New C stock "livery"

[Deleted]

I noticed today that half the C stock fleet seems to have long lines of paint down the sides - some for the whole length of the 6 cars, others in bursts, some even over the windows.

It looks as if some vandals have positioned themselves trackside and fired heavy-duty water pistols filled with paint at the trains as they sped by.

Does anyone know when and/or where it happened - must have been over the weekend i'm assuming. Whoever did it has done a hell of a lot of trains.

Hopefully the craze won't spread.

[astock5000]

I noticed it on at least one train yesterday. I hope 5606-6606 and 5734-6734 aren't like that.

[Ben]

Saw it on an whole 8 car A stock the other day.

[citysig]

If memory serves it was last Thursday evening - with 20+ trains
vandalised - mostly C-Stock with the dark coloured lines, but some A-stock was hit with various shades including pink.

It's not paint. I hope the culprits are not viewers here - being as this is a site related to the running - not disruption - of the tube, but they will know what it is.

The locations were various, but mainly city based. I cannot say / speculate any further than that.

[Deleted]

I was on Platforms 5 & 6 at Baker St this morning and at least half of the trains that ran through there in a 20 minute period had been attacked.

As if they didn't look scruffy enough already.

[Tom]

I saw a similarly afflicted set at Hammersmith today. I didn't think you could make the external appearance of a C stock much worse, but you can.

(BTW, i actually quite like C stock!)

[Deleted]

I'm not exactly sure where it occured, and it seems they may have moved about ...but every C stock on the District Wimbledon - Edgware Road service was "hit" as was every inner rail Circle.

I never saw any D stock affected. Draw your own conclusions.

Removing the damage seems to be slow however !!!!

I don't think 6734 was done (having been on the H & C) and I haven't seen 6606 so I'm not sure that has entered passenger service yet ?

[21146]

I know the BTP are aware of this and have identified one suspected site where this was done from. Given the general scruffy state of the C (and A) Stock, I wonder if this damage will ever be properly repaired by Metrodebt? Are these stocks being allowed to go the same way as the 1959/62 Stock did in their later years? Certainly it'll make the S Stock look good even if there are fewer seats on some lines. A good job *has* been made on removing internal tags and this is all to the credit but the exteriors are detriorating in a shocking state now. How long was the c1990 original 2-pack paint finish supposed to last???

[Chris M]

I saw an A stock in passenger service the other day where virtually the entire lower half of the front was covered in graffiti (either that or a very botched attempt to clean it). Is removing external graffiti from trains not covered in the PPP contract?

[Colin]

Jul 24, 2008 11:48:03 GMT @21146 said:

Certainly it'll make the S Stock look good

I wouldn't bank on it - the first refurbished D stock was graffitied_(sp?) by 12 midday on it's first day in passenger service.......on the Olympia branch!

[citysig]

Jul 23, 2008 20:14:37 GMT @aspect said:

I'm not exactly sure where it occured, and it seems they may have moved about ...but every C stock on the District Wimbledon - Edgware Road service was "hit" as was every inner rail Circle.

There are some firm clues emerging as to locations. Not every C-stock District, but certainly most Inner Rail, Outer Rail and H&C plus 3 or 4 A-stocks running through the central area over the course of an hour or so.

BTP were made aware shortly after the first couple of trains were spotted (or should that be striped.)

Cleaning has been hampered by 2 main factors:
1. The fact as I mentioned above that it's not paint.
2. Would suspending the service to clean more or less the entire fleet go down that well with the travelling public, or would they rather put up with some scruffy looking exteriors for a week or two until each train passes through depot to be cleaned.

[Colin]

I'm sure I've heard it said before that the majority of the C stock fleet actually stables away from Hammersmith depot each evening - so assuming that's correct, there's also the added problem that C stocks can only get the right attention at Hammersmith depot...............but Hammersmith depot doesn't see enough C stocks at any one time to make a serious dent.

[Tom]

Jul 24, 2008 16:09:10 GMT @citysig said:

Cleaning has been hampered by 2 main factors:
1. The fact as I mentioned above that it's not paint.

I didn't think it was paint - looked more like engineer's marking blue to me.

