Western Railroad Discussion > Doing Beer Runs-!

Doing beer runs ‘DoinBeeRuns’ on DTTX 750747 well car with intermodal container.  Hudson, Colorado, 5 March 2026, BNSF Brush Subdivision BNSF train Q ALTPTL.  Always amazed by the amount of artistic talent applied to railroad cars.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/26 08:18 by cozephyr.

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I've always wondering just how much money is spent on spray paint by these "artists", some of which are very talented.  I remember seeing a YT video years ago, show a guy with a tall ladder, painting the entire surface of an autorack car.  That couldn't have been cheap!

As much as I hate the concept of defacing someone elses property, I have to agree with your statement "Always amazed by the amount of artistic talent applied to railroad cars."
Hopefully they use Rustoleum or some other rust preventitive paint!.

Bob Phelps
Micanopy, FL

That is the rerason that paint spray cans are locked up now and you have to call a clerk to buy spray paint now. Most of the "artist's" steal the cans.

Scott

seod Wrote:
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> That is the rerason that paint spray cans are
> locked up now and you have to call a clerk to buy
> spray paint now. Most of the "artist's" steal the
> cans.
>
> Scott

Has the level of grafitti dropped off as a result of locking up spray paints???

Bob Phelps
Micanopy, FL

RNP47 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> seod Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > That is the rerason that paint spray cans are
> > locked up now and you have to call a clerk to
> buy
> > spray paint now. Most of the "artist's" steal
> the
> > cans.
> >
> > Scott
>
> Has the level of grafitti dropped off as a result
> of locking up spray paints???

Nope, they've been locking up the paint in California for over 30 years and tagging still happens.

Great catch! I actually met a retired UPS pilot/railfan that was only interested in shooting graffiti. 
BB

I think you will find that Home Depot, Lowe's, and Menard's has never locked up their spray paint outside of CA. I know Indiana and OK are wide open. New Thought:  Maybe the railroads should invite these artist to come paint their cars. We might get some pretty good paint jobs. Just no dirty stuff.  

I've noticed that most graffiti artists intentionally avoid painting over important informational markings on the sides of railroad cars, which I suppose would
elevate their crime to federal levels, with substantially larger financial penalties and jail time if caught.

Hakk

Curt Wrote:
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> I've always wondering just how much money is spent
> on spray paint by these "artists", some of which
> are very talented.  I remember seeing a YT video
> years ago, show a guy with a tall ladder, painting
> the entire surface of an autorack car.  That
> couldn't have been cheap!

They probably steal it

Posted from Android

chakk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've noticed that most graffiti artists
> intentionally avoid painting over important
> informational markings on the sides of railroad
> cars, which I suppose would
> elevate their crime to federal levels, with
> substantially larger financial penalties and jail
> time if caught.
>
> Hakk

Also keeps their work from getting painted over.

Posted from Android

chakk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've noticed that most graffiti artists
> intentionally avoid painting over important
> informational markings on the sides of railroad
> cars, which I suppose would
> elevate their crime to federal levels, with
> substantially larger financial penalties and jail
> time if caught.
>
> Hakk


You assume there's some thinking involved here, there isn't. They just know that if they don't paint over the required data that their "artwork" won't be painted over by the railroad.

No hardware store, big box or otherwise, locks up rattlecan paint here in East Texas.

That said, I have never witnessed anyone actually spraying graffiti on a railcar.

Woodman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think you will find that Home Depot, Lowe's, and
> Menard's has never locked up their spray paint
> outside of CA. I know Indiana and OK are wide
> open. New Thought:  Maybe the railroads should
> invite these artist to come paint their cars. We
> might get some pretty good paint jobs. Just no
> dirty stuff.  

The only place I've seen a lot of paint locked up is Washington and California.  What a shock...

I worked at Walmart Riverside, Ca. about 10 years ago, hardware/automotive, both departments had spray paint locked up, but we wouldn't just hand it over to customer so they could just walk out the door with it, I took it to Register 11, where they had to purchase it. Every night at closing, there were a lot of unclaimed spray paints still sitting at Register 11🤣.
They would start coming in to get spray paint about 2 hours before closing time, and many of those people were very sketchy and high characters, some would get visibly upset/pissed when I didn't just hand it over to them, and told them it will be at Register 11🤣

Posted from Android

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/26 09:42 by RailRat.