Volunteers at a Northumberland heritage railway have been left shocked by graffiti which they say has caused "thousands of pounds" worth of damage. Aln Valley Railway volunteers arrived at Lionheart Station on Saturday morning to find two Pacer trains had been covered in graffiti.
Damage to restored trains
The railway, which has been restoring the Alnwick to Alnmouth branch line over the last 14 years, use Pacer trains on quieter days in the calendar and support school and community group visits. One of the trains was in the final stages of a complete repaint when it was festooned with the graffiti.
Michael Proctor, Aln Valley Railway chairman, said: "Many hours of volunteer work, not least from our young volunteers group, have gone into restoring them and the whole community at the Aln Valley Railway was shocked to see the damage caused."
Clean-up begins
The damage done means that the fresh paintwork will need to be rubbed down and repainted, with specialist paint and equipment needed to do so. Nevertheless, Michael said he was 'proud' of how volunteers responded to the incident.
He added: "Work started on cleaning up the mess within hours of discovering the damage. Anyone thinking they can get away with such destruction needs to understand that the railway is well protected by CCTV and we always share any images of trespass or criminal damage with the police."
Police investigation
A spokesperson for Northumbria Police said: "On Saturday (August 1) morning, we received a report of criminal damage at a heritage venue in the Alnwick area of Northumberland. It was reported that sometime between Friday evening and Saturday morning, graffiti had been sprayed onto several train carriages by offenders who then left the area."
"Enquiries into the report are ongoing and anyone with information should send us a direct message on social media or use the live chat and report forms on our website."
"If you are unable to contact us via the above ways, call 101. Please quote reference number: 26000413999."
Aln Valley Railway has set up a GoFundMe page in the hope over covering the costs to repair the damage.
