Drivers eye view: What interesting things have you seen?

[Pshambro]

Fantastic - what colour were they painting the walls?

Unsurprisingly the colour of the walls were not the focus of my attention

 

[kevconnor]

Many will have seen plenty of fornication or nudity in the more built up areas. Is that classed as unusual or perfectly natural/normal?

May depend on the species and circumstances.

 

[CHAPS2034]

Fantastic - what colour were they painting the walls?

Brilliant - post of the week!

 

[TwoYellas]

Brilliant - post of the week!

Thanks.

I try my best.

 

[Pinza-C55]

Didn't see it myself but in the early 80s at Kings Cross it was common practise for drivers to drop off drivers and guards on the lineside in the early hours of the morning near to where they lived. One driver dropped off a young fireman near Brookmans Park station , unfortunately next to where the S&T had excavated a large hole for a new signal. It was raining and the hole had vertical sides and had filled with water and the fireman had to be rescued from his watery tomb the next morning.

 

[Seehof]

Red kites on the Harrogate line.

 

[OneThirtyEight]

A Lancaster Bomber flying parallel to my train a few hundred feet up is probably the best one (Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, Southport Airshow). I was once flashed by a woman as thanks for sounding the horn for her kid sat waving in his pram.

 

[67016]

There is a life size and very realistic looking white tiger model on a garage roof between Torre and Torquay. Needless to say first time I saw it I thought something had go out of the zoo.

 

[S-Car-Go]

You get birds of prey hunting around Leighton Buzzard on the WCML. Red Kites rather than buzzards as the name might suggest though.

1 day I saw Bird A swoop down on Bird B, and bash it with its wing. Bird B dropped the food it was carrying in its beak, Bird A caught it and made off with it. All in midair!

I've noticed they also fly parallel & level with the cab just beyond the ballast. I think it's a tactic they've learnt to catch stray random pigeons that get hit and bounce off into the cess!

 

[XAM2175]

I've noticed they also fly parallel & level with the cab just beyond the ballast. I think it's a tactic they've learnt to catch stray random pigeons that get hit and bounce off into the cess!

Now that's clever!

 

[Tracked]

RAF Tornados using trains on the Settle & Carlisle as dummy targets for missile firing practice. They would come up behind you, lock their computerised 'sights' onto your train, fire....and then, if they registered a 'direct hit', they would wiggle their wings in salute as they flew away ahead of you.

Experienced a fly past on the S&C a few years ago (as a passenger) somewhere near AisGill, the pair of them came up from behind at a fairly low level, we were all wondering what the noise was for a few seconds until they passed over

 

[D6130]

Another S&C phenomenon seen from the driver's cab are the buzzards of Baron Wood. Where the line runs along the boundary of the Lazonby Hall estate, large numbers of pheasants trespass on the railway searching for seeds in the ballast and - because, although colourful and elegant-looking, they are actually stupid, ungainly and not very good at flying - so many of them were hit and killed by passing trains. As a result, generations of buzzards - lazy birds of prey who don't like chasing their dinner, but prefer to eat road (or rail) kill - have taken to nesting on the rocks above the Southern portal of Baron Wood No. 1 tunnel and swoop down onto the line when they detect one or more newly-killed pheasant(s). Unfortunately for the buzzards, they sometimes eat so much pheasant that they are unable to fly away in time when a train approaches....and end up becoming rail kill themselves. I wonder whether buzzards are cannibalistic?

Yet another flying phenomenon on the S&C were the so-called "Kirkby Stephen seagulls"! Apparently a gentleman in the town used to breed parakeets and let them fly freely during the day in the certain knowledge that they would return home at nightfall. I first encountered them in the late 1990s, perched in a line on the Down side railings on Smardale viaduct....about 12-15 of them in a line and looking very distinctive in their black, white, red and grey plumage. I heard from locals that they had been reported as far away as Barnard Castle in the East and Kendal in the West.

 

[Howardh]

I'm surprised there's no reports of drivers passing a football or cricket ground and seeing a goal scored or wicket taken! I would imaging that a driver approaching, say Burneside Cricket Club could see the action waiting at the level crossing! Suppose nothing "unusual" about seeing a sport, but going past just as the off stump is removed?!

 

[Deafdoggie]

Seeing as last time this was posted I spent a bit of time writing out a transcript at the request of a member for someone who was deaf I'll post it again to get some more mileage out of my efforts

(Bad language warning)

Thank you. Very much appreciated.

I seem to remember a story of a train passing a man and a goat. Think it was somewhere in or near Hull

Yes. He was charged with "buggery with a goat" which seemed very specific. Surely simply "animal" would have done...unless it's OK with some animals?

 

[D6130]

Thank you. Very much appreciated.

Yes. He was charged with "buggery with a goat" which seemed very specific. Surely simply "animal" would have done...unless it's OK with some animals?

