Another One Looking For A Darwin Award? (Woman climbs under train to recover shopping)

[al78]

We'll, I guess shopping costs money and depending on what it was and what it cost she may have felt perfectly justified in getting her shopping back.

Still a daft thing to do though!

One would have to place little value in ones life to make that decision. Life is cheap I guess.

Once when I was cycling home from the bike shop I cycled over a level crossing and the bump as I went over the rails caused the pannier to come off and onto the track. I heard it fall off so I stopped and went back to the crossing, seeing it lying in between the rails on the Horsham bound track. Sods law dictates as soon as I reached the crossing the lights started flashing followed by the barriers coming down. Theoretically there was a good chance I could have dashed onto the crossing, grabbed the pannier and got off well before a train arrived (it can be a good 30 seconds between the barriers lowering and the train arriving), but I decided it wasn't worth it and waited. Luckily for me the train that went through was Crawley bound so my pannier survived intact and I could retrieve it when the barriers raised and before traffic started moving.

 

[londonbridge]

I always remember the famous Yes Prime Minister sketch of who reads the papers "The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people that run the country"

These days the wives of the people that run the country write for the Daily Mail as well (I'm looking at you, Mrs Gove).

 

[Deepgreen]

How on earth did the shopping end up under the train to begin with?

Well, I imagine she dropped the bag it was in. I think that's the least controversial part of the story!

Even today, I think there is still a huge part of the public who simply don't get the idea of the railway being dangerous and off-limits to them. This also accounts for much of the trespassing when special (steam) workings are publicised locally - I'm sure a good proportion of those who read about it in their local rag and wander down to the line just think any reasonably accessible view point (e.g. inside crossing gates) is fair game.

 

[Trackman]

Once had an occasion when travelling on old slam door Class 304 stock when a fellow passenger rushing to exit the train knocked a small parcel out of my hands which promptly fell down into the gap between the train and the platform and on to the track.

Spoke with the guard who arranged with the driver to draw the train forward 25 yards or so, in order that the parcel could be retrieved, then back on the train, and off we went, with maybe a one minute delay, which probably wouldn't happen nowadays!

Happened to me on a MK3 at Euston in the early VT days, a member of staff rescued my 4 tins of beer with a grabber.

it's OLE territory so no third rails to watch out for

Juice rails would be in the six foot anyway.

 

[TheSeeker]

A colleague once dropped his suit bag between the platform and train at Swindon. Platform staff waited until a reasonable gap in trains and climbed down to retrieve it. He missed his flight to Amsterdam.

 

[najaB]

Platform staff waited until a reasonable gap in trains and climbed down to retrieve it.

One hopes they would have been in contact with the signaller too... wouldn't want to be down on the track and have a light loco that they didn't know about come through.

 

[Deepgreen]

Juice rails would be in the six foot anyway.

If you mean on the non-platform side; yes, in 90% of cases, but there are many scattered exceptions.