Not my best composition ever, I must admit…this is WAY too busy. We were sitting in a turn lane in Geneva, NY, waiting to turn left to go into downtown and visit a favorite breakfast place, and a train was rolling by. In Geneva the main rail line lies right between the downtown and US20, so sometimes you have to wait to enter the city. That’s totally fine! I love railroads and trains and I am firmly on Team MOAR TRAINS. What was pretty cool here is that my left-turn signal was obviously keyed to the railroad crossing, so I wasn’t tasked with turning into that little stub of street.
As for the photo itself, I wanted to capture the graffiti on that hopper car. I actually like graffiti tags a lot of time. Setting aside that it’s technically vandalism, there is often a ton of skill and artistry involved. I consider stuff like this “mobile public art”. In this case, I caught it (using Ophelia, my phone) as it was rolling past a big permanent mural on the back of one of Geneva’s buildings.
I really love the old train-towns of Upstate NY, the ones that grew along the rail lines that once provided the transportation infrastructure for the industries of the region. I hope they regain some of their former energy, someday.
