Meridian Attack !!

[westcoaster]

The swiss tourist board?? Never seen such livery and can't find one either? Do you have a picture link?

Search for 319215

 

[Simon Poole]

Then in the papers the next day "little Richard Head was such a lovely boy, would never get into trouble, showing great promise at art college blah blah blah...."

it could be a gang of chavs

 

[asylumxl]

Something about it really seems odd. I think the 222 was the target specifically. The Cricklewood sidings are not exactly the easiest place to get to, and the grafitti was extensive compared to trains next to it.

 

[MCR247]

Maybe it's because the 222 is mainly White, which is a lot easier to make it show up on than purple!

That or it was an inside job by FCC to try and get EMT to stable somewhere else....

(joke! No offence to FCC or it's staff intended!)

 

[Flywaver]

Obviously the inner city TOCs are more likely to get this but ive seen East Coast HST with it up the side of MK111s. We had a classic one on XC as a 170 was on Stansted North Curve on the last trip waiting for Londons for clearence with 5 to 10 mins and got hit bigtime. I say classic because the Driver had it done twice there and not happened to anyone else.
Cambridge over Christmas normally sees a unit done...

 

[jon0844]

So the driver did it?

 

[SouthEastern-465]

Then in the papers the next day "little Richard Head was such a lovely boy, would never get into trouble, showing great promise at art college blah blah blah...."

I fully agree.

I remeber a couple of years back the Class 465s down here were getting alot of graffiti (Its not urban art, its vandalism) when they still had NSE livery on them, but after they had the new SE livery applied I didn't see as much graffiti on them as it was sorted pretty quick.

Now days its seems the Class 375s are getting quite a bit, it comes as a suprise that there getting it whilst there stabled in Kent and NOT London!

 

[Yew]

I always thought it was old/ugly/unloved trains that got vandalised? or freight coaches?

If it was artful, I wouldnt mind as much, or if it was on a pacer ^^

 

[MCR247]

I always thought it was old/ugly/unloved trains that got vandalised? or freight coaches?

Not really, if trains are stabled where there is easy active, and not very good security, any train can be hit.

IIRC LU used to have problems at Barking

 

[jon0844]

FCC had a new 377/5 covered within a very short space of time didn't it?

Tagging probably favours white/plain liveries, but if you're going to do an all over design then anything will do. I guess there's a status thing behind getting a brand new train.

 

[asylumxl]

FCC had a new 377/5 covered within a very short space of time didn't it?

Tagging probably favours white/plain liveries, but if you're going to do an all over design then anything will do. I guess there's a status thing behind getting a brand new train.

Within a couple of days of the first 377/5 being in service. It had been stabled in Kent, suprise suprise.

 

[jon0844]

The state of SET trains inside as well as out pretty much put me off ever using them again. This was on the 465s before they were refreshed, but my goodness how grim they looked.. totally destroyed from etching and other damage, toilets permanently locked out of use.

It doesn't surprise me that the trains would be hit down there. I saw a few 377/5s at Ashford on Saturday - they'd hardy be difficult to get to from simply jumping down off the platforms (I can't remember if there was high fencing, on account of Eurostar).

 

[387star]

Connex south central trains were always covered in graffiti not sure what southern have done but its worked

 

[jon0844]

Connex south central trains were always covered in graffiti not sure what southern have done but its worked

Hopefully they did something like in Hot Fuzz; for the greater good...

 

[BestWestern]

Sadly a lot of it seems to come down to that old chestnut, crap security. For some reason a lot of public transport businesses just don't seem to care about their most valuable and essential assets. It's the same with so many bus operators who leave their motors parked up overnight in open yards, bus stations etc and then have to deal with it when they get vandalised/stolen/set alight. Seems to be the same with some rail operators, presumably the cost of repairing the damage is viewed as less than the price of decent security. My ToC suffers from regular defacing of train interiors by one prolific bonehead, but despite it often being done within full view of CCTV there simply doesn't seem to be any inclination to investigate it.

A 'Hot Fuzz' style Guard riding through the train on horseback might do the trick...

 

[Peter Sarf]

Sadly a lot of it seems to come down to that old chestnut, crap security. For some reason a lot of public transport businesses just don't seem to care about their most valuable and essential assets. It's the same with so many bus operators who leave their motors parked up overnight in open yards, bus stations etc and then have to deal with it when they get vandalised/stolen/set alight. Seems to be the same with some rail operators, presumably the cost of repairing the damage is viewed as less than the price of decent security. My ToC suffers from regular defacing of train interiors by one prolific bonehead, but despite it often being done within full view of CCTV there simply doesn't seem to be any inclination to investigate it.

