El Roco!! Thanks for taking one for the team...and making that nice long hike to get this unique image!
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I have seen photos of these wrecked boxcars before-- pre-graffiti. To think that some taggers would hike all the way to nowhere just to tag a boxcar that few will see (except us!). A fool and his spray paint are soon parted!
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What a great- but kind of eerie - photo. Besides the desolation, another thing that stands out to me is the color of the cars against the salt & pepper background of rocks.
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Wow, I guess some taggers made the hike too!
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Is it "legal" to just leave wrecked box cars along the right of way - or worse, near but off the right of way?
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"...a long hike...?" I googled that area and that is an understatement! I eventually found the cars, and there is no way I could've done that type of a walk in that terrain. That is dedication, and the photo was worth it. Wow.
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Just looked on Google Earth - the cars are visible along with some other posted photos.
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| Posted by Sport! on February 27, 2014 | |
Derailed & abandoned in a remote area and still getting "tagged"! Persistent buggers those "taggers"...
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Mike, Thanks, it was what you would call “a nice activity" to fill one day of a three day weekend. I wish I could have packed more photo gear, but with water being the premium commodity weight wise, I brought only my 24-105mm and an extra battery. Mitch Normally, yes they would be forced to clean up the smashed cars, especially in a state park. Problem is that the cars have been on the ground for over 40 years and SP was the RR that put them there. Now, the line is owned by a governmental agency based in San Diego (the Carrizo Railway leased the line) so good luck finding any monetary funding to remediate that mess. Further, so few people get out there to look at them, it just doesn't seem to matter. Perhaps if a group of concerned citizens such as "Mothers Against Unsightly Freight Car Dumping" were to form a PAC, something might happen since they could draw the public's attention to the disaster in the desert. Arne Yes, everybody hates taggers and one really wonders why someone would go to all that effort to paint something in the middle of BF nowhere. It was my observation that there is very little (modern) graffiti in the gorge, however the ancient inhabitants (previously referred to as indians) spent quite a bit of time (a few thousand years apparently) painting all over the rocks in this area, and Anza Borego S.P. is well known for the numerous petroglyphs and mortar holes contained therein. Interestingly enough, I did find a couple of unopened beer cans that had been dropped on the ground and punctured - with liquid still in them (liquid meant they had not spent a summer out there). I wondered what kind of nut would make that hike with full cans of beer since they are quite heavy and of little value in rehydrating your body. I could think of lighter intoxicants, but the desert is a wacky place, and the people who are out walking around in it, there are no different.
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The beer cans were from the accident. One of the cars had a load of beer in it. I believe Pacific Southwest Railway Museum's website has something on it.
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A box car thoughts "Man, I hate to see that evening sun go down"!
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Jeff, re-read my comment. The beer cans I found had nothing to do with a RR accident and they are too new to have been dropped there before 2008, which is when the line was embargoed - thanks for looking!
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