Struggling railway left with huge bill by graffiti attacks

[Steve]

VOLUNTEERS who persuaded the public to give them another £75,000 to avert a financial crisis and keep their privately-run railway operating through the summer, have had thousands of pounds wasted by the second graffiti attack in seven days.
Carriages on the Wensleydale Railway were checked late on Friday night but by Saturday morning they had suffered more damage which will take thousands of pounds to clean off.
The graffiti covering eight carriages was discovered when staff arrived at Leeming Bar station at 8am on Saturday, but frantic work enabled the first train to leave at 10.30am with at least its windows clean.
The Wensleydale Railway, which needs every penny to run trains to the East Coast Main Line at Northallerton, suffered two graffiti attacks on carriages in August but the latest incidents have left its directors, staff and volunteers determined to catch the vandals.
Director Ruth Annison said: "We are making a strong appeal to the public to help us to track down and find whoever is doing it. Cleaning off the graffiti is costing us many thousands of pounds."
People who paint graffiti often record their vandalism and Mrs Annison is asking for anyone who sees people photographing the trains to contact the Wensleydale Railway or police with registration details of vehicles.
Volunteer John Boothroyd, of Leeming, was appalled by the latest attack. He said: "I have been working on the railway for nine years and have spent literally hundreds of hours on cleaning work and getting the trains up and running.
"To see this graffiti is absolutely soul destroying. It must take the culprits hours to do it and they must spend a fortune on aerosol paints.
"All our work is now just a total mess. You are talking about weeks and weeks of work to put the carriages back in the condition they were in before the attack."
Although it is privately run, the Wensleydale Railway comes under British Transport Police, who sent officers from Leeds after the previous attack.
They recognised some of the 'tags' as belonging to vandals operating in the Leeds area.
Mr Boothroyd said: "They found one message saying: 'Free Cona'. He is supposed to be in Armley Prison.
"The Transport Police also found a lot of aerosol cans dumped near the A1 flyover."
After the previous weekend's graffiti attack passengers arriving at Leeming Bar station, just off the A1, near Bedale, were so disgusted that they helped railway staff and volunteers to begin cleaning the trains.
Saturday's attack hit five operational carriages plus others in use as a static buffet, shop and information centre at Leeming Bar.
Mrs Annison said: "What is amazing is the number of people who have turned up to help with the cleaning."
In addition to its normal service from Leeming Bar through Bedale and Leyburn to Redmire, Santa specials continue each weekend until Christmas Eve.

[Ringoosmeg]

Right if this offends anyone then sorry...why am i saying sorry....
These ejits (I could use a lot worse), are no more than scum, I dont care what their social background is, iit is still not right for anyone to deface someones property!

Personally, they should be publicly birched, and made to contribute to the cleaning up, and I dont just mean attacks on trains, I mean any graffiti.

Failing that go to their house and cover their loved posessions in paint!

Im sorry but it realy p***** me off.

Its time this country started looking after the majority of law abiding people, and not try to not upset the mindless morons we now seem to encourage.
Sorry for the rant......

[fortysevenfan]

I fully agree with Ringoosmegs comments. The birch should be brought back. The country should be like the USA use the chain gang. Until the powers that be wake up and realise that the hand wringing, do gooding, nicey nicey approach to these thugs is'nt working then this sort of behaviour will continue and the courts will do nothing to stop this sort of behaviour. These thugs think that the country owes them something. I believe in bringing back national service with OLD style army dicipline. Thats my rant over

[Priceless]

hear hear i also agree with the other people

[Ringoosmeg]

Fortysevenfan.....(top name.....my first ever job as a little apprentice on BR in 1980 was to work on 47 474.....12 heads and liners......25 years later and I still work with them, alas though poor ol' 47 474 has finally departed to the scrappy from Wigan .....Sulzer 12LDA's Rock!).

Anyway....your dead right, give them some National Service, make the buggers appriciate what they have, and some respect for others and their property!.

Good on Ya!

Regards

[Hamish Macbeth]

Totally agree.

[tomfassett]

Sadly, it is the same in America. Unfortunately, it is not considered much of a "priority" in the courts anymore. If some judge orders a vandal to do community service cleaning up graffiti there is usually a cry of "unusually cruel punishment" from any number of "well meaning" groups. Now the graffiti vandals have begun targeting private automobiles. Imagine walking out your front door to go to work and finding the family auto covered with profanities. The buggers had better hope I never catch them doing that to my auto... I have seen estimates as high as $5 Billion a year in damage caused by graffiti vandals in the U.S. That's not a "priority?" For that much money we could feed and house every homeless person in North America. I wonder why the "well meaning people" don't say anything about that?
The newest weapons in the fight against graffiti vandalism over here are a few well placed video cameras. The courts often ignore most offenses if there is no iron clad, indisputable evidence. Many businesses that have become frustrated with the criminal justice system have taken their fight to the civil courts by suing graffiti vandals for monetary damages. Fortunately, some laws have just been toughened up in the U.S. so one can't just declare bankruptcy to get out of paying a civil judgement. If you don't pay the court each month, that becomes a criminal offense and you are arrested. Seems silly that you get in more trouble for not paying the court than doing the criminal act in the first place. But then, money talks louder than deeds...
Have any of the tourist railroads over there considered putting in a simple video recording system? Often, just the presence of cameras watching the assets is enough to turn away any but the most hard core vandal. I know that most of the tourist railroads I visit in the U.S. have some form of video surveillance. Of course, much of this comes from the "sue happy" environment that seems to prevail in this country ("ouch I stubbed my toe--I'll sue!"), but it also helps protect the equipment from vandals, (as well as protect the railroad from lawsuit happy morons)...

Tom F