The economic downturn has caused railroads to park unused rolling stock throughout their systems. But in the Pacific Northwest, one short line's long-parked "Graffiti Train" has suddenly disappeared.

For several years, the siding at Grand Mound along the mostly-dormant Tacoma Rail, ex-MILW line between Tacoma and Chehalis, Wash. was the home of a long string of boxcars, mainly Railboxes with some UP, SP and others mixed in. The cut of cars was clearly visible from adjacent Interstate 5, where drivers got to view the accumulation of graffiti on every one.

I've driven past here at least once a month since 1993, traveling to and from the Army post at Fort Lewis, and the view of the boxcars was as predictable as any other sight along the freeway -- until last Friday.

Sometime between March 27 and April 24, every one of these cars disappeared. The Grand Mound siding was empty for the first time in at least 10 years. On a siding that had been host to years of stored grain cars, intermodal flats and boxcars, nothing.

I suspect that the cars could have gone into storage in a less-visible location elsewhere on the Tacoma Rail system. There's yard room at the former Chehalis Western/AOE shops in Western Junction, further up the line toward Tacoma. Or, they could have gone down to the railcar repair yard on the south side of Chehalis.

The bottom line is that, for whatever reason, the taggers have one less "canvas" for us to see their "handiwork".