Back in the mid-1970s, while travelling on a Southern Region Awayday Pleasure-Seeker excursion from Portsmouth Harbour to Chester, I witnessed something similar in the West Midlands. We were approaching Bushbury Junction from the Bescot direction when we came to a stand at the signal protecting the junction while we waited for an Up main line service heading towards Wolverhampton. In the fork of the two lines there was (and possibly still is?) a large caravan site for travelling people....and in it - fairly close to our line - an elderly man was standing behind a donkey, holding its tail up and giving it great guns. Of course, this scene proved irresistable to we teenagers on the train and we were soon up at the doors with droplights lowered, shouting, heckling and laughing and egging him on. The old guy give us an 'Albert Steptoe' (*) grimace and slunk away trying to fasten his flies as he stumbled off towards his caravan. I don't know whether or not our driver had witnessed this scene but, as we managed to avoid a SPAD, I would assume not! Needless to say, this episode was the talk of the day and overshadowed any conversations about the locos that we had copped at Crewe and Chester. It gave a whole new meaning to the term "Pleasure Seeker"!

(* Any readers under the age of 60 are advised to search for "Steptoe & Son" on YouTube)

 

[gg1]

On freight...three girls mooning off a bridge ...then one of them dropped a turd smack on the cab window of my 60

Disgusting way to treat a 60. She could have at least held it in until a 66 trundled past.

 

[Mwanesh]

3 years ago i was waiting for the missus at Newport Train Station. I got chatting to this young bloke waiting for his girlfriend coming from a girls weekend in London. We all walked out of the station and boom the young man's girlfriend dropped her hand bag and condoms went flying all over the place. I ended breaking up a fight.

 

[d9009alycidon]

I'm surprised there's no reports of drivers passing a football or cricket ground and seeing a goal scored or wicket taken! I would imaging that a driver approaching, say Burneside Cricket Club could see the action waiting at the level crossing! Suppose nothing "unusual" about seeing a sport, but going past just as the off stump is removed?!

I did hear a tale of a class 66 driver on a coal train approaching Troon from the South while the Open Golf was in progress, as he passed one of the pros was taking a shot and the driver gave a blast on the horn which put the player off.

 

[Meerkat]

I did hear a tale of a class 66 driver on a coal train approaching Troon from the South while the Open Golf was in progress, as he passed one of the pros was taking a shot and the driver gave a blast on the horn which put the player off.

Isnt doing that to golfers compulsory?

 

[D6130]

Isnt doing that to golfers compulsory?

Quite a few golf courses are bisected by railway lines, with foot crossings connecting the two halves of the course. Such crossings do, of course(!) need whistle boards for safety reasons.

 

[Ediswan]

Quite a few golf courses are bisected by railway lines, with foot crossings connecting the two halves of the course.

I know of one golf course which had, until recently, a (lightly used) aircraft taxiway across one of the fairways.

 

[Trog]

You have to look out on the Up Side if you want to see Leighton Buzzards, as those on the railway side of the river Ouzel will be Linslade ones.

 

[ungreat]

Disgusting way to treat a 60. She could have at least held it in until a 66 trundled past.

Love it!!

 

[India Four Two]

I know of one golf course which had, until recently, a (lightly used) aircraft taxiway across one of the fairways.

Here's a different situation - a railway crossing a runway - Gisborne NZ:

 

[Annetts key]

Here's a different situation - a railway crossing a runway - Gisborne NZ:

View attachment 108139

I’m not a train crew. And I can’t top that but I have seen a U.S. F-111 crossing a U.K. railway line while taxiing to the runway. The ground staff inspected the taxiway including the railway crossing for anything that could get sucked up by the powerful jet engines before the aircraft could cross.

 

[CHAPS2034]

I’m not a train crew. And I can’t top that but I have seen a U.S. F-111 crossing a U.K. railway line while taxiing to the runway. The ground staff inspected the taxiway including the railway crossing for anything that could get sucked up by the powerful jet engines before the aircraft could cross.

Where was that please?

 

[Annetts key]

Where was that please?

Filton Airfield, the Filton to Avonmouth line crosses between the airfield runway and the hangers on the southern side back when it was owned and operated by BAC.

 

[Gloster]

RAF Ballykelly near Limavady also had a runway that crossed the Belfast-Derry line and operated Shackletons until closure in 1971. Ryanair still managed to land there one day in 2006.

 

[CHAPS2034]

Filton Airfield, the Filton to Avonmouth line crosses between the airfield runway and the hangers on the southern side back when it was owned and operated by BAC.

Thanks. Forgot they did F-111 maintenance there

RAF Ballykelly near Limavady also had a runway that crossed the Belfast-Derry line and operated Shackletons until closure in 1971. Ryanair still managed to land there one day in 2006.

Also at Eglinton down the road where the line is extremely close to the runway end..

I feel a new thread coming on about trains and airfields...

 

[Bigfoot]

Isnt doing that to golfers compulsory?

I definitely haven't done this at Wentworth when the BMW PGA tour is there.