Unusual reasons for delays...

[caradoc]

Some I was involved in;

 

Hay bales (the large circular ones used by farmers nowadays) rolled onto the track and struck by trains (twice); One piece of straw is not heavy but a tightly packed roll certainly is!

 

Plane crashed onto the line; Reported in good faith but it turned out to be a model aircraft. 

 

Suspect aircraft parked next to the track with a Police instruction to shut the line; At Edinburgh Airport, such a plane was moved as far away from the terminal buildings as possible, which just happened to be next to the Haymarket/Dalmeny line, fortunately this was quickly resolved.

 

Stolen transit van driven onto the track and struck by a Sleeper train (this happened to a colleague on his very first shift as the Controller responsible for the location)

 

Passenger reported a body on the line in a tunnel; No Driver had seen such but the line had to be examined, of course nothing was found but heavy delay was caused. 

 

[stewartingram]

When I was working on the tube, we had the Victoria Line totally closed for a few hours due to a fox on the track. Note - the Vic line is totally underground, except for a mile long branch exiting up into the depot near the north end. Apparently the fox entered the station at ground level, used the escalator to go down, then the public walkways to the platform, where it gained access to the track and continued its journey through the track tunnels. It eventually surfaced at another station further along the line, again using passenger walkways and escalators to gain the surface exit. And yes, the stations and line were open when it first went down; the service was suspended until it had exited. I believe Warren Street (on Euston Road) was either the entrance or exit point.

[37079]

We had one on the MML a few years ago where we had a goat on the line just outside St Pancras of all places! Came from Camley Street Farm Park I believe.

 

I also recall seeing one about a driver stopping to report smoke coming from another train...which turned out to be a steam charter. No idea if that one's real but its a good story...

 

Mike

[stewartingram]

We had a Fire Officer from the Cambs Fire Service report a fire, when he was going over Wansford bridge on the A1 (NeneValley depot raising steam down below).

[Wickham Green too]

2 hours ago, stewartingram said:

... I believe Warren Street ... was either the entrance or exit point.

Clever fox ? ......... thought he was sure to find a rabbit or two there ! 😮

[david.hill64]

A few years ago I was enjoying a short holiday in Devon/Cornwall and planned to use some of the time to explore the branch lines. However, my trip from Penzance to Plymouth was significantly delayed by 'signalling problems' after a severe gale the night before. When I passed a semaphore with its arm twisted back at 90 degrees I could see the problem. I assume it must have been hit by something rather than the force of the wind itself.

[Michael Hodgson]

12 hours ago, stewartingram said:

When I was working on the tube, we had the Victoria Line totally closed for a few hours due to a fox on the track. Note - the Vic line is totally underground, except for a mile long branch exiting up into the depot near the north end. Apparently the fox entered the station at ground level, used the escalator to go down, then the public walkways to the platform, where it gained access to the track and continued its journey through the track tunnels. It eventually surfaced at another station further along the line, again using passenger walkways and escalators to gain the surface exit. And yes, the stations and line were open when it first went down; the service was suspended until it had exited. I believe Warren Street (on Euston Road) was either the entrance or exit point.

I hope it bought a ticket !

[Michael Hodgson]

12 hours ago, stewartingram said:

We had a Fire Officer from the Cambs Fire Service report a fire, when he was going over Wansford bridge on the A1 (NeneValley depot raising steam down below).

When I lived in Stilton in the late 1970s you got an excellent view of the line and station very clearly from the A1.  But the trees that have grown around that bridge since then are so big that you can hardly see there's even a railway there now.

 

I was driving north once and noticed the platform starting signal arms at the top of the very tall posts (which have long since been replaced by a gantry) had been replaced by french style carrées.  So I drove round to investigate and found the station yard full of nazi stormtroopers lying around eating from a burger van .... turned out they were making a film.

[Wheatley]

Didn't cause any significant delays, but the Bird of Prey centre near Giggleswick regularly featured in drivers' reports to Settle Junction.

 

"Can you ring that lot up the road and ask them if they've lost anything ? It's sitting on a fence post at Lawkland eyeing up the sheep"

"Can you describe it ?"

"F******g massive with claws and a huge beak". 

 

There was at least a Sea Eagle and a vulture reported in my time. It's some sort of cheese shop now.   

[The Stationmaster]

Driver's reports v can be a problem.  Back in the late '60s we had several news trains badly delayed following a Driver reporting that he had seen the body of a nun lying on the track.  A light engne was sent out from Reading to examine the line and duly found the body - of a large black dog.

 

Anotther night time one, which led to trains being cautioned for several hours, was a report from Driver on the Up Main that he had seen a woman in a dressing gown walking towards Didcot on the Up Relief somewhere near Cholsey station.  Various trains cautioned and the Reliefs closed but subsequent reports were sporadic until another Driver reported seeing a woman on a nightdress walking on the line in the vicinity of Moreton Cutting - trains continued to be cautioned and the BT police were updated (they'd found nothing by that time).

