Western Railroad Discussion > Constructive Graffiti

What's that you say? How can graffiti be constructive? Well, witness MQT 815 seen here departing Belt Railway's Clearing Yard on BNSF train MBRCGAL. This box car has seen its better days. Note the messages next to and adjacent to the plug doors. "DO NOT SEND AGAIN", "LUBE DOORS" and "LUBE THE DOORS". I would have added a few exclamation points but maybe they ran out of spray paint?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/17 21:03 by kevink.

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Even funnier is the graphic of the man struggling to open the door.

Pissed off customer.

Among the duties of the BN operator at Sumas WA was opening the car doors for customs inspection. You haven't lived until you have been out in the pouring rain, howling wind, or blowing snow, opening the doors on 50 cars with rusty, bent, broken doors (and sometimes covered with ice), with the customs officer yelling that he is cold, wet, or otherwise uncomfortable and you are working too slow (never talk back to a guy with a badge, a gun, and virtually no rules). For assistance in opening stuck doors we had...a 12 inch mini-crowbar! Plug doors were especially bad to open because you never knew if a shifted load would make the door spring out at you when you knocked the latches open. A BN brakeman was killed at Sumas by a shifted load breaking the door off as soon as he opened the latches. ORT (operators union) having less clout than UTU, caused that work to transfer from trainmen to operators.

TAW

That's funny. I saw a more blunt comment on a UP boxcar last week.

Rob Smith
Hamilton, ON

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Interesting. Very interesting. It begs the question, if a car that is "railroad-owned" is spotted at a customer's business and is defective, or difficult to operate (i.e. doors, hatches, etc.) does the customer contact the railroad to request another car? Does the railroad attempt to repair said car to make it usable for the customer (via a mobile repair truck)? Or does the railroad replace the problem car with another? Along the same lines, if the car is a privately-owned or leased car. Is the railroad responsible for repairs or is the car returned to its owner for repairs?