They were meant to brighten up the workaday rail route between Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

But now work needs to be carried out to clean up one of the 12 steel horses seen by passengers on trains after it was vandalised.

An England flag was painted on, appearing to show support for a far right political party.

The black horse near the currently closed Tipton rail station is now being cleaned by Sandwell Council officers.

It was believed to have been vandalised over the weekend and daubed with the letters BNP, the initials of the British National Party.

Great Bridge councillor Derek Rowley said he would be getting the horse repainted.

He said: “It’s a disgraceful act of vandalism against a piece of art work that was intended to brighten up a barren area of land next to the railway.”

The 12 life-size metal horses were unveiled in 1986 to give passengers a sense of “frozen” animals galloping along, as well as a reminder of an earlier form of transport.

The £10,000 project, the first local example of track art, was paid for by West Midlands Arts, the now defunct British Rail and the former West Midlands County Council.

They were made by craftsmen at Corley Welding of New Canal Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, in collaboration with a London-based artist.

Six of the horses, which weigh a quarter of a ton each and are made from half-inch steel plate, head towards Wolverhampton while the rest mark the return trip.

Owner Mike Dennis said at the time that it was the most challenging project ever undertaken.

The silhouettes were flame-cut by hand from steel plate with the legs and tails welded on. They are mounted on brackets in concrete.