 

Finally in the early morning, but fortunately before commuter services were underway, a woman, wearing only a pair of slippers, walked onto the Up Relief platform at Didcot.  She was duly returned by BTP, unscathed, to the Fairmile mental hospital near Cholsey.

[The Johnster]

On one of my 1980s volunteering hollys on the SVR, Hugh McQuade (sounds like a cattle drive boss), who'd been announcer at Paddington, told the tale of having to announce the following; 'British Rail regret* the delay to the blahblah arrival from Plymouth, which was caused be a fat passenger at Taunton'.  The story behind this is that a lady of the cheerful red -faced Devonian type had boarded at Exeter to travel to Taunton, and she were a big'un.  It was a hot and sultry day, and during the run over Whiteball (mk1s behind a Western, this incident took place in the early 70s), the goods must've 'settled in transit' to some extent, so that when she tried to detrain at Taunton, she got herself proper stuck in the mk1's doorway. 

 

The scene rapidly descended into high comic farce, with her shreiking with embarrassed laughter as she was assisted in rear and attempts were made to pilot her from the front while the road had been given and everybody else was blowing back horns or their Acme Thunderers to no great effect but adding to the general confusion and increasing panic.  The pushing and pulling was only making things worse, until some bright spark suggested borrowing a fork lift from the builders' merchants over the road, and trying to lift the load under it's shoulders.  This was timely, because some concern was arising about the possibility of her suffering heat exhaustion or other ill-effects. 

 

Cushions, towels, and blankets were found to lay over the forklift tines, and the lift was under way, very slowly and gently.  Eventually the partly suspended cargo reshaped itself into a form in which it could be extracted from the train, the door was slammed shut with a flourish, and right away given, but they were about 50 minutes down.  Some 15 were made up on the rest of the run, but that's still 35 down into Padd.  Our near-fainting heroine was taken to the Buffet on a sack truck and fed tea and iced lemonade until she'd regained composure, a doctor was procured from somewhere to give her a check over, and she was put in a taxi.

 

In the late 80s and earlier 90s, the club I was involved with used to go up to the London Easter shows on what was IIRC an 08.30 departure from Cardiff, an interesting train which might take in scenic diversions after overrunning occupations (we went via Gloucester and Sapperton on one occasion, and Westbury/Savernake on another) and was always delayed by TROS as Sunday am trains sometimes are, which resulted in fast runs in from Swindon to make up time.  Added to the fun was that the train was 8 bogies of mixed airbraked mk1s and 2s behind a Bath Road 50; on one trip we timed it at 114mph consistently between Cholsey & Moulsford and Goring, fastest I've ever gone in a loco-hauled train.  We were in a mk1 first-class compartment (there were cheap upgrades available on this train), and the ride was fine, though there was a sort of thrumming of air pressure and the thing was howling as only a terrified mk1 can...

 

Anyway, despite the heroics, we were about 10 late into Paddington, and the announcer informed us that this was due to a 'signal failure at Didcot'.  We'e roared through Didcot at well over a ton, the start of the fastest part of the run, so this was BS but the announcer can only read what's been printed out in front of him. 

 

That particular day was a good one for speed, as we timed the returning HST at 135 between the exit from Sodbury Tunnel to Westerleigh Jc...  A Grand Day Out!

 

*'British Rail regret'; one of a list of standard lies, including 'the cheque's in the post', 'this won't hurt a bit', and 'of course I'll love and respect you in the morning!'.  A bit like tautological non-sequiteurs like 'military intelligence', 'care in the community', 'customer choice', 'national health', and my favourite, 'pre-loved'.

[The Johnster]

Re animals on the line, at the time that I was learning the route over the Vale of Glamorgan line, and doing this with Barry men on a Barry-Blaenant-Aberthaw-Barry MGR, there was a 'visitor attraction' that backed on to the Neath & Brecon line as you ran out of Neath Riverside Junction into the hills, Pensycynor Bird Gardens.  In those days, nearly every car in South Wales sported one of their stickers on the rear window, it was very popular.  It was a collection of various birds of prey and exotic birds, that eventually tried to rebrand itself as a zoo, but overreached itself captial-wise and had to close.  Anyway, at this particular time, an ostrich had escaped from it and was proving difficult to recapture, and we were asked to keep a lookout for it and report if we'd seen it.

 

This was of course asking for trouble, and we put in guards' and drivers' journals with sightings of lions, tigers, heffalumps, polar bears on glacier mints, low-flying koales, zebras crossing, the oomygoolie bird, you name it, we saw it that week on the Neath & Brecon!

