http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5213493/Flying-Scotsman-vandalised-Christmas-spree.html
A sad day for railway buffs and for the volunteers of what many consider the premier preserved railway in the UK
…The report is typical of the Daily Mail sub headlines… one minute they say trashed the next they say restored…They got it backwards as usual…
The carriages have been removed, as the article says further on…and will be restored…again…
The biggest problem seems storage of these consists, as a large building would be required to house them safely…something many preserved railways do not have.
This sort of thing is the inevitable result - and if the idiots who did this are caught , then no doubt some local magistrate will just give them a few hours community service and send them on their way, instead of fining them the cost of putting things right - which could be considerable.
The sad thing is that this is becoming an increasing problem. Another Gresley teak set was badly vandalised at another of the UK’s “premier” lines, the North Yorkshire Moors, earlier this year. And one end of the Swindon and Cricklaid’s “Thumper” DEMU set was destroyed by arsonists. There are other instances of volunteers’ hard work and money being destroyed by these thoughtless idiots. I think a few jail terms and restitution orders need to be handed down swiftly.
Interesting that Severn Valley has extensive train sheds. Looks like the vandals picked one from the GWR set and another from the Gresley teak set. Probably set up in the passenger bays at Kiddeminster for their winter services operating from 26th. Sad, as I said, you can’t even leave a set out ready for operating.
I do hate the mainstream press’s ability to conflate and come up with total rubbish - the 10 year £4.2 m restoration mentioned refers to the locomotive “Flying Scotsman” (not stabled at the SVR) not a rake of coaches, parts that may or may not have been included at some time in the train that made up the service known as the Flying Scotsman (Pedantry over).
Sadly, the idea of respecting other peoples’ property is no longer a commonly taught idea. These punks think its just “fun” to destroy things. If they had an ounce of respect, they would not even consider doing such a thing.
I agree, if they are caught, they should have to work alongside the volunteers to undo the damage, and pay some of the restoration costs.
David Maynard said:
I agree, if they are caught, they should have to work alongside the volunteers to undo the damage, and pay some of the restoration costs.
They should pay ALL the restoration costs plus a penalty then they might think twice in future.
Rooster did it. He loves tagging cars…
What a hateful way to treat others property. Yes they should pay for the restoration, but we all know that won’t happen and having them involved in the work would probably create more damage as they know not what they do.
But not to long ago copying the vandalism on freight cars was ok and should be copied in our models for our kids to see because " man that’s neat" My what mixed messages we send.
Just saying (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
I feel bad about the damage dome to these passenger cars.
Re Dave M’s comment; While I agree that tagging is a form of vandalism, it is generally not destructive. The better taggers know what marks to leave intact so their ‘art’ remains untouched by the RR. If you are doing modern mainline freight and want weathered cars, tagging your cars is prototypical. I hear you on the mixed message, but tagging isn’t ever going away.
Jon, vandalism is vandalism, period. Please don’t try to justify destruction of other folks’s property. I don’t disagree that tagging will not go away, but let’s not support it. Dave is correct on sending mixed messages. The best answer I can offer is to quote someone from this forum a few years ago, “Art is when you paint it on your canvas, vandalism is when you paint it on someone else’s canvas.”
Personally I am a big fan of a Willow switch. It sure worked on me.
FWIW
Mick Benton said:
David Maynard said:
I agree, if they are caught, they should have to work alongside the volunteers to undo the damage, and pay some of the restoration costs.
They should pay ALL the restoration costs plus a penalty then they might think twice in future.
Yes, they should, but when someone is required to pay that much more then they can afford, the debt is quite often forgiven, eventually. That is why I said part of the cost. If they have spare money to go buy spray paint, then they can afford a can of varnish, and some paint stripper.
When I had to spend my afternoon scrubbing ink marks off my school desk, instead of outside having fun, it made me real careful with my pen from then on. Having those punks spend their days with paint stripper until all their “work” is removed from the cars, would make them think twice about doing it again.
