Steam Dreams Excursion 4/5/19 - Graffitied coaches

Two coaches of the Paddington to Kingswear and return Steam Dreams Excursion train, supplied and operated by WCRC Southall depot, were covered in graffiti to such an extent that views of the passing scenery for the passengers were severley impaired and spoilt.
Photos of the train and the coaches concerned can be viewed on the Cornish Railways website latest headlines news.
I trust there was a very good reason for WCRC/Steam Dreams Cos. not, at the very minimum cleaning the windows of these two coaches, not least while the train was berthed at Kingswear for some time before its return to Paddington.

Amlag said:

Two coaches of the Paddington to Kingswear and return Steam Dreams Excursion train, supplied and operated by WCRC Southall depot, were covered in graffiti to such an extent that views of the passing scenery for the passengers were severley impaired and spoilt.
Photos of the train and the coaches concerned can be viewed on the Cornish Railways website latest headlines news.
I trust there was a very good reason for WCRC/Steam Dreams Cos. not, at the very minimum cleaning the windows of these two coaches, not least while the train was berthed at Kingswear for some time before its return to Paddington.

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Are you saying it is the fault of WCRC?
Do you know when exactly the coaches were vandalised?
What about the morons who did the graffiti?

Amlag said:

Two coaches of the Paddington to Kingswear and return Steam Dreams Excursion train, supplied and operated by WCRC Southall depot, were covered in graffiti to such an extent that views of the passing scenery for the passengers were severley impaired and spoilt.
Photos of the train and the coaches concerned can be viewed on the Cornish Railways website latest headlines news.
I trust there was a very good reason for WCRC/Steam Dreams Cos. not, at the very minimum cleaning the windows of these two coaches, not least while the train was berthed at Kingswear for some time before its return to Paddington.

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The good reason being that graffiti takes some work to get off. I suppose you'd have preferred them to cancel the tour and spend the time stripping and repainting the loco and coaches instead?? (as that's what will be required, sanding and repainting as the graffiti paint can cause damage to the varnish)

I'm no fan of Steam Dreams or WCRC, but expecting them to have the equipment and manpower in a distant corner of the country to remove that level of graffiti mid-tour is not reasonable.

That level of damage is going to take quite a bit of time and specialist materials to rectify as well as possibly requiring a repaint too.

While it must have been disappointing, the alternative could possibly have been to remove those vehicles, leaving the tour short formed which would have been even more disappointing and disruptive to a greater number of passengers.

You must remember that it wasn't WCRC who caused this.

You have overreacted a bit !

Cleaning the glass ( to which I particularly referred to ) is a far easier task ...there are graffiti removal
Products. I made no suggestion that the coaches should have been repainted in time for this train; which was today noted stabled at Southall depot , where the vandalism may well have taken place prior to the stocks use on Sat 4/5/19

tiptoptaff said:

The good reason being that graffiti takes some work to get off. I suppose you'd have preferred them to cancel the tour and spend the time stripping and repainting the loco and coaches instead?? (as that's what will be required, sanding and repainting as the graffiti paint can cause damage to the varnish)

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The coaches and loco were vandalised at some point on the Friday night before the tour on the Saturday.

Amlag said:

You have overreacted a bit !

Cleaning the glass ( to which I particularly referred to ) is a far easier task ...there are graffiti removal
Products. I made no suggestion that the coaches should have been repainted in time for this train; which was today noted stabled at Southall depot , where the vandalism may well have taken place prior to the stocks use on Sat 4/5/19

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Yet you still make the assumption that they had these and the manpower to do so, mid-tour? Get real. It is not WCRC's fault in any way. It is unrealistic to say they should have had it cleaned. You see TOCs unit's tagged and running in service as they haven't time or resources to clean them, having come off fully equipped and staffed maintenance depots.

The windows could have been cleaned at Kingswear. Was the graffiti mentioned on board by staff or, ignored?

Brush 4 said:

The windows could have been cleaned at Kingswear. Was the graffiti mentioned on board by staff or, ignored?

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How could they? The train would have had to shunt out of the platforms to clear them for the regular service on that line.

Is cleaning paint off glass as easy as posters are making out on here? Never done it myself.

