Flying Scotsman trip cancelled

[Boris]

Mentioning ducks and Gresley locos in the same thread is strictly forbidden

Too right, it should be been a pigeon and a traffic cone because that's whats going to end up on it anyway

[brianusa]

The way it was:-

 

04_001_0092_4472 Ely 30-03-1969...jpg

 

04_001_0095_4472 Ely 30-03-1969...jpg

 

04_001_0100_4472 Ely 30-03-1969,..jpg

 

04_001_0108_4472 Kings Cross 21-10-1967...jpg

 

Stewart

 

The way it was indeed, before the heavy hand of  H & S was even considered necessary!  I don't remember many train spotters or members of the public being mowed down en masse so perhaps BTP and H & S don't give them credit.  Sadly this is the age of yobboism when the few make it a problem for others but no one in their right mind is going to endanger themselves or others; self preservation is a wonderful thing!  Is this another piece of bureaucratic over reaction?  On the other hand, there are many who feel the hand of government a comforting experience.  Perhaps they are right and if so this sort of thing will continue!

 

Brian.

[Oldddudders]

I saw FS at Kings Cross on a normal timetabled train in 1961, and have no idea what all this fuss is about. 

[Talltim]

The way it was indeed, before the heavy hand of H & S was even considered necessary! I don't remember many train spotters or members of the public being mowed down en masse so perhaps BTP and H & S don't give them credit. Sadly this is the age of yobboism when the few make it a problem for others but no one in their right mind is going to endanger themselves or others; self preservation is a wonderful thing! Is this another piece of bureaucratic over reaction? On the other hand, there are many who feel the hand of government a comforting experience. Perhaps they are right and if so this sort of thing will continue!

 

Brian.

Yeah, worrying about people wandering about on a live 125mph railway is elf n safety gone mad...

[Talltim]

I saw FS at Kings Cross on a normal timetabled train in 1961, and have no idea what all this fuss is about.

Hence the 'old' in your username ;-)

[Titan]

 

Yeah, worrying about people wandering about on a live 125mph railway is elf n safety gone mad...

 

 

Especially when these days there is a train passing on each track every few minutes...

[uax6]

Not on the Norwich there isn't... I wonder what they mean by too easy to get lineside? Too many crossings? How many is too many?

 

Andy G

[Talltim]

Not on the Norwich there isn't... I wonder what they mean by too easy to get lineside? Too many crossings? How many is too many?

Andy G

Any more than the London extension of the GC is too many...

Perhaps they are afraid of someone driving a tractor in front of FS

[beast66606]

Any more than the London extension of the GC is too many...

Perhaps they are afraid of someone driving a tractor in front of FS

 

Completely out of order comment there I'm afraid

[Boris]

 

Any more than the London extension of the GC is too many...

Perhaps they are afraid of someone driving a tractor in front of FS

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Surely they can't be real enthusiasts getting so close can they? You're going to get a naff photo following the herd at ground level anyway.

 

Sounds more like Uncle Bert and Aunty Doris taking out little Willie to watch a big green steam train......

[Talltim]

th.jpg

Obviously, no

[The Bigbee Line]

Having ridden behind the loco earlier this year I was amazed by the public reaction.  Whatever your thoughts of the loco and its history, for a lot of the general public it is 'the train' that they recognise.  I have never seen so many people on the lineside.  Doncaster when passed through was absolutely heaving.  Carlisle the same, quite frightening when people are tettering on the platform edge as the train eased into the station.

How you handle this, I do not know.  It's easy to criticise those trying to manage the situation. 

[TheSignalEngineer]

Yeah, worrying about people wandering about on a live 125mph railway is elf n safety gone mad...

Have you ever seen the effects of a skittling, even at low speed? 

Personally i don't worry about the trespasser who gets splatted, just the effect on the driver involved and the people who have to clean up the mess.

[The Stationmaster]

Have you ever seen the effects of a skittling, even at low speed? 

Personally i don't worry about the trespasser who gets splatted, just the effect on the driver involved and the people who have to clean up the mess.

 

Some years ago I was on an HST that hit somebody on a foot crossing (according to subsequent local press reports it seems likely she had decided to be there at that time).  Anyway whatever the reason it was quite apparent, even to a passenger (me) travelling in the rear coach of an HST, exactly what had happened but it might be unseemly to explain why.

 

Simple fact is that trains are a lot faster than they were back in the days of crowds of enthusiasts getting on the line in large numbers, there are no local staff or watchful Signalmen to keep an eye out and stop other trains - everything on many lines is remotely controlled with little or no on site presence over vast swathes of railway.  And whether they've got headlight, yellow panels, or both trains can arrive unannounced if you are not keeping a lookout for them and they can't stop.

 

I share SE's view absolutely and I don't really care if trespassers do get mown down but I care enormously for the Driver who through no fault of his own hit them and - having been out myself with the black plastic sacks in the past - I have the greatest possible sympathy for the poor beggars who have to go out and, literally, collect the pieces, it ain't fun.  So anything that stops Darwin Award contenders ruining the lives of others is a good thing in my view.

[Titan]

  I have never seen so many people on the lineside.  Doncaster when passed through was absolutely heaving. 

 

Gosh, it sounds like there were nearly as many out as there was on 2nd January 1982!!!

[Reorte]

Surely they can't be real enthusiasts getting so close can they? You're going to get a naff photo following the herd at ground level anyway.