David Marconi, FOGCH said:
What a hateful way to treat others property. Yes they should pay for the restoration, but we all know that won’t happen and having them involved in the work would probably create more damage as they know not what they do.
But not to long ago copying the vandalism on freight cars was ok and should be copied in our models for our kids to see because " man that’s neat" My what mixed messages we send.
Just saying (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Well, that there is a can of worms. Some people are real passionate about the issue no matter what side they are on. But if one is going to faithfully copy reality in miniature…
David Maynard said:
David Marconi, FOGCH said:
What a hateful way to treat others property. Yes they should pay for the restoration, but we all know that won’t happen and having them involved in the work would probably create more damage as they know not what they do.
But not to long ago copying the vandalism on freight cars was ok and should be copied in our models for our kids to see because " man that’s neat" My what mixed messages we send.
Just saying (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Well, that there is a can of worms. Some people are real passionate about the issue no matter what side they are on. But if one is going to faithfully copy reality in miniature…
Well I guess that just says that you didn’t learn much of a lesson cleaning the ink off your desk now did ja(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
What a hateful way to treat others property. Yes they should pay for the restoration,
My understanding is that the police caught the vandals who did the NYMR coaches last summer, and they were released on bail. As far as I know they are unlikely to get more than a slap on the wrist.
Maynard, there are means to cover that situation. I would like to see the ‘garnishment’ of pay used more often in situations like that. Keep the amount low so as not to break the individual, but the constant reminder of 5-10% of his paycheck disappearing every pay day will soon become a very chilling reminder of what not to do.
Unfortunately, ‘tagging’ is not the only issue where we adults give mixed messages to our young folk. To stay on topic though, I have heard the argument that the tagging is a free paint job for the car owner. Maybe so, maybe not. What is the cost of recovering all the reporting marks so the car can be utilized? Or the cost to cover up some ‘socially unacceptable’ tagging? Not to mention that most taggers, if you offered to pay them to paint the cars, there would be no interest. The interest is in the adrenaline rush to tag the car without getting caught.
I will openly admit I was disappointed when Stan and others started to offer ‘tagging decals’ for our models. I kinda felt like they were betraying what is right. On the other hand they are business people and need to sell what the customer wants. I am disappointed in the customers that want it.
Ken Brunt said:
Rooster did it. He loves tagging cars…
I don’t do steam era(modern or not) taggin as it’s disrespectful
Since when did you get particular??
edit…on second thought, I take it all back!
The following is a comment on the vandalism of the coaches of the Severn Valley Railway… from the local newspaper where the incident happened… says a lot for progressive thinking…
"Having graffiti daubed all over walls in town parks, on boards in the town centre, in our subways, inside our canal tunnels and (for many years) on the bridge right next to the SVR has been positively applauded and encouraged by the local council, who have been intent on making what should be a pleasant suburban market town look like an inner city dump for years.
Nobody should be surprised when the sort of environment degrading vandalism that the town council have spent decades normalising is carried out in exactly the sort of location that the “artform” developed in - on train carriages."
David Marconi, FOGCH said:
David Maynard said:
David Marconi, FOGCH said:
What a hateful way to treat others property. Yes they should pay for the restoration, but we all know that won’t happen and having them involved in the work would probably create more damage as they know not what they do.
But not to long ago copying the vandalism on freight cars was ok and should be copied in our models for our kids to see because " man that’s neat" My what mixed messages we send.
Just saying (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
Well, that there is a can of worms. Some people are real passionate about the issue no matter what side they are on. But if one is going to faithfully copy reality in miniature…
Well I guess that just says that you didn’t learn much of a lesson cleaning the ink off your desk now did ja(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
I did. I only said that if one was going to faithfully copy reality…
I can see both sides of the issue. I didn’t say I agreed with tagging, even in miniature. But if we are going to truly model reality, then a tagged car would not be out of place. I didn’y say that I would tag a car, nor that I want to see a string of cars tagged. In my mind, the word “tag”, is a sanitized word to make the act of vandalism sound less vulgar then the act is.
This brings to mind that tattoos are vandalism you do to yourself.