first time being able to see a Colossus of Roads marking on the side of a car on the KP since my interest in these monikers started.

1) SSW 78911 is the first car on a cut of cars headed for Oakley, Kansas. These cars will be picked up by the Oakley local the next day.
2) 'Led Finger Delivered' is the message written next to the iconic Colossus of Roads moniker.
3) Not far away is another marking this time by Texican Gothic and carries the message of 'Long Division'.

Thanks for looking!
nwkrailfan

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No need to don the fire suit! I also have found these bits of railroad art to be of interest, starting with "Herby" a long time ago. These bits of graffiti were non-intrusive, and easily removed.

I thought the car-knocker who drew the ten-gallon hats was Bozo Texino, not Colossus. Or maybe Bozo Texino was one of the Colossus' incarnations?

You will find very few objections to car-knockers' marks here compared to displeasure with the spray-painted abominations that have disgraced so much of the rolling-stock fleet.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/13 10:39 by toledopatch.

toledopatch Wrote:
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> I thought the car-knocker who drew the ten-gallon
> hats was Bozo Texino, not Colossus. Or maybe Bozo
> Texino was one of the Colossus' incarnations?

Bozo Texino was a hat, but a different kind (See attached image).

(Image taken from Wikipedia)

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Does anyone out there remember and maybe have a picture of "Herbie" taking a nap under the palm tree? Damn, I saw so many of those drawn on so many cars and never photographed one. One time I saw one that the artist didn't finish--Herbie wasn't there. Then someone else had taken some chalk and written underneath "Where is Herbie?." I shoulda photographed that one too.

nwkrailfan Wrote:
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> toledopatch Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I thought the car-knocker who drew the
> ten-gallon
> > hats was Bozo Texino, not Colossus. Or maybe
> Bozo
> > Texino was one of the Colossus' incarnations?
>
> Bozo Texino was a hat, but a different kind (See
> attached image).


Ah yes. Thanks for digging that up.

WichitaJct Wrote:
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> Does anyone out there remember and maybe have a
> picture of "Herbie" taking a nap under the palm
> tree? Damn, I saw so many of those drawn on so
> many cars and never photographed one. One time I
> saw one that the artist didn't finish--Herbie
> wasn't there. Then someone else had taken some
> chalk and written underneath "Where is Herbie?." I
> shoulda photographed that one too.


Oh yeah, I've seen lots of "Herby"s (y, not ie, on the ones I remember), and probably have a slide or two of them -- but don't recall shooting any since I switched to pixels last year.

Others I've seen lots of: Ol' Rock (Kansas City), whose annotations were often hilarious; The Solo Artist; The Rambler (usually at the Port of Beaumont, Texas), and Smokin' Joe, who apparently worked somewhere on the GTW in Michigan.

Also, when a mudhop at ATSF First St LA..saw much Bozo
Texino art on box cars during the middle 1940's...this
included cars of MP-SP-StLBM-I-GN -GCL especially...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/13 14:02 by Agt-Highland.

TG "Texican Gothic" has quite a following at certain Frak sand facilities in Colorado. The sand guys collect shots of the TG moniker and swap them like trading cards. I hadn't seen "long division" before, I will have to keep an eye out. I agree that this is a far more tolerable form of "tagging" and harkens back to the good old days of "herby", "bozo", et al...

Posted from Android

Since there has been a positive response to the art chalk drawings, I figured I would work up a couple more images to post. These are just various ones that I have been able to find around the western Kansas area.

1) Three different 'Texican Gothic' markings: Risk & Reward, Gothic Ephemera, and Big Medium.
2) Another one of my personal favorites is 'Freight Bandit', I really enjoy the comments put out to the side on these ones.
3) Here is a variety of three, including an 'Unknown Brooklyn Fluke', a saying from an unknown artist, and finally 'Whistleblower' "Constant Struggle".

Enjoy!
nwkrailfan

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Anybody have a shot of the one with the Champaign Glass with the bubbles coming out of it? Said Beaumont, TX by it and was on the sides of grain hoppers for years. Lots of them on the KP years ago. I believe that guy died, is that correct? upkpfan

> 2) 'Led Finger Delivered' is the message written next to the iconic
> Colossus of Roads moniker.

That would be BuZ Blur. See: http://www.northbankfred.com/photographs.html

The drawing with 'constant struggle' I see everywhere here in the NW. It has different sayings, but I see that drawing on hundreds of cars

upkpfan Wrote:
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> Anybody have a shot of the one with the Champaign
> Glass with the bubbles coming out of it? Said
> Beaumont, TX by it and was on the sides of grain
> hoppers for years. Lots of them on the KP years
> ago. I believe that guy died, is that correct?
> upkpfan

The Bath & Hammondsport RR had that moniker tilted to the side.

Kent in Carmel Valley

We had an "editorialist" here in Montana in the early '90s I called "Quackers", the smoking duck. The captions were a little less cryptic than BuZ Blur, and some were rather pointed. They predominated on MRL equipment but were found on a lot of other equipment (and a couple buildings) as well.

The oldest 'famous' graffiti I ever saw was a '60s version of "TEX - King of the Tramps" under the end of a bridge just railroad east of the Milwaukee yards in Deer Lodge, painted with a brush and red enamel paint.

Freight Bandit is based out of Phoenix, AZ I too enjoy looking for these on freight cars too.

upkpfan Wrote:
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> Anybody have a shot of the one with the Champaign
> Glass with the bubbles coming out of it? Said
> Beaumont, TX by it and was on the sides of grain
> hoppers for years. Lots of them on the KP years
> ago. I believe that guy died, is that correct?
> upkpfan

Not sure if the guy is still around but he was 'The Rambler' and was featured in the documentary "Who Is Bozo Texino?".

toledopatch Wrote:
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> I thought the car-knocker who drew the ten-gallon
> hats was Bozo Texino, not Colossus. Or maybe Bozo
> Texino was one of the Colossus' incarnations?
>
> You will find very few objections to car-knockers'
> marks here compared to displeasure with the
> spray-painted abominations that have disgraced so
> much of the rolling-stock fleet.

Absolutely! Gives a car "character" instead of covering it over.

Another "monicker" was "EL REDNE"--anyone else remember that one?

Who Remembers the "Charlie Brown", tag written in cursive all over SP equipment & structures in the west up until about the early nineties? Any clues about who he is/was?