well my RR has 3 new cars, 2 showed up today and apparently on the way here they stopped by bad parts of towns and have been tagged.

I have identified the taggers as 2 kids in the Fresno, CA area. Of course, their favorite target is a Rail Box, this one a USAT 40’ car

This is my 7 yr old granddaughter, Sophia’s side of the car, her mom did the little skull.

4 year old Caleb did his best on the other side, I told him to not color on the data box, he said ok , then turned around and colored it all orange, then said," I did it all anyway Poppa Pete". Lol gotta love that attitude in kids.

Car # 2 is an Aristocraft 40’ Erie boxcar than made a stop close to home… in my house actually where 10year old Eli made his thoughts known with a phrase from a Shermans Lagoon comic strip with the thought " Poodle, the OTHER white meat

next up to mark her place on my rr is 13 yr old Abbe, who I believe is slightly more interested in my RR that her brother Eli, every time she is here she is looking at progress and suggesting new buildings to be built

there is one more boxcar that will be marked up soon, but first it has to be moved to Chicago and back.I was really hoping for a Chicago & Northwestern boxcar, but none were avaiable so, in its place a Susquahanna car will be decorated by 11yr old Devin and 19 yr old Aide to complete the trio. Moms and dads of the kids will be marking them also, I need pics of their work. I may do some other cars myself too at a later date, need to get some tank cars for a tag I used to see all the time on tank cars.

That’s a neat idea Pete! Even with the data box colored in that car still shows a lot more of the original paint job than most we see around Fresno!

Steve

Thanks Steve. I know some people will have gnashing of teeth, horrified thoughts and general outrage, but like you said, the only railbox cars that dont have anything on them are just leaving the factory. I wanted to get my grandkids interested and thought this would give the grandkids some stake in the railroad and some interest when they see “their Car” running on the layout. They were all excited to do their side, and I might let them do more.

I have already told them when my layout is built they will all have a building or industry named after them, and they are giving suggestions on what they want.

Kilroy was here … ?

one I always remember seeing was " Water Bed Lou" , always on tank cars

Looks like he hit boxcars too!

I love it, Pete. My daughter painted, decorated, and ran her own Princess locomotive. I value that loco above all others!

Thanks John, I didn’t expect many comments on this, it seems to be a touchy subject with some, but I thought it was a fun Idea.

Who cares what ‘they’ think?

I think Poppa Pete’s got a whole lotta love for the whole family…(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

We don’t need no stinking data boxes!

Pretty dang cool Pete

I really like this idea! I may get a boxcar at the Carlyle show this winter for my niece and nephew to tag. nice job!

Well The boxcar from Chicago have arrived. When I sent them I put some masking tape about 2/3rd of the way up the side and said do your deal below that, since most tagging is from ground level, 20 yr old granddaughter took one look and said we need more room, so the tape was pulled off and the colors were brought out, Aide went first and I think she did a great job, I asked them to put their name and age( only “rule” that anyone followed of any of the 6 grandkids).

next up was her brother, 11year old Devin, who has a serious retro 80’s thing going on( he wants a record player for Christmas) he did up the other side

with pac man , ghost busters and other 80’s things, and then to make things really interesting Mom and Dad decided to add some artwork of their own to the roof of the car, UNHEARD OF , against the rules!

The yellow gorilla is my son in laws soccer team mascot and a Chicago flag and a Mexican Flag along with who to blame for all this, their dog Neo got in on the act too. All of these cars turned out great and will never leave, and will be given to them when I find that last siding inlife. Until then they will be the pride of the railraoad, and I my do one my self too!

Cool, Pete… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif)

that’s what i would call “personalized”!

nice idea!

My brother wanted to do a car … so I sent him one and this is how it came back.

I think he did another …I’ll have to look for a pic … (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Here is another one he did …

Ya he’s into sports … Ya think …(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

I did notice a trend in his tagging, along with some great weathering Sean, The more I look at these cars the kids have done the more I want to try it also. Most of us have grandkids, (or grownup kids) that could add something to a car or cars on our RR’s, and in the case of the Green boxcar, after they got going on it the kids mom (my daughter) was standing there just watching and after a bit said to save her some space , she wanted in on the fun, then her husband was telling what to put and got in there too! I think they want another car to do now! I may have to have them do a wall or a building now!

So they are on their way to the dark side, defacing other peoples’ property. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)