Hand Crafted Wooden Hitachi Train Sculptures
Like a lot of creatives and artists during Covid Lockdowns we decided to keep ourselves busy on some side art projects that focus on creativity and our passion for graffiti.
We have been busy over the last few months producing not only artworks and sculptures but also the perfect graffiti sketching canvas, hand crafted wooden trains!
These wooden train sculptures are based on the iconic old school Hitachi train carriages that are renowned in the graffiti art scene in Melbourne and Australia.
These trains are a monumental part of the Melbourne graffiti scene due to the incredible artwork that was painted on them by some of Melbourne’s most revered graffiti artists.
The History of the Hitachi
The Hitachi (also known as Martin & King or Stainless Steel) was an electric multiple unit that operated on the Melbourne suburban railway network between 1972 and 2014.
Electrical equipment was supplied by Commonwealth Engineering to designs by Hitachi of Japan, leading to their official name today, though no actual Hitachi-supplied components were used in their construction.
They were the last suburban trains in Melbourne with no air conditioning. A total of 355 carriages were built between 1972 and 1981, including a replacement carriage for one written off while the fleet was still being delivered. (Wikipedia)
The point of these wooden train sculptures is for people to be able to display them, paint them with their artwork and also to collaborate with various graffiti artists around Melbourne and Australia.
The Lowdown
These sculpture trains are a signed and numbed limited edition series of 60 hand crafted wooden Hitachi train carriages.
The wood is 10mm lightweight birch plywood that has been stained and clear coated, then masked, painted, jigsaw cut sanded and edges painted… they are 10mm x 150mm x 880mm.
Perfect to paint up or to have on display as is. Please note, each train is hand made and painted and prone to slight individual imperfections which makes each piece truely one of a kind.
ISO has also collaborated on some of these wooden train carriages with a handful of renowned graffiti artists from around Australia. The point of the project is to create stylised graffiti artworks that are based on the history of graffiti in Melbourne and also this particular train model itself.
We will be posting the artworks on these painted wooden train carriages in their full glory in coming weeks. We extend our invite to other fellow artists to send in photos of their artwork done on these hand crafted wooden hitachi trains.
If you are interested in buying one of these individual train carriage sculptures or a 3 car set then please head to https://grafficionado.bigcartel.com/
Alternatively you can buy them from the legends over Union Heights https://unionheights.com.au/hand-crafted-wooden-hitachi-lhs-driver-carriage/
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