That's the bit I don't understand. Even (somehow) overlooking the chance of coming to a nasty end just what do you gain from getting that close? Getting a good view inevitably means being on the right side of the fence, photo or not.

[JDW]

The way it was indeed, before the heavy hand of  H & S was even considered necessary!  I don't remember many train spotters or members of the public being mowed down en masse so perhaps BTP and H & S don't give them credit.  Sadly this is the age of yobboism when the few make it a problem for others but no one in their right mind is going to endanger themselves or others; self preservation is a wonderful thing!  Is this another piece of bureaucratic over reaction?  On the other hand, there are many who feel the hand of government a comforting experience.  Perhaps they are right and if so this sort of thing will continue!

 

Brian.

 

Unfortunately these days people seem to have much less common sense (not that I'm old enough to remember the "good old days"!) plus the railways are a much busier place, speeds are generally much higher (no freights chuffing along the slow lines at 25 mph, giving people plenty of warning of their approach), trains much quieter, and at the end of the day, they aren't there for entertainment, the railway is a working environment for the staff, the drivers especially.  I'm reminded of the YouTube video on one of the other threads of an enthusiast type who should know better, standing at the bottom of a platform ramp on a crossing, having to be pulled out of the way of a 170 as he videos a kettle going past on the other platform...  Sadly these people DO need nannying - if the ones who SHOULD know better, and who SHOULD understand the dangers of a live railway, don't or can't be trusted to do so, then members of the general public are even less likely to be aware of the environment they're entering in to.  

[Reorte]

Unfortunately these days people seem to have much less common sense (not that I'm old enough to remember the "good old days"!)

I'd rather be living in those days than now I think, but looking at some of the pictures from the past I'd question whether people had much more common sense then. It might not've been as dangerous to wander around the railway then as it would be now but I still rather doubt it was sensible and safe and was still illegal. Nowdays we've got more people, who can get to such places more easily, and quicker and easier ways of seeing and hearing about them but have individuals changed that much? It might just be that there's more scope for lack of common sense to be seen now, and perhaps a bit more acceptance of unpleasant things happening in the past.

Sadly these people DO need nannying

Educating more than nannying. People who are nannied learn nothing and have to be watched all the time. And educating needs to be general, not just "this is what the rules are" (although they need to learn those too). It's all stuff that needs to be learned in childhood really, via (minor) bumps, bruises and scares.

[locoholic]

Have you ever seen the effects of a skittling, even at low speed? 

Personally i don't worry about the trespasser who gets splatted, just the effect on the driver involved and the people who have to clean up the mess.

 

Not sure why the earlier remark about the tractor was judged to be in poor taste, but this one is OK? Trespassers are still people, with families, etc.

[rockershovel]

Considering some of the things I've seen dragging 64-furrow reversibles across the agribusiness regions of the Fens, I wouldn't fancy the loco's chances in the event of a collision...

 

Oddly enough, East Anglia is speedway's heartland and Ipswich Witches are referred to in Kings Lynn, Peterborough and Mildenhall as the "tractor boys". Considering Kings Lynn is next to the sugar beet refinery and Mildenhall's track is known as "the potato patch" I don't really follow the logic of this.

[2750Papyrus]

I have every sympathy with those who have been involved in clearing up after accidents and recognise the need for increased awareness and restrictions upon access.  However, these also should also be applied with common sense or they bring the regime into disrepute. 

 

At Kings Cross last week, when the N2 and coach were parked on platform 8 allowing unaccompanied access, KX staff in orange jackets were instructing viewers and photographers between the loco and the stop block to stand behind the yellow line on the platform.  We were all too polite to ask why.

[petethemole]

Possibly because Ipswich had Ransomes Sims & Jeffries who made a range of small crawler tractors?

[The Stationmaster]

I have every sympathy with those who have been involved in clearing up after accidents and recognise the need for increased awareness and restrictions upon access.  However, these also should also be applied with common sense or they bring the regime into disrepute. 

 

At Kings Cross last week, when the N2 and coach were parked on platform 8 allowing unaccompanied access, KX staff in orange jackets were instructing viewers and photographers between the loco and the stop block to stand behind the yellow line on the platform.  We were all too polite to ask why.

 

Yes some twit of a member of platform staff told me to do that at Reading last Saturday.  Now I fully accept that he didn't know me from Adam but in view of the fact that I was looking straight at the train which was approaching the platform (and was at least 500 yards away from it) I would have hoped he would have had the sense to realise that I would stand back further from the platform edge at the right time.  Of course he might, for even more totally unaccountable reasons, have thought I was likely to join the rash of 'one under' merchants who have been abroad in the area of late as he definitely looked a bit worried while then standing looking at a passenger waiting to entrain.  

[rockershovel]

Yes some twit of a member of platform staff told me to do that at Reading last Saturday.  Now I fully accept that he didn't know me from Adam but in view of the fact that I was looking straight at the train which was approaching the platform (and was at least 500 yards away from it) I would have hoped he would have had the sense to realise that I would stand back further from the platform edge at the right time.  Of course he might, for even more totally unaccountable reasons, have thought I was likely to join the rash of 'one under' merchants who have been abroad in the area of late as he definitely looked a bit worried while then standing looking at a passenger waiting to entrain.  

As has lately been demonstrated in court, allowing a perceived potential hazardous situation to continue in tne expectation that a third party will comply "in good time" isn't a legal defence. Don't forget also that he may well be on recorded cctv and has no reason to incur a possible disciplinary action on your behalf.