A few comments on chalk marks

Most modelers of freight casrs from earlier times are ware of the chalk marks that could be found on car sides. For the most part, these were switchmen’s marks and were not, nor should they be referred to as, graffiti. A photo I have shown several times, taken at Englewood Yard on the T&NO, depicts a yard clerk applying such a mark.

In the photo, he is writing with what is still known as “railroad chalk,” roughly an inch in diameter. White and yellow were widely used, but other colors, including blue, were available. Below I show a couple of sticks of this chalk. It is quite sturdy and unlike blackboard chalk, not easily broken. And the large diameter means that chalk marks made with this chalk were relatively broad, not like what we associate with blackboard chalk.

I have written about this topic in two previous posts, one from way back in 2011 (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2011/11/chalk-marks-and-route-cards.html ).  The second one was a couple of years later and included a number of model photos with chalk marks applied. That post is here: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2013/04/more-on-chalk-marks.html .

Since many if not most prototype freight car photos do show at least a few chalk marks, we need to include them on our models. For years, there have been commercial offerings, both dry transfers (Clover House) and decals (Sunshine, Champ, Speedwitch Media and others), and these may meet your needs. But it is simple to write them yourself. A sharp artist’s pencil in white, gray or other color makes this simple.

But then comes the issue of what to write. You can just make something up, or a better option is consulting good, clear prototype photos, such as the photos in the superb series of books prepared by Ted Culotta, entitled Focus on Freight Cars (Speedwitch Media); Volumes 4, 5, 7 and 9 remain available (go to: https://speedwitchmedia.com/ ). Here’s one example, taken from the series Vol. 4, page 82. The car shown is SP 38017, part of SP Class B-50-19, a 1937 AAR box car.

Note that the message being conveyed is by no means evident, but swirls or slashes of chalk like this, and one or more numbers like this “17,” are very common in prototype photos. Note also two previous messages that are lined out, presumably superseded. Sometimes writing is fairly large, as in this photo of CCC&StL (NYC) 58392, from page 17 of Volume 4; this would be easy to imitate.

And as mentioned, it is quite common to find older chalk markings lined out, crossed out, or X-ed out. That’s well shown in this example from Volume 1, page 61, showing one end of SP 29889, a member of SP Class B-50-14. It was common for the chalk marks to be concentrated at either end of the car side, as you see here.

And sometimes it’s just a squiggle, maybe the clerk warming up his wrist, as in this photo of Seaboard 18735 from Volume 4, page 48. This was one of Seaboard’s 1932 ARA box cars. That’s a defect card holder right above the chalk mark.

All these prototype examples should provide lots of ideas about “what to write” when adding chalk marks to a model. As a single model example, below is a gondola on which I used a blue pencil (the classic editor’s “sky blue” pencil). This is an Ertl model I have posted about (see this link: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/10/small-project-maine-central-gondola.html ).

Tony Thompson