A Very Interesting Mess....

I made an interesting discovery this morning , on the Lynn Commuter Rail platform, and am wondering if anybody else has encountered this anywhere.
On all the light poles, trash bins, the fire outlet fitting, and the station sign, on the side a person might lean against while waiting for an inbound train, someone had sprayed a nasty, black oily substance, that for all the world resembles old crankcase oil. There is NO oil anywhere else on the platforms, and given the height of some of the objects in question. it would either have to have been DELIBERATELY done from the platform, or a flatcar on the inbound track. Can anybody tell me what the {Censored} is going on here?? The poles and objects in question are closest to the inbound side, and it almost looks like someone is/was trying to discourage people from waiting too close to that side of the platform, but if thats the case, this is absolutely the wrong way to go about it.

Interesting, the only time I can ever recall anything like this being done
was fairly early in the Penn Central scheme of things, an official got tired
of seeing commuters cross the tracks at one of the stations in Connecticut.
I am not positive but it seems to me that it was either Darien or Noroton
Heights but there was a fence between tracks one and two through the
station and this official got tired of seeing the people getting off a train and
crossing the tracks in that manner.
He ordered that track grease get put on the top of the inter track fence all
through the station. It stopped the threat of someone getting killed by a
passing train.
So far as I remember, no notice of its presence was ever posted but the
train and engine crews pretty much knew it was there and stayed away
from it.
On a station platform, it makes no sense to me.
Noel Weaver

Well your not alone, about 2 yrs ago, same thing happened to me outbound @ State (blue line)...on that small rail by the corner where the train comes in, put my hand on it, felt it , was a black ,greasy substance!