I knew the steelwork Leeds station shouldn't have been painted white.......

[caliwag]

Can we please get the sad smokers off this thread...go away, start your own thread, this is about station painting...Jeezo

 

[Vulcan]

Caliwag, Leedstraindude,

I am not a smoker, I hate smoking, the smell of it, the effects of it and people that think its clever. If you actually read what has been put, instead of just putting your two'pence in for the hell of it, you will see that I am not defending smoking in stations (as it is illegal, thankfully), just that it wouldn't affect my comfort and safety as much as the constant automatic announcements of Leeds station would have you believe.

Why is this forum plagued by this problem? People get really picky about the smallest of things!

now lets get back to the really thrilling topic of station steelwork paint jobs. (...Jeezo )

 

[Justin Smith]

Caliwag, Leedstraindude,

I am not a smoker, I hate smoking, the smell of it, the effects of it and people that think its clever. If you actually read what has been put, instead of just putting your two'pence in for the hell of it, you will see that I am not defending smoking in stations (as it is illegal, thankfully), just that it wouldn't affect my comfort and safety as much as the constant automatic announcements of Leeds station would have you believe.

Why is this forum plagued by this problem? People get really picky about the smallest of things!

now lets get back to the really thrilling topic of station steelwork paint jobs. (...Jeezo )

You could argue it's a much bigger question than that.
It's about the fact that (so often) capital expenditure is not matched by maintenance expenditure.
There's a disconnect between the two.
The capital expenditure boys forget that maintenance expenditure will not be forthcoming.
The example here being white paint looks good, but forgetting it'll never(or very rarely) be maintained.
Thus, whenever any capital expenditure is made there should be an adequate maintenance budget. If not, design said structure expecting there'll hardly ever be any maintenance, and paint it grey.......

 

[Teaboy1]

White + 5 years of neglect = grey + 5 year neglect = battleship grey.

So thats a saving of about 10 years maint budget = result and a pat on the back of some bean counter nonce!!:roll:

 

[caliwag]

Whilst working in the early days of a major London station project, I popped into Paperchase to buy some colour pencils for quick early presentation sketches. At the counter I presented over 20 different shades of grey, from silver to gunmetal.

The assistant shrugged and asked "you an architect?"..."yup"..."that new station project is it?"..."yup"..."have fun!"..."cheers". So it goes.

 

[Justin Smith]

Whilst working in the early days of a major London station project, I popped into Paperchase to buy some colour pencils for quick early presentation sketches. At the counter I presented over 20 different shades of grey, from silver to gunmetal.

The assistant shrugged and asked "you an architect?"..."yup"..."that new station project is it?"..."yup"..."have fun!"..."cheers". So it goes.

Any grey would look better than stained white.
The steelwork holding up the roof at Ponds Forge swimming pool in Sheffield has the grey I`d probably choose.

 

[colpepper]

A lot of railway paintwork is reverting to blood and custard - and I don't mean carmine and cream.

 

[Vulcan]

Justin, Why not send a letter to Network Rail? You clearly know what they should do. However I suspect they (like me) don't see it as too much of a problem in the grand scheme of what they have to deal with.

 

[Justin Smith]

Justin, Why not send a letter to Network Rail? You clearly know what they should do. However I suspect they (like me) don't see it as too much of a problem in the grand scheme of what they have to deal with.

I'm not sufficiently bothered about Leeds station looking tatty to go to all the effort of writing a letter or E mail, which will probably be ignored.
If I was up for writing to Network rail I'd be more likely to complain about the pathetically slow entry that trains make (for the last mile or two....) into Sheffield station, esp from the South. Many's the time I've missed a tram because of it, and very stressful it is. Someone at Network rail should do the sums. It'd be easy to save a minute off every single train's schedule going into Sheffield. To do that by increasing 100mph limits to 125mph would cost far far more.
Apart from anything else, surely Network rail can see for themselves that the white steelwork at Leeds looks a bleedin' mess.

NB Attached a picture of the salient steelwork to the opening post of this thread.
Yes, it is actually white under all that staining.........

 

[Vulcan]

Just had a look at your picture. yes, that is particularly dreadful. I'd never really noticed it before. However, if it was painted grey the pigeon crap would look just as bad.

