When I was growing up, the local trains were all from Southern Railway, which joined with the Norfolk & Western forming Norfolk Southern in the early 1980s. There’s still a lot of freight that comes through Manassas, as it has since the mid-1800s, if not before. Today the lines are also shared with Amtrak and VRE, a local commuter line that runs into DC.

There are still side tracks in the area, this one sitting right behind the Manassas Cemetery, where I found these “refer” cars, one of which clearly had a load, as it was running to keep it’s cargo cold. Railroad graffiti always fascinates me, mostly because unlike most graffiti you see, it could have been created anywhere.

I was really torn today, I had several images that I thought were good, but I named this one before I even took the photo. I had a variable ND filter on because I had set up an earlier shot for some blur.

EXIF: ISO 400 @ 17mm f/10 1/50 sec