Railroaders' Nostalgia > GraFFiti Friday

This is the way freight car graffiti used to look....in the good old days....look familiar?

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I remember seeing "Conrail Twitty" tags for many years.

I remember seeing some of that kind of stuff years ago.  Most of it was pretty simple and after a few rains, it was gone, or at least faded out.  So much of the stuff you see today is just trash.  Bring back the chalk art.

John

Some of the "old" graffitti was done with paint pens because it would last for years.

I miss the busty long haired nude girl that said "hi".

That was "Gordy"

Colossus of Roads put the “Grab iron Kid” on a hell of a lot of cars, a thinking mans switchman. Proviso “Z” Waterbed Lou,Coal Train, Rail Dog, The Railroad Artist....

Posted from iPhone

In the early 80's Herby didn't have the cactus. I never saw the embellishment until now. Classic chalk art.

Kennard Britton
Bedford, TX
 

I rememebr Herby and Bozo Texino.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Does anybody remember "Tex K.T." KT stood for "King of Tramps". I used to see this painted on underpasses, or carved into trackside structures. Some of the dates were from back in the 30's.

Iowa Blackie. The poet himself.

Posted from iPhone

Back in 1977(?) I shot a very weathered “JBKingEsq” signature on a 50 ft boxcar rolling through Emporia. It was a very famous scrawl because it was reportedly done in a single cursive flourish, a one-stroke signature with the chalk never leaving the surface being scrawled upon. It was so unique many men everywhere tried to reproduce it. IIRC the marking pre-dated the Great Depression, so considering the relative age of the 50 footer I was pretty well convinced the one I shot was a replica...

Posted from iPhone

santafe199 Wrote:
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> Back in 1977(?) I shot a very weathered
> “JBKingEsq” signature on a 50 ft boxcar
> rolling through Emporia. It was a very famous
> scrawl because it was reportedly done in a single
> cursive flourish, a one-stroke signature with the
> chalk never leaving the surface being scrawled
> upon. It was so unique many men everywhere tried
> to reproduce it. IIRC the marking pre-dated the
> Great Depression, so considering the relative age
> of the 50 footer I was pretty well convinced the
> one I shot was a replica...
>
> Posted from iPhone

In 24 years I have probably seen all that can be seen.....though haven't seen Herby or Bozo in quite a while....

The original Bozo Texino was supposedly a guy from the 1930’s. Herbie retired in the 80’s and died around 2003ish AFAIK.

Posted from iPhone

I've mentioned a story about the guy who drew Herby in a previous post some months ago. Repeated here for ease of reference:

• As for the "Herby", that's a nice one. Once at a St. Louis Chapter NRHS meeting we had as part of the program the MP or TRRA switchman or carman who drew the "Herbies" on many cars. He demonstrated his work with a thick piece of the chalk carmen used to mark up defects on a car, drawing on a chalkboard we had set up in the meeting room. It was amazing how fast he worked and could complete a design. I've hoped many times since that meeting that his work was not an initiator for the terrible graffiti that is all over freight cars today. On reflection, I rather doubt it. The graffiti people practiced their defacement of property on many other things, and in much greater scale, and in paint (not chalk). A modest "Herby" in chalk would probably hardly even get a nod from them.

MC

Most common today I see in Ohio is a Bat. Usually has a date.

howeld Wrote:
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> Most common today I see in Ohio is a Bat. Usually
> has a date.

Rail Gothic

Posted from iPhone

Once an extremely talented  artist had drawn on half the side pf a  50" box, a 
beautiful, well endowed woman on the back of a guy on all fours wearing a cowboy hat.  
Under the drawing was scrawled, " Plowing Texas style".

Another, along the whole side of a 50" box, someone had written:
"Beware of Greek proctologists"

Mx
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/21 06:46 by acl67-2.

Seen at Proviso - 1970s Skatemen and Brakemen were busy.

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