St Louis Car 09 Posted October 26, 2009 Share #1 Posted October 26, 2009 I felt like I had to start this one.Throughout the 70s and 80s (NYCT) was suffering through the biggest crisis it may ever face.Not only was infrastructue and equipment was falling apart,as well as high cime numbers,but Graffiti was dominant.although Subway graffiti is gone(with the exception of a few tags and scratchitti) give me some insightful stories about your experience riding the (NYCT) during the 70s to late 80s,Some of the best graffiti you`ve seen and Your thoughts of it ever happening again.Warning! If you were a tagger then or now,keep those stories to yourself,their are some loyal transit fans on this site,not to mention cops.So keep it cool and enjoy the thread:). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pu3rToRoCk8947 Posted October 27, 2009 Share #2 Posted October 27, 2009 I have many memories of grafitti covered trains during 1984 and 1985 years even though i was small i do remember the splattered grafitti covered R32 cars,before rebuilding.The not so Brightliners were an eyesore at the time as well as many of the older LAHT cars of the time R26,R27,R28,R30,R33 and R36's were all targets.Picture the powder blue bench like seating covered with grafitti tags,interior and exterior windows were dirty and barely visible,the old orange interior and exterior blue doors barely working as one door opened while the other was stuck and the ever popular blinking lights effect.I always lived near the Sea Beach Line and grafitti was present everywhere from station walls,benches,turnstiles and station houses and it was the norm in my neighborhood as well as in many at the time.Gangs were still present but were dying out by 1985 and afterwards.It seems the Sea Beach Line is still frozen in time when it comes to grafitti artwork on the walls although much of the work has been fading already.I was at Prospect Park Station last week and to my amazement an out of service 8 car set of R68's passed through and 2 of its cars were tagged and no amateur did it either folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AA 8th Avenue Posted October 27, 2009 Share #3 Posted October 27, 2009 Don't get me wrong I appreciate the trains now, being clean and grafitti clean but I love some of the tags from back then. I clearly remember, REVS, Soup, Cope, Zane, Smith, 187, and Cost. There were many burners (Tags that take up a whole side of a car) that I really liked but they were really becoming out of hand. One couldn't see out of the window with all those tags inside out. Also, I loved the blackouts in the R32s back during the Graffitti days but I was a kid so I thought it was cool. I was just an admirer of the art. Never really could draw let alone graff. I did walk many tunnels back in the day to admire some of the work others had done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St Louis Car 09 Posted October 27, 2009 Author Share #4 Posted October 27, 2009 The (NYCT) was like a big art gallery back then,but hey Ther was no myspace and face book to network.Kids spoke through the tags and messages. Imagine risking your life for the ultimate Burner or lay-up,the risk of electrocution from the third rail,The roar of 60 ton trains and of course the cops.All sound like good times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresh Pond Posted October 27, 2009 Share #5 Posted October 27, 2009 Although I wasn't born until the middle of the GOH era (I was born in 1990) I love looking at pictures from the 80's and I have a whole collection of them on my computer. My favorite ones was looking at the R16's & the R30's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilbluefoxie Posted October 27, 2009 Share #6 Posted October 27, 2009 There was a book in barnes n Noble near me with all photographs of the graffiti on the subway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St Louis Car 09 Posted October 27, 2009 Author Share #7 Posted October 27, 2009 There was a book in barnes n Noble near me with all photographs of the graffiti on the subway Yeah,was it a big book called "subway art" cost like $40? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2Julio Posted October 27, 2009 Share #8 Posted October 27, 2009 Vandalism of subway trains or any other public property shouldn't be glorified. I don't care about graffiti but if you want to do it, go buy a canvas and do it on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LRG Posted October 27, 2009 Share #9 Posted October 27, 2009 Too bad I wasn't alive to see the epidemic for myself. I can only wonder what would the MTA be like if the epidemic continued into the 1990s! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilbluefoxie Posted October 27, 2009 Share #10 Posted October 27, 2009 Yeah,was it a big book called "subway art" cost like $40? Yea, that was the one, I never bought it since it was too expensive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St Louis Car 09 Posted October 27, 2009 Author Share #11 Posted October 27, 2009 Yea, that was the one, I never bought it since it was too expensive But it has a lot of cool pics:) I can only imagine what type of hell shop personel had to go through with the vandalized cars. Honestly the dumbest thing (NYCT) did was paint the trains white.Of course kids are going to see this as a moving canvas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LRG Posted October 27, 2009 Share #12 Posted October 27, 2009 But it has a lot of cool pics:) I can only imagine what type of hell shop personel had to go through with the vandalized cars. Honestly