Choo-choo time: over-sailing public art (From The Argus)

Choo-choo time: over-sailing public art

3:39pm Wednesday 1st February 2012 in News By Roy Pennington, community correspondent

The Culture Committee (a.k.a. Culture, Recreation & Tourism Cabinet Member Meeting) will be discussing a “Ghost Train” public art installation in Hove Town Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 7th at 4pm. Though the train itself will not be there, its spirit will be invoked as part of the presentation.

The Cabinet Member has to agree to buy the steel sculpture and agree the terms of the license with Network Rail that will allow it to hang over the original 1841 Brighton-London railway line on the listed New England Road cast-iron bridge. The 2-dimensional life-size “see-through” art-work will sit behind the parapet on the east side of the track, as if going up to London.

Planning permission was granted over three years ago, under delegated powers. The sculptor Jon Mills has made an intricate construction, modelled on the silhouetted outline of the steam locomotive, a Jenny Lind.

Integral to the concept is under-lighting: as the report states “The concept behind the piece is that the train looks as if it is barely there and the lighting will fade in and out so the form of the train appears and disappears creating a ghostly presence. As the piece will be lit from below, the additional lighting will be unobtrusive for vehicles passing under the Bridge.”

Although it has been nicknamed “The Ghost Train”, no doubt local residents, car drivers and walkers on the Brighton New England Quarter Greenway will baptise it with their own epithet. Thomas the Tank Engine will be amused.