[January 22, 2026] It’s no secret that I grew up as the son of a railroad man. As part of that legacy, I was educated in the subculture of the behind-the-scenes of railroading. An early lesson was about railroad cars (usually boxcars) with chalk or waterproof crayon graffiti. Plus, there it was, clearly written, Bozo Texino, with a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, a pipe, a scowl, and his name.
“Dad, who’s Bozo Texino?”
As a little kid, I asked this question, seriously wanting to know who this Bozo was and why his
name was written on the sides of these RR cars. It was probably in the late 1950s, I’m guessing, though I’m not sure exactly when this occurred. My dad apparently knew who he was because the man who drew Bozo Texino was a Missouri Pacific Railroad man like him.
The artist was J.H. McKinley of San Antonio, TX, and a fireman on the MOPAC RR. He didn’t decorate his own RR company’s cars because it was company policy that forbade it, but that didn’t keep him from doodling on competitors’ cars. Besides, McKinley wasn’t even a secret.
Other artists have used their trademarks across all the RR cars. Those in the sub-genre of artists who use RR cars as their canvas are known as Bozo Bambino and Bozo Mexico. Since spray paint made its debut in the late 1960s and 1970s, their graffiti has exploded across all sorts of things that sit on the earth, including the earth itself (e.g., soldiers painting rocks at military garrisons).
I began to notice these RR cars with a gaggle of art as I later became a RR Agent on the Missouri-Illinois Railroad. Working on the railroad was hard, six days a week and often on call. For an 18-year-old, it was too much for me. After a couple of years of working vacations for older men on the MIRR, I decided to join the U.S. Army, not realizing what I was getting into.
Today, watch as a train goes by. You will see colorful spray-painted graffiti on every RR car. Those old chalk or waterproof crayon graffiti are long gone. All of these carry a message. That message is “Hey, we’re here.” Just like Kilroy, who can still occasionally be found.
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Please read my books:
NEW: Railroad graffiti. Who would have known. But graffiti goes back much further and beyond even the Roman Empire days. Or, even beyond. The earliest graffiti dates back to ancient times, with examples found in caves and ancient cities, including the Cave of Hands in Argentina and graffiti from ancient Rome. Maybe that was just “art.” Or, that is the argument today, that graffiti is art, and not some kind of destructive force. And today, Gen. Satterfield makes the case, indirectly I might add, that some graffiti is necessarily art.
Good point about the “art” as graffiti. Sounds good. I personally like the railroad angle. I’m a big train nut. I like going out to railroad sites and observing trains go by. I like mostly places that have rehabilitated old engines and rr cars and are running them on the rails. I have some neat photos. And, of all things, and no surprise, I have a model train layout in my basement (much to the chagrin of my wife).
PS, I used to work on the Santa Fe RR.
🚂 Good lord, this discussion is going off the rails (pun intended). 🚂
This is wild. Like Riding the Rails that Gen. Satterfield wrote about some time ago. The RRs used to be the way to travel. Now, they’ve gone mostly to pot. I hope there is a return.
“Dad, who’s Bozo Texino?”
🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃
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As he writes here, Gen. Satterfield’s dad was a railroad man and that took his dad and family to many places. Here are a few articles that readers might want to read, if they are interested in railroads or in Gen. Satterfield’s younger days.
1. Smoke, Fire, and the Train Crash
2. Leadership and Working on the Railroad
3. Leadership on the Missouri Pacific Railroad
4. Riding the Rails
There are more but you get the drift. Search on them in the search feature and enjoy.
Thanks Watson. Indeed, there are several railroad stories here for our entertainment. I do love them too, and in fact got a small model train set for Christmas many years ago when I was 12 years old. I really really loved that train set. I don’t remember what happened to it, wore it out I guess. But hey, what kid doesn’t like them?
Cool, this is when railroad were railroads.
🚂🚃🛤️
Well, Well, Well ….. looks like we have another flashback to the days of ole’ when Gen. Satterfield and I were little kids growing up in the 50s and 60s. Those were the days, so to speak …. Not. We were poor, but didn’t know it (in money) but rich in family (and did know it). We had brothers and sisters and cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents plus we had our dogs and cats and some of us had a cow or a horse. And we were out running around outside all day long, being free and a bit wild. Yes, and we also stepped on nails, glass, and bent metal. And we broke our arms and scraped our knees and shins. Those were the days where being inside was a sin, and being outside was where every other kid was located. Thanks, Gen. Satterfield. I too put pennies on the RR tracks and watch in fascination as the trains rolled by.
Ah, the old days. 👀
Indeed, and we did all sorts of running wild and crazy throughout the neighborhoods playing cowboys and Indians. It was a good time. And kids were everywhere. Not so much today. And today’s technology isolates us, a phenomenon that will come back to haunt the psychology of kids as they grow up. Parents, please get your kids out to see the real world around you. See the trains as they go by and in 50 years they too will be telling their grandchildren about the graffiti on the trains they saw.
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Bozo Texino ….. ✅