Why do freight trains have graffiti?
These are the cars’ identity. This information indicates who owns the train car, how much it can carry, its dimensions, maintenance data, and safety information. When covered by graffiti, railroad workers and shippers lose vital information, which can slow work, damage the car or even cause an accident.
Are graffiti trains illegal?
Graffiti on freight trains has been around for years and continues to plague the railways and car owners. The codes were considered an early form of graffiti. This activity is illegal, dangerous and expensive! Since they are defacing private property, they have to trespass on railroad property.
How long does it take to graffiti a train?
This usually takes up to three or four minutes. That gave us the time to paint. The style and sketch for the piece is done quite easily. You can’t bomb a train with the craziest wild-style piece in that space of time, so you go with simple blocks and let the action speak.
Who is Ichabod graffiti?
ICHABOD is a master of American freight train graffiti: prolific, durable, and consistent. Those sentiments and experiences are hardly unique to ICHABOD: they encapsulate much of the essential appeal of painting freight trains, an activity with thousands of practitioners across the continent.
Who started graffiti on trains?
Subculture of Freight Train Graffiti First freight trains graffiti appeared in mid to late 1970s. The names that stand out from this early group of creatives are PNUT and TRACY 168 in the Big Apple, and SUROC and BRAZE in Philadelphia.
Why is reading graffiti difficult?
Due to its complexity, it is often very hard to read by people who are not familiar with it. Usually, this form of graffiti incorporates interwoven and overlapping letters and shapes. It may include arrows, spikes, and other decorative elements depending on the technique used.
What is a graffiti artist called?
Early graffiti artists were commonly called “writers” or “taggers” (individuals who write simple “tags,” or their stylized signatures, with the goal of tagging as many locations as possible.)
Why did graffiti stop?
By the 1980s, increased police surveillance and implementation of increased security measures (razor wire, guard dogs) combined with continuous efforts to clean it up led to the weakening of New York’s graffiti subculture.
What’s the difference between graffiti and tagging?
Tagging Vs. Graffiti. Graffiti can describe any writings or drawings created on a surface in a public space. Tagging refers explicitly to writing the artist’s signature (or their pseudonym name or logo) on a public surface.