I was an active ‘Vandal’ for 15 years strictly targeting rolling stock. Very avid railfan too quite friendly with all the local boys out filming for YouTube.
Contrary to popular belief it’s not really young people doing it as I didn’t really get busy until I had a good car and my financial situation was strong enough where I could sit in a bush from 11pm to 5am waiting for security to leave on a Wednesday night and not have it affect my work situation.
And it wasn’t really about the kudos of having it run in traffic the next day although that’s nice, we got so used to it being cleaned here that we found other motivations such as the adventure and exploration. It was almost like a puzzle that took a lot of work to solve, figuring out times, routines, side stepping security measures.
It’s funny listening to how a lot of folk talk about us. I’m just a regular guy, decent job, walk my dogs on the moors, good car, stock investments, meals out with the Mrs, help old people with their shopping etc, no tracksuits or benefits here and all those around me were no different. We just held on to a very specific form of expression and adventure we got addicted to as teenagers.