 

[Justin Smith]

Just had a look at your picture. yes, that is particularly dreadful. I'd never really noticed it before. However, if it was painted grey the pigeon crap would look just as bad.

Good point. I agree it`d look bad, but probably not quite as bad !

 

[Vulcan]

The ideal colour scheme:

Image: USS Alabama from Wikipedia.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Alabama-iii.jpg/300px-Alabama-iii.jpg

 

[ainsworth74]

You know you really threw me there for a minute Vulcan I seriously though I had opened up a thread on a military forum I frequent when I saw that picture!

 

[Vulcan]

You know you really threw me there for a minute Vulcan I seriously though I had opened up a thread on a military forum I frequent when I saw that picture!

heh heh heh, not intended, honest!

 

[NightatLaira]

Disregarding all the smoker chat (which I incidentally have read and favour the: 'how's a fire in a bin going to burn down Leeds station' line)

White was a stupid colour for a station with predominantly diesel services. It should have been painted in a bolder colour that would have stood up to the grime better - white was chosen in the Leeds 1st program (1999-2002 iirc) as part of the nationwide obsession with early-noughties minimalism where everybody had to have ikea furniture, live in a house with floating beech laminate flooring, and paint rooms in clinical white before chucking in a load of brightly coloured scatter cushions to 'even things up'. It would have worked in an airport terminal building but not in the unique inside and outside environment that a railway station invariably is. I blame Homefront, Groundforce, the Palmer-Tompkinsons of this world and all these other entities for this mistake. Other similar errors were replicated in the internal colour schemes for Voyagers, Pendolinos and Mallards ordered at similar times which also contain similarly large areas of white, off white or light colours to make areas feel more 'airy'. They look grimey within weeks after a bit of robust use...

I feel early 00s interior design will oneday be viewed with the same contempt/nostalgia that early 70s interior design is. Birmingham International (70s), Wigan North Western (70s), the current versions of Euston and New Street (60s)... we'll miss these places in their current form once they're given the 'ikea' treatment in a few years... The only stuff's that's really stood the test of time on our railways is the Victorian stuff.

 

[Justin Smith]

Disregarding all the smoker chat (which I incidentally have read and favour the: 'how's a fire in a bin going to burn down Leeds station' line)

White was a stupid colour for a station with predominantly diesel services. It should have been painted in a bolder colour that would have stood up to the grime better - white was chosen in the Leeds 1st program (1999-2002 iirc) as part of the nationwide obsession with early-noughties minimalism where everybody had to have ikea furniture, live in a house with floating beech laminate flooring, and paint rooms in clinical white before chucking in a load of brightly coloured scatter cushions to 'even things up'. It would have worked in an airport terminal building but not in the unique inside and outside environment that a railway station invariably is. I blame Homefront, Groundforce, the Palmer-Tompkinsons of this world and all these other entities for this mistake. Other similar errors were replicated in the internal colour schemes for Voyagers, Pendolinos and Mallards ordered at similar times which also contain similarly large areas of white, off white or light colours to make areas feel more 'airy'. They look grimey within weeks after a bit of robust use...

I feel early 00s interior design will oneday be viewed with the same contempt/nostalgia that early 70s interior design is. Birmingham International (70s), Wigan North Western (70s), the current versions of Euston and New Street (60s)... we'll miss these places in their current form once they're given the 'ikea' treatment in a few years... The only stuff's that's really stood the test of time on our railways is the Victorian stuff.

Have I understood you correctly, that anyone at all, would miss Birmingham New St ! ? ! ? ! ? !

 

[NightatLaira]

well maybe not... but New Street is going to be a hard one for the redesigners to crack. With so many diesel services anything white is going to end up like Leeds - otherwise they could have done what they did with the new bits of London Victoria and London Liverpool Street - those two stations get away with white because basically everything there is electric.

Like the H&S b******s blog btw!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

That, presumably, is why they don't put a light coloured casing up above the wires at New Street?

( If they did do that, it would transform the appearance and atmosphere of the station instantly. )

 

[Vulcan]

Just some decent lighting would transform New Street for the better. The current lights are so dim its like night time in there.

Also eliminate the vermin. last time I was there mice were running around the platforms, not bothered by passengers in the slightest.

 

[jon0844]

mice were running around the platforms, not bothered by passengers in the slightest.

They're probably cleaner than some of the passengers!