While riding in the Ford dealer's courtesy van today (they had to order the part my car needed) I crossed over a yard throat in Ft. Worth, TX. I saw this great lashup of UP power. Four locomotives, two SD 70s or 80s and a couple of GE's newer offerings, were pulling a container train. It looked great, the kind of stuff that makes modern railroading so interesting. Anyway, as I passed over I noticed that one of the locos had been tagged, and pretty seriously. I've seen hundreds of cars with graffetti, but never a locomotive. Half of the right side was covered in text of some kind. I don't know how they were able to get it done without being caught. If I remember correctly the unit was 9749. Some of those new locomotives are almost 100 feet long so this had to be 40 ft. of graffetti. I bet it will cost a lot to cover that. I normally spend my time in the model railroad section but I thought I'd pass it on. The train was headed west, so the loco might turn up somewhere out there. By the way, two of the locomotives had a flag painted on the side (on purpose) and the logo 'Pulling for America'. All in all a very interesting consist. I didn't have my camera and no time to come back, so no pictures. I'm new to Ft. Worth, so seeing all the UP and BNSF has been a real treat. I moved from Jackson, MS were all there was were black IC/CN and grey KCS. The only break in the monotone there was Grand Truck power on the locals. Even crew cabs on the KCS were few and far between. I might just have to get a few models bearing the shield.
I have seen a picture of a tagged Conrail locomotive. It was awful. It does make you wonder about the security of the train yards, and it will eventually have an impact on railfans as well. If a tagger had that long of time to do a locomotive, it makes you wonder what else someone or some group could do. Freight cars I can understand, because some of them are in pretty remote areas etc. But a locomotive! It makes you wonder.
occasionally, I see a set of locomotives resting on the local siding, often for 2 or 3 days. Not near a high-traffic road, and the mainline only sees 5-7 trains a day, if that. It's not impossible but a LOT less likely to do a major tag on one.