I'd imagine that a glass scraper (something like a handle fitted with a Stanley-Knife type blade, edge out) would get rid of most of it fairly quickly. Glass, on the whole, is quite forgiving in that.

In well ordered Germany adding substantial amounts of graffiti to any train is a challenge taken up by many. Few trains escape for long and removal must be a regular feature. The smart paintwork loses it's shine after removal, as will be noted when standing beside carriages. Many trains with graffiti covered whole coaches must be run in service for weeks if recent observations are typical.

Apparently there are shops that get major income from knowingly selling paint to people who will use it in this way. Do we need to find ways to restrict the sale of spray paints?

Brush 4 said:

The windows could have been cleaned at Kingswear. Was the graffiti mentioned on board by staff or, ignored?

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Harpers Tate said:

I'd imagine that a glass scraper (something like a handle fitted with a Stanley-Knife type blade, edge out) would get rid of most of it fairly quickly. Glass, on the whole, is quite forgiving in that.

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The graffiti I saw was extensive, in that blobby-letter style you see on US and European suburban stock. Clearly the work of multiple taggers using multiple paints. Scraping the windows would have taken a fair while. I've found one shot, though I saw clearer ones on Twitter.



I think it safe to assume that such solutions would have been considered and then ruled out?

Killingworth said:

Apparently there are shops that get major income from knowingly selling paint to people who will use it in this way. Do we need to find ways to restrict the sale of spray paints?

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A Homebase near where I used to stay had an agreement in place with the local Cop Shop not to sell aerosols. The 'Edinburgh Bargain Store' round the corner had no such qualms, and you could buy any shade of paint you could imagine. In Edinburgh, likewise, there used to be a sort of official graffiti shop of sorts down at the bottom of the Pleasance. I don't know what its intended purpose was, but it sold lurid aerosols and the interior was covered in graffiti.

The flip-side is that I recently used a set of Halfords aerosols (primer, colour and clear coat) and couldn't get the stuff to dry hard at all. Regulations increasingly limit the solvents and potency of aerosol paints, so it seems sadly ironic that the stuff sticks so tightly to trains and buildings, when it can barely perform the job it is meant to do.


My harshest wake-up call was riding a graffiti-strewn train through miles of graffiti-strewn concrete jungle through the outskirts of Paris. It doesn't inspire any great confidence that you are in a safe environment. My sympathies are with those on the on the tour who paid a lot of money to then squint at the view through graffiti'd windows. I also don't relish the job of whoever has to clean the coaches and the 47 up.

Iskra said:

Is cleaning paint off glass as easy as posters are making out on here? Never done it myself.

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I have had to do it myself when yobs in Northampton covered the side of my old narrowboat in graffiti. It was a few hours hard work just to remove it from the window glass before doing the paintwork which in the end had to be repainted. It very much depends on the type of paint used in the aerosol. Oil based paints are harder to remove than the waterbased paints.

Iskra said:

How could they? The train would have had to shunt out of the platforms to clear them for the regular service on that line.

Is cleaning paint off glass as easy as posters are making out on here? Never done it myself.

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It is a long tedious and smelly job. It isnt as easy as using a mop & bucket!

Staff DID attempt to clean the window glass as best they could while the stock was stabled at Kingswear. Once the arriving loco is released from the front there, the stock is propelled straight back into the bay where it remains until departure, so they had easy access to the side the graffiti was on from the platform. They were using some sort of spraycan or bottle, presumably containing a cleaning fluid, with scrapers and cloths.

MarkyT said:

Staff DID attempt to clean the window glass as best they could while the stock was stabled at Kingswear. Once the arriving loco is released from the front there, the stock is propelled straight back into the bay where it remains until departure, so they had easy access to the side the graffiti was on from the platform. They were using some sort of spraycan or bottle, presumably containing a cleaning fluid, with scrapers and cloths.

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I've sucessfully used Acetone Nail Polish Remover to get paint off of glass, it was fairly easy but still took a long time on a relatively small area. Good to know the staff at least did their best to improve the view.

duffield said:

I've sucessfully used Acetone Nail Polish Remover to get paint off of glass.

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Acetone is terrific stuff, but I would be worried about it eating into the seals around the windows and/or the paintwork of the coach. Likewise cellulose thinners, which is the other choice that springs to mind. Anything abrasive would dull the window, however!