Half term holiday?
Idiots do what idiots do. A preserved railway is very convenient - stuff to smash and unlikely to be anyone around most of the time. I doubt the vandals knew or cared whether it was a pacer or the Knotty rake. They may not even know what a preserved / heritage railway is! More likely, we're bored, there's a site full of stuff, it looks quiet, crash bang wallop. Unless there is a darker side of some kind of personal grudge/grievance.
Secure covered accommodation is the solution which costs money and is in short supply at most railways. Foxfield, like many preserved sites, does however have its lines of 'stuff' which present an image of abandonment. When I went past a couple of months back the pacer was parked in close vicinity to several of these 'long-term restoration projects'.
One key aspect here would be the public footpath which runs across the throat of the station/sidings, making it difficult to secure the site. The signal box is also close to the footpath.
Previously (I discovered recently) they suffered arson attacks on some wagons 'abandoned' at the bottom of the incline adjacent to the big railway.
The main base of the Foxfield is close to housing, quite posh too (for Stoke-on-Trent) but still takes an effort to get to. Blythe Bridge is not a bad area, but like everywhere it has it's grot spots and undesirables. The other end of the line, at Dilhorne Colliery, is much less accessible.
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