The latest attraction at Bitton Station on the Avon Valley Railway in South Gloucestershire is not another locomotive, but a heritage railway carriage adorned with street art designs.
The ‘Street Art Train’ was created by Bristol artists Inkie, Jody, and Cheo after they were commissioned to use authentic colours of the period to spray-paint one side of the carriage with street art designs of the 1980s.
The purpose behind painting the carriage was to prepare it for a role in a short film, the title of which has not yet been announced.
The Avon Valley Railway has special permission to display the ‘Street Art Train’, which is on static display at Bitton Station, and can be viewed whenever trains are operating. Running dates can be found on the Avon Valley Railway website.
The Avon Valley Railway emphasises that the ‘Street Art Train’ should not be a precedent for others to use it as a ‘green light’ to apply their version of street art to either the Avon Valley Railway’s or any other heritage railway’s precious and irreplaceable collection of vintage locomotives, carriages, rolling stock and buildings, or indeed, any public building.
“It’s heritage street art, applied to one of our wonderful heritage train carriages! We hope that visitors will come along to our main station at Bitton to enjoy viewing ‘Street Art Train’ whilst our steam-hauled services are running. There is no charge to access the site, but as a charity, we appreciate the support of visitors by either making a donation, buying refreshments from the buffet, or purchasing a ticket for a steam train ride. Every surplus penny we make goes towards keeping our cherished heritage steam railway running for future generations.”
Roger Eynon, Chair of the Avon Valley Railway Heritage Trust
Last September, the Avon Valley Railway, like many other heritage railways, paid its own tribute to the Railway 200 celebrations. It is also in the same position as many other heritage railways facing challenging financial pressures to continue operating, and has recently launched a ‘Fit for The Future’ campaign, with a target of raising £150,000.
“We were delighted to host ‘Inkie’, ‘Jody’ and ‘Cheo’ to our station site at Bitton. We identified a suitable carriage – currently awaiting restoration – and to make it available to these well-known and highly respected artists so that they could apply their designs. Some of the windows received a protective latex covering, thus providing a larger canvass area without any lasting damage to the vehicle.”
Mark Hill, General Manager of Avon Valley Railway
Responses
What a ridiculous idea. What’s the next venture – breaking the windows of signalboxes?
What an utterly stupid idea, this will just encourage more graffiti attacks on both heritage and mainline trains and stations. Whoever agreed to this needs their head examined
I agree with the other comments here. This is vandalism , not art. What on earth is the railway thinking here??!! Promoting this is asking for more of the same where it is not wanted.
Went to a heritage railway at the old Swansea Victoria station site , they had a nice selection of DMU stock which was vandalised , graffitied and burned out , eventually they gave up completely , this isnt a good idea guys unless you are trying to recreate the New York Subway.
Absolutely idiotic, it just gives credibility to graffiti artists. Well artists is the wrong word.
I would not shed a tear if the messed up carriages are defaced in the same manner as stock that has already been defaced at other railway centres.
A utterly poor decision by the railway concerned
Great Idea………Make a film……….. Encourage more Morons .
Unless of course the “Artists” end up demonstratinging the danger of being on the railway ?
As Fred would have said, “Half a day with……………..”
Mind Boggles………….
They will be so upset when they come to work next week and all the other ones have been vandalised , what a waste of time and effort , make a donation to an animal charity or something productive.