2024, Art, Travel, Uncategorized

Train Art

33 Comments

Most days on my drive to work I travel on Villard Street, which is the main east-west route through our downtown area. It is also known as Old Highway 10, the route that ran from Detroit to Seattle before the interstate highways were built.

Villard runs parallel to the BNSF railroad tracks through town, and the street and the tracks are no more than 20 yards apart. There are always trains, either chugging through town or parked, waiting for who knows what.

I get a good glimpse of the train cars on my way to work, and I am always amazed at the intricate graffiti on them. Last week there were very nice Boris and Natasha portraits on one. I never observe people painting on the cars in our town. They would be seen, given that the cars are parked in the middle of town. It makes me wonder where on the train route the cars can be parked long enough for people to paint them without getting caught.

It seems that the graffiti is inevitable. I think it would be terribly fun for the railroad to have train car decorating contests, and legitimize what is going to happen anyway. Think of the fun!

What would you like to paint, or see painted, on train cars? Any memories on Old Highway 10?

33 thoughts on “Train Art”

  1. The Swanson Motel murders. Whenever we had work in Dickinson, that’s where we stayed. Cheap.
    10 also was the way to Detroit Lakes. Summer fun. And Glyndon for the stock car races.
    Given it’s general east/west configuration, winter weather was brutal.

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  3. Where route 10 crosses Lake Michigan, one can still take the ferry (in season) and have a steamboat cruise that takes several hours each way. Go round trip as a deck passenger, or take your car (down in the hold) and pay more. Avoid driving around the lake and through Chicago. I haven’t done it for almost 20 years, but I remember enjoying the ride.

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    1. We took that ferry once en route to Michigan. Very pleasant. I’ve only done car ferries a handful of times, but always thought them to be relaxing and enjoyable, especially as a way to break up a long day of driving. Not cheaper, not faster, but maybe a “better” way to travel when possible.

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      1. Steve and I went to Madeline Island to poke around for a day before going to the Big Top Chautauqua later. I think it cost me $50 to put my car on the ferry. We drove around the entire island, and ate in one of the restaurants before returning to the mainland. It was a good day.

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  5. A friend’s son kind of took to the streets toward the end of his high school years, and did a lot of this graffiti. He said it took a lot to learn how to do it, and he very much considered it Art.

    How about some really cool mandalas? Or a single Calvin & Hobbes strip, a really funny one? (Maybe there’s one about train graffiti!)

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  6. I think graffiti is becoming more recognized as an art form, and recognition seems to enhance the quality. Some of it is really interesting. I always wish I understood the language – they paint words in it, but I usually don’t know what they mean.

    I’ve only taken Hwy 10 a few times. I took it partway to get to Brainerd once. I don’t think I’ve used to to go west farther, mostly because the interstate is there. I’ve also taken it east. A group of friends went to Door County, WI, once. I drove, and I took Hwy 10 part of the way. If Hwy 10 crosses several states, doesn’t that make it an interstate too?

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    1. In the movie “Boys in the Boat” they feature a train car that runs along the river where the skulling race is held. The train car is tricked out with bleachers where the crowd sits while the train follows the race. It is sorta like what you want.

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  9. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I am unaware of Route 10. I lived in N. MN so maybe I was on it, but if so, I remember none of it.

    This morning I arose very early (5 am) to get Lou to a pain procedure on his back. And with this ends our recent spate of early morning medical interventions. He is doing just fine, and we hope it ends his pinched nerve problems that create such terrible pain in his back. His activity level is unrestricted so he is out removing the little bit of snow we have.

    Enough already. I came home and slept some more since I had a very short night last night. Now I have had my coffee and I am ready for moving about and connecting on the Trail.

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    1. I hope this helps both you and Lou. You’ve been through a lot, and you certainly need a break. Hope to see you Sunday. There is snow in the forecast so I will decide whether or not I want to drive to Bloomington.

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  10. I wasn’t sure if our Highway 10 was related to Old Highway 10… it actually is! I followed it (using my finger on Google maps) from Coon Rapids all the way to Fargo and beyond. It looks like Old Highway 10 turns into 94?

    When I moved to the Twin Cities, one of the main thoroughfares that cuts across southern Minneapolis was known as the Crosstown. At some point in the past 25 years, all the signage was re-branded to Highway 62. (I assume it was technically Hwy 62 then but all the signs said Crosstown). I still call is Crosstown but I know several younger folks who look at me confusedly if we’re talking directions and I say “Crosstown”.

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    2. Going east, highway 10 joins up with 61 out of St. Paul, branching off again through Prescott, Wisconsin. It crosses Hwy. 94 at Osseo, WI. I usually take 94 to Osseo rather than going cross country on 10 through Ellsworth, Mondovi, etc.

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  13. I’d like to see someone sketch out a short graphic novel and put it on train cars, one panel at a time. When you saw the train, it would likely be moving too fast to read the entire thing at once. You would use a phone camera, or any camera that was handy, to snap a picture of each car as it went by. The cars would probably eed to have QR codes that would guide you to an online version of the novel if you couldn’t catch the whole thing.

    The novels might appear in serial form, like the writings of Dickens or other writers of his era.

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    4. Your idea would work brilliantly for one of those unit trains that carries coal from Wyoming to the east and never get’s broken apart, but otherwise, what would happen when a car, or group of cars, got dropped off at a particular location and the train hooked up again without those panels?

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