[swedishblue]

Jul 21, 2008 17:48:29 GMT @prakash said:

I noticed today that half the C stock fleet seems to have long lines of paint down the sides - some for the whole length of the 6 cars, others in bursts, some even over the windows.

It looks as if some vandals have positioned themselves trackside and fired heavy-duty water pistols filled with paint at the trains as they sped by.

Does anyone know when and/or where it happened quote]

Ricky driver told me that one of his colleagues spotted some idiots at Baker Street with water pistols filled with "something dark"! As far as i'm aware it's a dark blue dye or ink, so i think it's safe to assume these were the culprits.

[towerman]

Looks like they're back again,saw a Circle with the blue/black lines on Tuesday morning.

[miztert]

Jul 21, 2008 17:48:29 GMT @prakash said:

I noticed today that half the C stock fleet seems to have long lines of paint down the sides - some for the whole length of the 6 cars, others in bursts, some even over the windows.

It looks as if some vandals have positioned themselves trackside and fired heavy-duty water pistols filled with paint at the trains as they sped by.

Does anyone know when and/or where it happened - must have been over the weekend i'm assuming. Whoever did it has done a hell of a lot of trains.

Hopefully the craze won't spread.

This kind of 'graffiti' started appearing on buildings in London fairly recently - not quite sure when I first started noticing it, perhaps up to a year ago, perhaps it's not been around that long. Some of the scrawls appear to just about look like letters, so I guess they just about count as tags, but only just. Bad news.

[citysig]

Aug 29, 2008 21:15:43 GMT towerman said:

Looks like they're back again,saw a Circle with the blue/black lines on Tuesday morning.

Are you sure it was a "new" case. To be honest I don't think each and every train involved in the original attack has been cleaned as yet. Put it this way, I don't recall a day recently where I haven't spotted at least a few trains still with the lines on them.

[Deleted]

Will the S stock have a more graffiti resistant paint? I expect LU can use better paint than NR as the trains will probably spend most of their lives in the same livery.

Does Metronet still get fines for having graffitied trains? (due to Metronet being part of LU and the C stocks short remaining service life.)

[towerman]

The train on Tuesday looked fresh.

[citysig]

I have to say, having seen one today, it does appear that maybe new cases have been committed.

At least (for the benefit of the culprits who may be looking in - I sincerely hope they are not members/regulars here) we have no cancelled any train with such markings, thus no delay has been caused to our customers. So you have to ask, what was the point exactly?

[21146]

Aug 31, 2008 12:52:31 GMT @citysig said:

I have to say, having seen one today, it does appear that maybe new cases have been committed.

At least (for the benefit of the culprits who may be looking in - I sincerely hope they are not members/regulars here) we have no cancelled any train with such markings, thus no delay has been caused to our customers. So you have to ask, what was the point exactly?

Presumably the 'point' was to see their handiwork running up and down the line for days weeks afterwards? If each train so vandalised had been run to depot and 'stopped' until cleaned, they'd probably give up doing it.

[citysig]

Aug 31, 2008 17:59:55 GMT @21146 said:

If each train so vandalised had been run to depot and 'stopped' until cleaned, they'd probably give up doing it.

Give up? Yes of course that's very likely. We clean all the trains and the "artists" give up. But I know what you mean about seeing their handiwork running up and down. Though it's not exactly a skillful piece of art - but then I don't suppose that is the point of it either.

[Deleted]

Aug 31, 2008 12:52:31 GMT @citysig said:

At least (for the benefit of the culprits who may be looking in - I sincerely hope they are not members/regulars here) we have no cancelled any train with such markings, thus no delay has been caused to our customers. So you have to ask, what was the point exactly?

The only problem about posting about graffiti and vandalism is that we are giving these morons the publicity they seek. I'm sure there are a few who read items on their mindless work here.

[citysig]

Really? The way half of it is written, I'm surprised they are of an age that can read. I mean, mis-spellings, scribbles and the like. My 2-year-old does better even when her big sister is pinching all the best crayons.

But seriously I know what you mean, which is why I was in two minds adding to this (and previous threads of a similar nature.) You always have that feeling in the back of your mind that it's advertising the vandalism. But with or without me (or us) they will still be out there. But I think that's me done in this thread anyway...