We have a complicated relationship considering we are part of the both the graffiti world and the railroad industry. Our not-for-profit Graff Museum seeks to educate about the graff community and also the pitfalls of this controversial art. Take for example, this panel we titled "MEC - Leave Them Wanting More."

"It's complicated," as the dating profile says.

Graffiti is decidedly complicated. Attribution can be challenging. Intent is sometimes questionable. Respect and beef can come in equal parts and one can easily lead to the other. And with virtually any piece, we’re always left with more questions than we had going in.

And there is soooo much going on with this panel that we’re not even sure where to begin.

Let’s start with its origins.

This is a section from a Maine Central railcar. The MEC reporting mark still remains – the original painted over but then reapplied either by the artist or by a railway worker in the interest of keeping the car rolling. We can tell you the entire reporting mark is MEC 31986 because we harvested other work off of this car – TIMBER and PACER to be exact.

We never got a good look at the full piece on this car because of its location when we surveyed it and the condition of the car, so we’re not entirely certain who had the piece that originally covered the reporting marks.

Cars without reporting marks have to be pulled from service and re-liveried. It’s the equivalent of running without a license plate on your car, and in the railroading world, that’s just not allowed.

Artists who paint over reporting marks and critical markings on cars are more likely to draw the attention of the authorities. It’s one thing to put a fresh coat of paint on a rusting car, but it’s another thing entirely to do something that results in taking it out of service. One is a nuisance to a car owner, the other impacts their revenues.

White is a common enough spray paint color that the hand spray painted MEC on this car could have been the artist or a railroader trying to see this car through until it could be re-liveried, but as we alluded in the lede, that’s part of the story we may never know.

Further lending their name to the title of this one is the @MECRO moniker in the bottom left of the panel. MECRO represents one of the finest writers in the freight graffiti game. His pieces are some of the most legible, but also most diverse with fills of Swiss cheese, frozen patches, water, slime, bevel-edged 3-D letters and much much more.

And while we long to have one of his full-size pieces in the museum, we have yet to get our hands on one – once again leaving us wanting more than simply the moniker that we have here.

Just above that sits a Cat in the Hat moniker. This dude is highly revered among many graffiti writers. Another ghost, much like ICHABOD, precious little is known of them.

That said, the YME crew holds Cat in the Hat in such high regard that they will point out every one they see when we walk the tracks with them. Many of the Cat in the Hat monikers are older and fading, so the example here is a rebuilt version courtesy of KOIS, another member of YME.

One of these is the original, the other presumably an homage from KOIS to the great moniker maker. We assume the one on the right is the original, and once again while we love what’s here, we do have to wonder how close the “rebuild” is to the original. Nevertheless, we are deeply appreciative to KOIS for helping to preserve this bit of graff history until we could get our hands on it.

Then there’s the Network moniker from ’98 nestled among the ladder rungs. A fantastic cowboy hat wearing stick figure reminiscent of the hobo markings style that was the predecessor to modern day moniker writing.

Network crew boasts a long history in the graff game, and greats like @StillOnTrack remain part of the culture to this day. Perhaps SBone put this one up, or one of the other members of the crew, but who knows?

Top that off with the reverence given this piece. The dashed lines along the edges accompanied by the “Do Not Disturb” note exhibit the importance the graff community puts on the work of this crew.

Who sectioned it off to protect like this? KOIS was obviously here with his rebuild of Cat in the Hat and his own moniker next to the turkey (we will get to that), and KOIS shows a penchant for preserving the history of the lines, but we’re not entirely sure he caught the Network moniker.

Once again, wouldn’t we like to know more?

DZEL (out of the NJ & NY area) and FOCUS both make an appearance – either originals from the artists or call outs – we’ll never really know. The hand styles are similar enough to lead us to believe they are shout outs, but then again, who can say for certain?

And finally, just to sate your desire for more info, the Turkey with a missing finger: it's shout out to Jerry Garcia and an interesting version of the childhood classic hand tracing for the holidays. For the uninitiated, Jerry was missing the middle finger on his right hand, and the image of a missing finger became associated with the legendary musician.

We know who is responsible for this one. We actually got chance to meet and talk with the artist #jeatmix who takes credit for this one. His smoking giraffes and cryptic numbering system may be familiar to those who have visited the museum – we harvested a handful of his monikers on pieces we have on hand (no pun intended).

As always, we got some answers, but we have more questions?