Moving murals

On December 7, I spotted the Arizona Daily Star article Tucson Oddity: Graffiti-covered boxcars, site now store parts for old trolleys. About ten years ago, the story said, Old Pueblo Trolley let winners of a graffiti art contest paint the boxcars. The cars -- stored in a fenced lot at 10 N. Park Avenue, are about to be re-painted to look like they did in the mid-1950s. I grabbed my camera and got out there around noon yesterday:


The lot's fence is high, topped with razor wire, and you can't see much through it. Luckily, the gate was open. I walked in, chatted with two men who came out of the building that opens onto the lot, and I walked right up next to the cars. Here are two views of the mural on the south side (the far side of the right-hand boxcar in the first photo above):


The back of the other boxcar was harder to see -- close to the fence and half in shade. Here's what I got:


This is one more view -- facing the inside (northwest) corner of the two boxcars in the first photo, looking through a dilapidated trolley:


Soon these murals will be part of Tucson history. (By the way, a good place I've found to read and discuss Tucson history is at Vanishing Tucson.)