Graffiti on Freight Trains

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Canadian National Railway (CN) moves goods, massive items like cars, refrigerators, building material, tractors, harvesters, smart beds (as in smartphone) and fashion such as $10 stilettos from China.

CN is a big employer and most hotels would love to have a CN contract to house railway staff because they travel all over the country. The railway company has mechanical engineering and electrical jobs obviously, but they also hire artists to spray paint graffiti on freight trains. Just kidding, but how do you explain graffiti on them?

People who live in small towns are constantly aware of snakes on iron rails. Buses and cars bow to the almighty goods train. Patience is the key as it trudges along, for a good two minutes on a bad day. We seldom wonder about what is in those trains, but we do wonder about the graffiti. How and when did they do it?

I’m hazarding a guess CN has them on staff because yards, offices, loading docks are prohibited areas: staff only. How can someone, with all his paints and a ladder just walk in, and do a number on a parked train?

It’s not like urban America, where subway stations are public property. Cities like New York used to have train cars covered with graffiti. You seldom see a blank wall in major U.S. cities.

Does CN hire Picasso types?

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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