Animals on the line at Hackney Wick disruption and cancellations (15/2/25)

[najaB]

The issue which hasn't been mentioned is the PR aspect of hitting swans, especially by running trains knowingly past/over them on the track, quite apart from the Crown ownership issue.

Which goes for just about any largish animal, not just swans. There's a big difference between coming around a bend at 80mph and hitting a deer/sheep/whatever that the driver didn't know was there (and had little chance of stopping before meeting it), and deliberately driving over an animal that was known to be on the line.

 

[Jagdpanther]

Ludicrous that the 21st century railway still has nonsense rules about bl**dy swans being somehow special!

Well thankfully you are not in charge.

 

[Business Bob]

Any ideas if the swan got rescued or did it recover and remove itself from the line.

I believe it was picked up within the hour by the MOM.

It was lucky that there was a block on the GEML, therefore meaning that the stretch through Hackney Wick was without its usual container traffic to/from Felixstowe. A class 90 or 66 would probably have finished the swan off!

A freight did pass it on the down at the same time it came face to face with the 378! Prob thought it stood a better chance with the 378

 

[norbitonflyer]

Agree

Aren't swans special in law? I've been on a train that hit a muntjack deer at 90mph. Lots of banging and clattering from underneath, guard said "it was just a deer, I checked from the back cab". Train didn't even slow down.

I would imagine that's rather different from seeing an animal of that size on the track when travelling at a speed slow enough to stop. Your muntjac could have damaged your train (remember the Polmont derailment, although that was a rather larger animal) but at 90mph the driver had no opportunity to stop but just hope for the best (for the train, if not the deer) .

 

[Russel]

Yes. They belong to the crown. May I suggest all those people on here moaning about said Swan write to His Maj at Buckingham Palace. (And good luck with that, considering he's known to like nature and wildlife).

Or to take a different approach, send Charlie the bill for any delays caused by his swans?

 

[800001]

Or to take a different approach, send Charlie the bill for any delays caused by his swans?

Do we send dog owners the bill when their dogs running around on lines and the job gets stopped? (Due to danger of the owner attempting to retrieve animal)

 

[Russel]

Do we send dog owners the bill when their dogs running around on lines and the job gets stopped? (Due to danger of the owner attempting to retrieve animal)

Believe it or not, it wasn't a serious suggestion.

 

[800001]

Believe it or not, it wasn't a serious suggestion.

Hard to tell with written text, apologies.

 

[sjoh]

It’s just the one swan actually…

thank you - i was worried that everyone thought i was a moron.

 

[Deepgreen]

Hard to tell with written text, apologies.

While I try to avoid them, this is where emojis - - can actually help (or write "only joking")...

 

[Bald Rick]

I have been cautioned for them too a few times.

By the signaller or by His Majesty’s constabulary?

 

[43066]

By the signaller or by His Majesty’s constabulary?

Ha - thankfully the former - although it did occur to me that post could be read to mean the latter!

 

[najaB]

Ha - thankfully the former - although it did occur to me that post could be read to mean the latter!

Of course, there was a time that they both would have been called 'Bobbies' so the confusion isn't newfangled.

 

[Dr_Paul]

Do we send dog owners the bill when their dogs running around on lines and the job gets stopped? (Due to danger of the owner attempting to retrieve animal)

I was at Waterloo once when everything was held up because a dog ran off the end of a Windsor line platform, and his owner ran down the track in pursuit of it. Trains started moving again when a member of railway staff managed to catch hold of the dog, which by then had reached the junction with the lines from what was then the International station.

As for swans, I've not been held up on the railway because of one, but I was on a 281 bus in Surbiton which was delayed because one was walking along the road and wouldn't go to the kerb. I once did see a hefty plucked and prepared bird, probably a large goose or a turkey, in the six foot at Richmond station between the through platforms. How it got there, tucked between the conductor rails, is a mystery.

 

[notverydeep]

That is a simplification:
https://www.royal.uk/swans

The owners of the Manor of Abbotsbury in Dorset also legally own swans https://www.abbotsburyswannery.co.uk/ Swans hatched in the colony there are owned, swans born elsewhere but in the colony are considered ‘crown birds’…

To this day, the Swannery and the swans remain under the ownership of the same family but today ownership is signified by a specially engraved metal ring.

There is a further legal owner beyond the crown and the Vintners or Dyers companies…

In addition, the Mayor of Maidstone has ownership rights on the River Medway.

Even then, any "ownership" relates only to Mute Swans. Whooper and Bewick's Swans are not subject to any 'ownership' and neither are feral (Australian) Black Swans.

 

[Cross City]

It’s not just the railway - all swans are owned by the Crown, so the monarch and the Royal Family are the only ones who have the right to eat swans, or I guess other people at their invitation, and I guess only the Royal Household/people on the monarch’s behalf, have the right to catch swans for eating.

Common misconception.

It's all untagged mute swans on open water only.

 

[Bikeman78]

This is a valid point. They do seem to “hang around” more than other animals. Then as you say there’s the risk of them lifting off and striking the front of the train which there isn’t with land animals of a similar size such as Muntjacs.

Can’t say I like swans. Arrogant looking things!

The swans in Roath park in Cardiff are very friendly. They will eat food from my hand. The challenge is not getting my hand nipped! One time someone let their excitable get dog too close. The swan charged at it, wings spread wide. I have never seen a dog move so fast. Then the swan folded it wings and wandered slowly back to me to carry on eating.

 

[Towers]

thank you - i was worried that everyone thought i was a moron.

Noooo, excellent taste!

It’s all for the greater good!
(The greater good)

We should probably stop now

[Quotes from the superb film Hot Fuzz, which features a runaway swan, for anyone completely mystified!]

 

[Dr_Paul]

I must admit that when I read, on the National Rail 'Status and Disruptions' site, that animals had caused delays on the North London Line, my immediate thoughts were: 'How on Earth do cows get on the railway in Hackney?' It puzzled me until I read here that the offending animal was a swan.

 

[Westerndiesels]

Noooo, excellent taste!

It’s all for the greater good!
(The greater good)

We should probably stop now

[Quotes from the superb film Hot Fuzz, which features a runaway swan, for anyone completely mystified!]

I nearly posted Cornetto. I have now.