A 'Hot Fuzz' style Guard riding through the train on horseback might do the trick...

Someone who knew a bit about psychology told me that a lot of graffitti, and particularly tagging, can be explained as the same as a male dog cocking its leg up a tree and leaving a scent. The point is these acts of vandalism are carried out by individuals that dont feel they belong/fit-in to society. They usually are not very intelligent and are not well brought up - it is the mark of a failure regressing into primitive behaviour that most of us left behind when we climbed down from the trees.

The effect on the rest of us (more civilised humans even if I say so myself) is that it downgrades the area concerned. For example if houses/walls in your area have graffitti on them it lowers everyones opinion of how safe/comfortable the area is. Same for trains/railway-stations. You probably would be less "Aware" of a recent murder in your area than the permanent reminder presented by graffitti/tagging.

How do you solve it. Better penalties when the offender is caught would help - they might find the threat of the stocks tamed their desire to make a mark. Another important part of the solution is to remove/obliterate the markings as soon as possible. This is very important as they left their mark over yours (your nice wall or, in the case of trains, livery). You must get your mark back there asap - you have the upper hand as you are NOT breaking the law and can operate in daylight without looking over your shoulder. IT IS VERY VERY IMPORTANT TO OBLITERATE THE UNWANTED MARKINGS ASAP. If a train operator or Network rail cannot do this then they are telling the rest of us that they do not care - and thats possibly the right conclusion to draw.

 

[Aictos]

I'm sure a 365 got attacked by chumps at Biggleswade a couple of years ago who was so smart, they filmed the whole event and then placed it on Youtube!

 

[Skimble19]

Indeed they did ajax, will try and find the video! I know some people around here aren't that bright, but that video took the mick..!

 

[BestWestern]

Someone who knew a bit about psychology told me that a lot of graffitti, and particularly tagging, can be explained as the same as a male dog cocking its leg up a tree and leaving a scent. The point is these acts of vandalism are carried out by individuals that dont feel they belong/fit-in to society. They usually are not very intelligent and are not well brought up - it is the mark of a failure regressing into primitive behaviour that most of us left behind when we climbed down from the trees.

The effect on the rest of us (more civilised humans even if I say so myself) is that it downgrades the area concerned. For example if houses/walls in your area have graffitti on them it lowers everyones opinion of how safe/comfortable the area is. Same for trains/railway-stations. You probably would be less "Aware" of a recent murder in your area than the permanent reminder presented by graffitti/tagging.

How do you solve it. Better penalties when the offender is caught would help - they might find the threat of the stocks tamed their desire to make a mark. Another important part of the solution is to remove/obliterate the markings as soon as possible. This is very important as they left their mark over yours (your nice wall or, in the case of trains, livery). You must get your mark back there asap - you have the upper hand as you are NOT breaking the law and can operate in daylight without looking over your shoulder. IT IS VERY VERY IMPORTANT TO OBLITERATE THE UNWANTED MARKINGS ASAP. If a train operator or Network rail cannot do this then they are telling the rest of us that they do not care - and thats possibly the right conclusion to draw.

....I completely agree with all of those points. I recall hearing a long time back about a project on one of the US subway systems whereby all grafitti 'tagging' was routinely removed at the first possible opportunity in an attempt to beat the 'artists'/vandals into submission in the ongoing battle. It worked very succesfully I remember. It seems very much the case the swift removal is the key, so as to render their 'efforts' irrelevant. Now if only somebody could point this out to the ToC's.

 

[jon0844]

I think they do remove the graffiti pretty quick around here - on the trains and stations at least. Along the lines, where Network Rail come every year or so and cover everything with grey/light blue paint, it's not quite as proactive - but there's obviously a much larger area to cover.

 

[Peter Sarf]

I think they do remove the graffiti pretty quick around here - on the trains and stations at least. Along the lines, where Network Rail come every year or so and cover everything with grey/light blue paint, it's not quite as proactive - but there's obviously a much larger area to cover.

But its a larger area to paint if you leave it longer. There is less to cope with if you keep on top of it for two reasons. First if you do it twice as often then there is half as much to do each time. Second the graffiti attacks reduce.

 

[aspierail]

Its more like a scribble and i hope EMT remove it as soon as possible though.