Painting 65 Foot Hopper Trains for Fun
Learning to Mix Paint & Scale Drawings to Reality
Wow how time flies! Before I realized I hadn’t posted much on Substack for the whole month of December 2025. I was busy surviving the cold & finding new ways to express my creativity & positivity. While I was away from my daily posting, I found time to make a couple of new zines to showcase some of the amazing art & graffiti that is in Western Mass. I don’t say it often enough, but thank you to the artist who participate in the culture that is graffiti & street art. Without your work, the streets & highways would be boring.
One night, I was laying awake thinking to myself how could I bring the 413 to the big stage on trains & showcase an amazing area! I didn’t know it at first, but this would re-spark my passion to hunt trains & paint again. I began painting 413 in the biggest fashion I could, taking over the majority of 65 foot hopper train cars with just 3 numbers. Looking at pictures don’t do the size of the trains justice. Their enormous & ridged, with grooves along the body to support dexterity. Lugging around a duffle bag full up 2 1 gallon house paint buckets, a roller pole with an extension, 3 roller covers, gloves, & sometimes a smaller quarter bucket of an extra color paint. Walking up & down the railroad tracks, stealthy moving from my parking space to the area without being noticed. It adds to the thrill & excitement of the whole thing. The only aspect that I dislike is the length of time it takes to bring a dream into reality.
My first car took me almost 4 hours to paint, I was going back & forth trying to make it look presentable. I hated it. I shouldn’t have made the top black, kind of ruins the 3D in my opinion. But I learned from that grueling experience, the next train I painted was in 3 hours & I added a background color. Granted, it was only a quarter of paint so I had to figure out an interesting way to make it stretch the amount that I did.
Funny enough, I created that pink from red & white sample pint paints. I made a name of it after this train & I don’t think I’ll ever make that same batch again. The name for it, Pretty Pissy Pink…
Looking for something tangible? Check out some of my zines: (Here) Stickers & Mini Zines with every purchase
The 3rd hopper I painted was the night before work. I had a dark blue 1 gallon bucket of paint that I had been using for the main colors on these trains, but by this time I was down to the last little bit. I kept adding water & white to make it last a little but longer, but when I was in the field there was no thinning this paint down any further. I noticed by the time I got to the 3, this ratio of paint to water was way beyond repair. The paint appeared old & uneven. I wasn’t super happy about it & I hadn’t even added any 3D or depth to the numbers. This train took almost 4 hours because I had to keep going over it to make whatever paint I had stick to the cold metal surface. By the end of it, I had kinda given up & just said “We’ll get ‘em next time”.
Of course, the paintings we are the least proud of are the ones that get pictured & put online. The next morning while trying to get day time pictures, the damn train is getting pulled out of the yard. Thankfully, I was able to get a good video & tons of pictures, but boy was I unhappy about it. I hate that the only train I could see rolling was the worst of the bunch. With that in mind, I knew I had to try again.
A week later, I ventured out to a train yard to paint another whole car the best I could. I got to my normal parking spot & I could hear a low humming noise coming from the tracks. I thought it may be a conductor car waiting to grab their load & head out. I figured it would be best to go all the way around so I took my duffle bag & all of my gear to head out for the 15-20 minute walk down the line to the same spot I was just at. This time, there was a ton of snow on the ground but that didn’t deter me from making my dreams come true. I found out later through another writer, that the low humming noise was actually a reefer that was on! A reefer is a refrigerated freight car & they are the holy grails of freight trains, in my opinion. But I digress,
Almost 3 hours later, I had finished my favorite whole car! I added a 3D that made it look like the numbers were popping off from the smaller corner of the hopper. I loved it. I had even brought a couple of Sam Adams Winter Lagers with me because I knew this one would deserve a celebration. As I was finishing & sipping my beer, I started to get really cold & I thought I might be getting sick. I spent about 25 - 30 minutes walking around covering the paint splattered ground. I realized as I was taking pictures & videos at the very end, why I was so cold. It had been snowing & I hadn’t even noticed. My beer had ice forming on the side of the bottle it was so cold. Truly a memorable experience.
So there I was walking back to my car at 2 in the morning & I noticed a few box cars in the distance. If you remember from previous posts, I’m a sucker for box cars. Truly some of the best freight trains to look at & paint. I had to walk over & see more. I didn’t have space to paint, but I added a few monikers & I went on my merry way.
If you’re interested in seeing the 1st 2 whole cars that I ever painted check out this post below
The Power of Community Through Unity
What happens when we stop creating alone & start building together?
While painting these trains, I’ve been mixing a ton of my own paint to make batches last longer & to have something original to use. For those interesting in learning how I do it, I always get paint from any Home Depot or Lowes when they have oops paint. This is paint that a customer didn’t want & they can’t put back on their shelves. They sell it at a discount for anyone willing to take it as is. Now Lowes still charges an arm & a leg for oops paints. I try to only get it from Home Depot when I’m buying it…
When I get it back to my little lab, I open up my main color & pour maybe a quart of paint into a celebrate bucket. That’s so I can add water & other paint to the main bucket to get a desired color. From there I just add whatever remaining paint I have from other projects. Of course I try to remain true to color theory & the laws of mixing paints. When I first started I thought I could mix any color with any color to get what I want & I quickly turned out that grey or black is usually the end result of that abomination.
But I always add enough water to make the paint a very loose consistency to ensure it’s easier to apply to surfaces. I want it to be like ice cream that has started to melt. It holds some of it’s structure until you touch it. Now I usually save a quart of the original color in case I want to recreate or use that for something else. This is therapeutic to me in the sense that I can say even my color is original & unique from something you may find on the shelves. I took the time to make the color, paint a design, & share it afterwards. Taking almost complete control in the process. It’s not for everyone, but I find joy in the little things like that. What do you find joy in?
Here are some of the remaining drone pictures I took this last summer before the devasting crash.
These images are from my iPad. I applied to a few open calls for digital designers. Here are some of the things I submitted.
Peace & Love from the 413