In the late 1960s, American railroads found themselves with an aging fleet of boxcars and little money to replace them. Leasing companies and railroads large and small capitalized on "per diem" rates on new boxcars which would roam the country, never needing to be routed back to home rails. For a short time, colorful boxcars added some light to the railroad scene. By the early 1980s, however, conditions began to change, and these cars would be returned to lessors or sold to larger roads. Many were repainted, others simply got small patches, but they soldiered on. By the 2000s, the bright colors mostly came from taggers.