Unusual reasons for delays...

[Nick C]

Delays around Barnham today due to the traincrew office being damaged by a crane, which was being used in an attempt to steal the cash machine for the local co-op...

 

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/barnham-20230704/

 

I'm sure there are plenty of other interesting stories abut unusual reasons for delays though....? 

[Wickham Green too]

My train from Exeter to Waterloo a few weeks back was delayed three times : -

 

1)   awaiting single line to clear at Pinhoe

2)   waiting for the junction to clear at Wilton ( probably the front portion )

3)   blanket 40MPH speed limit from Woking to Raynes Park 'cos of rail temperatures ( hottest June on record )

 

...... no, nothing unusual there !

[burgundy]

Was once delayed by a birdstrike - a swan that came to grief in the overhead wires on the West Coast Main Line.

Best wishes 

Eric 

[stivesnick]

There was a case where straw from a farmers field blew onto the OHLE at Biggleswade on the east coast main line. 

 

The area has had many problems with the OHLE, but normally caused by the pantographs on trains bring the wires down.

 

Regards

 

Nick

[Jeremy Cumberland]

Reginald Perrin: Twenty-two minutes late, escaped puma, Chessington North.

[Boris]

My favourite was the giant tortoise in the 4 foot in Norfolk

 

[The Stationmaster]

Most unusual directly affecting me

Looped at Tiverton Jcn ear;ier this year on an IET to let another IET overtake the train I was on.

 

Weirdest one of all - receiving a 'phone call from a Signalman who wanted to know that if, in the terms of the Regulations, a wallaby was, or wasn't, to be regarded as 'a large animal' ?  And if it was should he delay a train as required by the Regulations?

 

I asked him if it was a big wallaby ora small one and he said that he'd be told (by the wildlife ark it had escaped from) that  it was a young one so i told him not to regard it as a large animal.  Delay minimised in consequence.

[Boris]

My favourite was the giant tortoise in the 4 foot in Norfolk

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-62393174

 

Some of the fun ones we've had at work have been:

 

Cattle rustlers cutting fence on both sides of the railway line to attempt to steal cows

Local car dealership rolling a car through the boundary fence

Stolen car driving 1/4 mile down track from level crossing before being abandoned

 

[Wheatley]

"I was driving along minding my own business when a bloody great shed came bounding out of the darkness and wrapped itself around the front of the unit"

 

It was quite windy at the time. 

[KeithMacdonald]

Yesterday:

Twenty-two minutes Late, badger ate a junction box at New Malden.

 

Tomorrow:

Twenty-two minutes late, fed UP by train delays, came by bike - Slow puncture at Peckham.

[Bernard Lamb]

Last Thursday on the southern part of the WCML.

New trains blocking the exit from the sidings at Bletchley.

09.30 cancelled. The 09.34 turns up. A 4 car 319. Imagine what it was like at Watford Junction with this replacing 2 8 car 350 sets.

A young boy to his mother. Look mum the train has opening windows.

Bernard

[melmerby]

Currently on BBC red button text, they are reporting that buses replace trains to Hoylake on Mersey Rail, also trains are not stopping at Manor Road.

Both due to the British Open Golf at Hoylake! ( A contradiction to start with as Manor Road is on the stretch where no trains are supposed to be running.)

 

For those that don't know, the Golf is from 16th July, 12 days away!

[The Stationmaster]

Reported by one of our Drivers to the LGV Nord control centre in France -

 

I have reduced speed due to a horse with a pantograph being inside the fence at XXX.  Alas he didn't know the French word for a deer so made up a descriptive term for said animal - the Controller at Lille actually understood what he was talking about.

[Michael Hodgson]

13 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Reported by one of our Drivers to the LGV Nord control centre in France -

 

I have reduced speed due to a horse with a pantograph being inside the fence at XXX.  Alas he didn't know the French word for a deer so made up a descriptive term for said animal - the Controller at Lille actually understood what he was talking about.

Already seriously delayed by diversion via the Hertford loop during the ECML closure at Hatfield and with severe speed restrictions following Gauge Corner Cracking, I was on a train on which the driver apologised that he had been told he couldn't enter one of the tunnels because of reports that horse had escaped from a field and was thought to be in the tunnel (it wasn't).   My commuting during that period took five hours a days as it was.