the dumbest thing (NYCT) did was paint the trains white.Of course kids are going to see this as a moving canvas. They painted the trains white on purpose: to track down what lines were being vandalized the worst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattTrain Posted October 27, 2009 Share #13 Posted October 27, 2009 Vandalism of subway trains or any other public property shouldn't be glorified. I don't care about graffiti but if you want to do it, go buy a canvas and do it on that. I agree with you 100% on that one. It's just bad influence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbanfortitude Posted October 28, 2009 Share #14 Posted October 28, 2009 I agree with you 100% on that one. It's just bad influence. Hey Matt...why are you holding a spray can behind your back there? o_o;; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St Louis Car 09 Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share #15 Posted October 28, 2009 They painted the trains white on purpose: to track down what lines were being vandalized the worst. Pretty much any train running in and out of the Bronx were vandalized the worst:p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattTrain Posted October 28, 2009 Share #16 Posted October 28, 2009 Hey Matt...why are you holding a spray can behind your back there? o_o;; Are you kidding, Stan? I'll never bring a paint spray can in the subway system nor bus. Believe it or not, it's still a problem today, I saw that Avenue J overpass tagged recently and one of the cleaners said to me a week ago "If I catch those bums, I'll spray their faces and have them arrested, red-handed!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbanfortitude Posted October 28, 2009 Share #17 Posted October 28, 2009 Are you kidding, Stan? I'll never bring a paint spray can in the subway system nor bus. LOL sooner or later you'll figure out when I'm serious or not. Sooner or later! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EE Broadway Local Posted October 28, 2009 Share #18 Posted October 28, 2009 http://www.at149st.com This is a website with pics of trains from the graffitti era and has a description of 149th Street-Grand Concourse. 70(2) 70(4) 70(5). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RokuSix Posted October 28, 2009 Share #19 Posted October 28, 2009 I kind of miss the old days of graffiti, when it had purpose and meaning, rather than people just scribbling their names somewhere. The art used to be really beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2Julio Posted October 28, 2009 Share #20 Posted October 28, 2009 I kind of miss the old days of graffiti, when it had purpose and meaning, rather than people just scribbling their names somewhere. The art used to be really beautiful. Put it on a canvas if you want. Not on public property. Vandalism regardless if it's "pretty" or "artistic" is still vandalism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LRG Posted October 28, 2009 Share #21 Posted October 28, 2009 I kind of miss the old days of graffiti, when it had purpose and meaning, rather than people just scribbling their names somewhere. The art used to be really beautiful. IAWTP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St Louis Car 09 Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share #22 Posted October 28, 2009 The worst that can happen,is that someone could probably tag a R160!!! That person would get beat down by every member on this site.:mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RTS CNG Command Posted October 29, 2009 Share #23 Posted October 29, 2009 I was born in 1987, so I don't remember much about the graffiti then. However, I still see graffiti on many subway stations, like the Prospect Park station. The "artwork" makes me feel very uncomfortable and doesn't invite an anti-graffiti person like myself. There's still a problem with the annoying tagging, but cops respond quickly. A little story. I took part of a Type II class last semester that took a class trip. The professor took his class the day before on the same. Well, while at the Times Square station, his class before mine were heading back from the trip. One of the students decided to be an idiot and tag on the wall. The cops swooped down on the kid and arrested him. When our class heard about the story, I had a laugh, 'cause that student was a complete moron for getting in big trouble and embarrassing the class like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St Louis Car 09 Posted October 29, 2009 Author Share #24 Posted October 29, 2009 I was born in 1987, so I don't remember much about the graffiti then. However, I still see graffiti on many subway stations, like the Prospect Park station. The "artwork" makes me feel very uncomfortable and doesn't invite an anti-graffiti person like myself. There's still a problem with the annoying tagging, but cops respond quickly. A little story. I took part of a Type II class last semester that took a class trip. The professor took his class the day before on the same. Well, while at the Times Square station, his class before mine were heading back from the trip. One of the students decided to be an idiot and tag on the wall. The cops swooped down on the kid and arrested him. When our class heard about the story, I had a laugh, 'cause that student was a complete moron for getting in big trouble and embarrassing the class like that. LOL graffiti fail.Now mommy has to take away the crayons and markers:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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