Avon Valley Railway come up with a "Cunning Plan" to raise money: "street art train"

[overthere 2]

As we know all heritage railways are struggling for cash but the Avon Valley Railway have come up with a novel idea of raising cash:

Gloucestershire railway unveils 'Street Art Train'

The latest attraction at the Avon Valley Railway's Bitton Station is not another locomotive, but a railway carriage adorned with street art designs.

www.railadvent.co.uk

Make sure you read the comments at the bottom of the link.

Gloucestershire railway unveils ‘Street Art Train’​

The latest attraction at Bitton Station on the Avon Valley Railway in South Gloucestershire is not another locomotive, but a heritage railway carriage adorned with street art designs.

The ‘Street Art Train’ was created by Bristol artists Inkie, Jody, and Cheo after they were commissioned to use authentic colours of the period to spray-paint one side of the carriage with street art designs of the 1980s.

The purpose behind painting the carriage was to prepare it for a role in a short film, the title of which has not yet been announced.

I think that this is a great idea which definitely wont come back to haunt them

 

[37114]

I cycled past it the other day and thought it was a shame after everything they had happen, someone had then vandalised their stock... Would never have believed it was deliberate..

 

[Towers]

I think that this is a great idea which definitely wont come back to haunt them

Let’s hope not… Knowing how accessible the yard is at Bitton, one might be inclined to hope that they are at least hiding it at closing up time each night.

I do like the suggestion that “street art” aficionados might be inclined to make a donation in return for viewing a graffitied railway carriage - here is a rather different take on the matter from the East Lancs Railway in May:

East Lancashire Railway hit by 'mindless' graffiti attack

A locomotive and several coaches at the East Lancashire Railway were left covered in spray paint.

www.bbc.co.uk

(BBC News article about a graffiti attack on HST coaches on the East Lancs Railway in May).

 

[Egg Centric]

It's not obvious to me that this is always a bad thing.

Firstly, spray paint vandalism - so long as the era/location is 1980s/inner-city appropriate (I don't think this applies to the Avon Valley Railway but I'm not familiar enough with the location and I don't want to be misunderstood as commenting on this specific occasion) - might actually be an accurate representation of how things were. Similar to how we don't take out all those awful scratches on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and so on.

Secondly, designating "approved" places for vandals to vandalise (or street artists to street art depending on your perspective) has been a historically successful strategy. It's the kind of common sense mutually beneficial solution that satisfies most people on either "side". The graffiti artists get to grafitti a specific set of walls and meanwhile if they do it somewhere else they face condign punishment (it's important to implement this second bit too, not just liberalise everything). Learning from this and applying it to rolling stock a fairly manky looking TSO can be a decent sacrificial lamb imo.

 

[Towers]

It's not obvious to me that this is always a bad thing.

Firstly, spray paint vandalism - so long as the era/location is 1980s/inner-city appropriate (I don't think this applies to the Avon Valley Railway but I'm not familiar enough with the location and I don't want to be misunderstood as commenting on this specific occasion) - might actually be an accurate representation of how things were. Similar to how we don't take out all those awful scratches on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and so on.

Secondly, designating "approved" places for vandals to vandalise (or street artists to street art depending on your perspective) has been a historically successful strategy. It's the kind of common sense mutually beneficial solution that satisfies most people on either "side". The graffiti artists get to grafitti a specific set of walls and meanwhile if they do it somewhere else they face condign punishment (it's important to implement this second bit too, not just liberalise everything). Learning from this and applying it to rolling stock a fairly manky looking TSO can be a decent sacrificial lamb imo.

Interesting point; alas the AVR is very definitely not modelled on the urban 1980s, and there is a vast difference between the sort of ‘professional’ artists who do this work for payment and the kind of yobs who will turn up at a heritage railway and vandalise things. From the article it sounds as if the vehicle in question here was so decorated for some sort of film work, and the AVR have simply decided to make a spectacle of the outcome now that the filming is complete. Whilst it’s an interesting idea, there is a risk I would think of kicking the nest; i.e. the local paint yobs fancy a look and decide to honour the original with their own efforts, etc (and Bristol has plenty of amateur artists; in 2015 a GWR Sprinter was attacked by a mob of them who appeared at Montpelier station on the Severn Beach line at about 5 in the morning, held the doors open and completely covered one side of the train).

I wish the railway all the best, hopefully it’s an interesting attraction and the rest of their stock gets left alone.