 

I was in the cab of Western that ran into a swan at about 60mph; the swan was doing about 40 in the opposite direction and didn't quite pull up in time.  This was on down oil tanks at Kidwelly, and was quite frightening, especially as it hit my window!  I thought it would put the window in, but it sort of exploded, proper loud bang, leaving a rather unpleasant mess of blood, feathers, entrails and smashed bones over the front of the Western.  The windscreen washes and wipers just smeared it.   We didn't stop, as there was no point in causing a delay; the swan was beyond any earthly assistance, he went everywhere at once, and the driver could see well enough through his window.  The Carmarthen crew that relieved us at Carmarthen Jc were not impressed with the decoration, though, and asked to stop at St.Clears or somewhere to hose it off.

 

This took place in Wales, so we didn't have to offer it to the Queen!

[2E Sub Shed]

A friend who regularly commuted to London from Swindon in the 90's, experienced a delayed journey due to "llamas on the line".

[Compound2632]

There was the other day a delay on the Elizabeth Line due to a swan. I had a similar delay at Staines on the way home to Reading one evening, back in my commuting days in the late 90s: swan on the bridge. We were there for an hour - as I recall, the bird wouldn't move for the railway staff and SwanLine had to be called in.

 

Way back in the 1980s, the Stour Valley line between Birmingham New St and Wolverhampton High Level was beautified with life-size black metal cut-outs of a galloping horse. on one occasion, I was on a cross-country train that crawled along this section (not in itself unusual) but the explanation given was that a horse had been reported loose on the line. I did wonder if someone had mistaken one of the sculptures for the real thing!

[SZ]

4 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Way back in the 1980s, the Stour Valley line between Birmingham New St and Wolverhampton High Level was beautified with life-size black metal cut-outs of a galloping horse. on one occasion, I was on a cross-country train that crawled along this section (not in itself unusual) but the explanation given was that a horse had been reported loose on the line. I did wonder if someone had mistaken one of the sculptures for the real thing!

 

There has actually been a real horse grazing next to the cut out in the former triangle north of Tipton.

[roythebus1]

On 05/07/2023 at 20:47, 37079 said:

We had one on the MML a few years ago where we had a goat on the line just outside St Pancras of all places! Came from Camley Street Farm Park I believe.

 

I also recall seeing one about a driver stopping to report smoke coming from another train...which turned out to be a steam charter. No idea if that one's real but its a good story...

 

Mike

Yes, it was on the Liverpool Street-Cambridge line a few years ago. someone on here put a recording from the driver on here. It was genuine.

 

[roythebus1]

This week's interesting delay from the FB "Lost Boys" group, something like the 0625 Cambridge-Liverpool Street cancelled as the driver has retired. If I can find the original pic I'll post it on here.

 

[roythebus1]

This gem yesterday from the Lost Boys:  "Excuse for cancelling the Avanti 0610 Crewe to Manchester today was that there were too many trains to maintain. Things are looking grim for ALMOST!"

[roythebus1]

And this one form last week: 

[Nick C]

And of course there was this one from a couple of years ago...

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-56271478

[John M Upton]

We have had drivers on Annual Leave get rostered work which has led to some amusing phone calls but to roster one who has actually retired is definitely a new one!

[Rugd1022]

23 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Re animals on the line, at the time that I was learning the route over the Vale of Glamorgan line, and doing this with Barry men on a Barry-Blaenant-Aberthaw-Barry MGR, there was a 'visitor attraction' that backed on to the Neath & Brecon line as you ran out of Neath Riverside Junction into the hills, Pensycynor Bird Gardens.  In those days, nearly every car in South Wales sported one of their stickers on the rear window, it was very popular.  It was a collection of various birds of prey and exotic birds, that eventually tried to rebrand itself as a zoo, but overreached itself captial-wise and had to close.  Anyway, at this particular time, an ostrich had escaped from it and was proving difficult to recapture, and we were asked to keep a lookout for it and report if we'd seen it.

 

This was of course asking for trouble, and we put in guards' and drivers' journals with sightings of lions, tigers, heffalumps, polar bears on glacier mints, low-flying koales, zebras crossing, the oomygoolie bird, you name it, we saw it that week on the Neath & Brecon!

 

I was in the cab of Western that ran into a swan at about 60mph; the swan was doing about 40 in the opposite direction and didn't quite pull up in time.  This was on down oil tanks at Kidwelly, and was quite frightening, especially as it hit my window!  I thought it would put the window in, but it sort of exploded, proper loud bang, leaving a rather unpleasant mess of blood, feathers, entrails and smashed bones over the front of the Western.  The windscreen washes and wipers just smeared it.   We didn't stop, as there was no point in causing a delay; the swan was beyond any earthly assistance, he went everywhere at once, and the driver could see well enough through his window.  The Carmarthen crew that relieved us at Carmarthen Jc were not impressed with the decoration, though, and asked to stop at St.Clears or somewhere to hose it off.