[John M Upton]

This was this mornings entertainment at Barnham:

 

Train Crew Depot door on the left there. Because it is directly over the Co-Op, the building had to be closed off until a structural engineer was dragged out of bed to give it the thumbs up.

[ruggedpeak]

Sleeper from Euston to Aberdeen delayed man years ago (and I nearly missed a cremation the following day) by tractor driver letting a tractor and muckspreader drive off across the field, over the edge of a cutting and land in the middle of the WCML somewhere between London and Birmingham one Friday evening.

 

GEML had a de-wiring south of Chelmsford IIRC one very hot summer over a long distance. During the multi-day repairs unfortunately a rail worker fell off a raised platform suffering serious injuries and the site became HSE investigation scene 🤕 so single line running extended for some time.

 

Credit to Plod in Barnham👮‍♂️, according to the news as soon as they were told about the loader (not a crane......) being stolen they went round all the local ATM's and caught them red handed.

[adb968008]

Whos lost a monkey ?
 

 

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/19352781.scotrail-reveal-cheeky-monkey-tin-opener-lost-cambuslang-train-rail/
 

 

Edited July 4, 2023 by adb968008

[The Lurker]

1 hour ago, ruggedpeak said:

Sleeper from Euston to Aberdeen delayed man years ago (and I nearly missed a cremation the following day) by tractor driver letting a tractor and muckspreader drive off across the field, over the edge of a cutting and land in the middle of the WCML somewhere between London and Birmingham one Friday evening.

 

 

I was delayed by the very same incident- I would guess it was 97. I was on the 6.24 exEuston to Northampton and we stopped with Watford Junction in sight for hours. Eventually they got us into the station and bussed us to Leighton Buzzard. I got back to Northampton around midnight long after the pubs had closed…

 

I think the incident itself was somewhere near Tring but I can’t dredge that from memory with any clarity. Still the girl who was worried about whether her white knickers would show through her dress at the nightclub and make her seem like a tart was saved her potential embarrassment….!

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I was held up at London Bridge one morning by a train occupying the platform we were scheduled to arrive at. That train was delayed due to the driver not being available. The driver was not available as they were the driver of our train. The paradox was sorted after about 10 minutes when another suitable platform was freed up...we were kept appraised of the developing situation by the guard (we had one of those at the time...). Not 100% sure Southern would have been too thrilled at that cock-up being publicised to the morning commuters.

[Matt37268]

How true this is I don’t know, but in the good old days of 1V96 being able to produce whatever Saltley had available I was told that the reason for the no show of it’s booked traction was and I quote ‘funny smell in cab’ 

As I say this could all be BS there’s a part of me that hopes there’s some truth in there. 

[Wickham Green too]

Whether BS counts as a 'funny smell' or a healthy countryside aroma probably depends ........

[ruggedpeak]

2 hours ago, The Lurker said:

I was delayed by the very same incident- I would guess it was 97. I was on the 6.24 exEuston to Northampton and we stopped with Watford Junction in sight for hours. Eventually they got us into the station and bussed us to Leighton Buzzard. I got back to Northampton around midnight long after the pubs had closed…

 

I think the incident itself was somewhere near Tring but I can’t dredge that from memory with any clarity. Still the girl who was worried about whether her white knickers would show through her dress at the nightclub and make her seem like a tart was saved her potential embarrassment….!

1997 and Tring sounds right. Can't comment on the young lady bit!

[Nick C]

17 hours ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

Reginald Perrin: Twenty-two minutes late, escaped puma, Chessington North.

I was debating whether to title this thread "Real life Reginald Perrin excuses"...

[Michael Hodgson]

15 hours ago, John M Upton said:

This was this mornings entertainment at Barnham:

 

Train Crew Depot door on the left there. Because it is directly over the Co-Op, the building had to be closed off until a structural engineer was dragged out of bed to give it the thumbs up.

Ram-raid on a grocery shop?  It used to be banks and jewellers.  Food inflation really is getting out hand!

[Michael Hodgson]

15 hours ago, ruggedpeak said:

Credit to Plod in Barnham👮‍♂️, according to the news as soon as they were told about the loader (not a crane......) being stolen they went round all the local ATM's and caught them red handed.

First time I heard of an ATM being stolen was about forty years ago at an American Bank in broad daylight and it was classified as computer crime rather than a bank robbery because it was connected to the bank's network.  The robbers used a bulldozer, but were caught because it was too slow to double as their getaway car!