Ed
Since the implementation of AEI (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_equipment_identification) the graffiti isn’t the issue as much as you’d think. When a railcar goes by a reader that consist is stored and matched against the second reader it goes by so if a railcar is ‘on train’ but hadn’t been reported the railcar will be automatically added to the consist. The same holds true with a car reported as on train but it never made it. Computer Business rules will place the car back in the last reported location. Generally lost cars are contributed to a bad order set out that wasn’t reported, a car that was switched into one track but reported in another track. Generally railroad employees and shippers and receivers will find the car initial and number on the end of the cars or inside the doors. Before AEI there wasn’t the graffiti you see today and it would have been a huge problem as the railroads relied on video cameras to check a train into and out of a rail yard.