 

This took place in Wales, so we didn't have to offer it to the Queen!

 

I had a very similar one coming out of the Severn Tunnel on the Welsh side in December '83, it wasn't a swan but a huge crow, it was just getting dark too so it was a huge shock for me and my driver. We had a 47 and steam heated Mk1s, it was my first boiler job after learning them at Stratford Works that November and the poor bird smashed the screen on my side, almost coming right through it. The noise, mess and smell will always stay with me.

 

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by Rugd1022

[The Johnster]

The swan, while not exactly fragrant, was only moderately objectionable in that respect, a bit fishy and we kept the winows shut, but I think most of the major unpleasantness, guts, colon, etc, burst outwards around the side. Glad I got off from the driver’s side, though!

 

Saw some horrible things on the job, some of them human, but the worst sickmaker was walking through the maintenance she at Canton, official walking route from lobby to running shed or relieving points, at stupid o’clock one morning with my driver, who was telling me about an incident the night before.  He’d relieved a driver at the General on the down Carmarthen papers, a Western again, and had been getting her into her stride on the down main when, running alongside Cowbridge Road East approaching Ely Bridge, he spotted what he thought were a group of lads walking drunkenly with their backs to their rapidly closing doom in the down main four-foot, what he took to be their shirts illuminated by the street lights.  
 

He ‘put the lot in’, and blew the horn, but there was no response and, as the collision became inevitable, he realised with no small degree of relief that they were not people, but  gippos’ horses.  He’d got down from about 80 to around 55 when he hit them, a horrible clonking noise, and then it was all over.  He was still on the rails, and the train came to a stand in the remains of the old Ely Main Line station.   It was messy, and the hoses and control cables were ripped off, as was a buffer.  End of sports for that night, the loco was immobile and the train had to be hauled back to Canton for loco recovery and a new loco.   Papers were a bit late downline that day!

 

24 hours or so later, we were making our way past it in the maintenance shed when there was a blood-curling scream from a fitter underneath.  We looked under to see what the matter was, and I wished we hadn’t; impaled sideways on a broken vacuum pipe was a bloody severed horse’s head, all teeth and bulging terrified eyes, that the fitter had just removed some wreckage from.  The smell was vile beyond description; us all puking like Peter, Brian, and Stewie in that episode of Family Guy didn’t help either.  
 

Took a while see the funny side!

[Rugd1022]

28 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

The swan, while not exactly fragrant, was only moderately objectionable in that respect, a bit fishy and we kept the winows shut, but I think most of the major unpleasantness, guts, colon, etc, burst outwards around the side. Glad I got off from the driver’s side, though!

 

Saw some horrible things on the job, some of them human, but the worst sickmaker was walking through the maintenance she at Canton, official walking route from lobby to running shed or relieving points, at stupid o’clock one morning with my driver, who was telling me about an incident the night before.  He’d relieved a driver at the General on the down Carmarthen papers, a Western again, and had been getting her into her stride on the down main when, running alongside Cowbridge Road East approaching Ely Bridge, he spotted what he thought were a group of lads walking drunkenly with their backs to their rapidly closing doom in the down main four-foot, what he took to be their shirts illuminated by the street lights.  
 

He ‘put the lot in’, and blew the horn, but there was no response and, as the collision became inevitable, he realised with no small degree of relief that they were not people, but  gippos’ horses.  He’d got down from about 80 to around 55 when he hit them, a horrible clonking noise, and then it was all over.  He was still on the rails, and the train came to a stand in the remains of the old Ely Main Line station.   It was messy, and the hoses and control cables were ripped off, as was a buffer.  End of sports for that night, the loco was immobile and the train had to be hauled back to Canton for loco recovery and a new loco.   Papers were a bit late downline that day!

 

24 hours or so later, we were making our way past it in the maintenance shed when there was a blood-curling scream from a fitter underneath.  We looked under to see what the matter was, and I wished we hadn’t; impaled sideways on a broken vacuum pipe was a bloody severed horse’s head, all teeth and bulging terrified eyes, that the fitter had just removed some wreckage from.  The smell was vile beyond description; us all puking like Peter, Brian, and Stewie in that episode of Family Guy didn’t help either.  
 

Took a while see the funny side!

 

What we all need to know now is which Western was it...?!! 

 

(Quite a few met their premature demise due to collision damage)

Edited July 7, 2023 by Rugd1022

[KeithMacdonald]

On 05/07/2023 at 09:59, Nick C said:

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

 

"I didn't get where I am today without knowing there's no fun in getting where I am today."