Drivers eye view: What interesting things have you seen?

[John Luxton]

Not a driver but as a passenger on a first generation DMU on the Barnstaple line circa 1978/9.

Someone must have left a farm accommodation gate open or a fence had become damaged. Several sheep were on the track side. Driver checked the speed but just as we approached the sheep one of the silly animals jumped into the four foot and decided to stare down the train. Driver pulled the brake on hard but by the time we had slithered to a stop silly sheep had disappeared underneath. Driver and guard got out and looked under the train. Not sure what state the sheep was in but further down the line driver stopped and used a lineside phone to report the matter.

Again as a passenger enjoying the forward view I was on a trip to Llandudno with my grandmother must have been in my mid teens.

Passing under a footbridge on the coast near Abergele some cretins dropped a half brick it went through the centre window and struck but did not break the glass in the door leading into the passenger accommodation. There was glass everywhere in the cab. It was like a bomb going off.

Driver stopped and opened the door to check that passengers in the forward saloon were okay. At Abergele he reported the incident, train continued to Llandudno with window missing.

I dread to think what would have happened if the the brick had gone through the driver's window.

 

[ComUtoR]

It's quite a common statement that the driver has the best/unique view.

This is the view I take for granted almost daily.

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99.9% of the time I forget its there. Then you just get stunning days like that. Sunrise and sunset over the Thames is gorgeous.

What's the most unusual/funny/weird/scary/awkward etc thing you've ever seen? (not scenery or fatalities)

Passengers having sex on the train
Man naked on his allotment doing the gardening
More funny drunk passenger moments than you can imagine.

I had a couple of passengers absolutely blasting a member of platform about their train. Cue me sneaking past waving good morning at the platform staff member... I was the Driver...

Had some scary moments. The railway is a little unforgiving and often a harsh environment to work in.

 

[MotCO]

As a passenger I once saw a couple having sex on the step of a fire exit at a factory unit in Raynes Park. It was quite surreal as our fully loaded train trundled past them with everyone watching.

Presumably they were there so that they could have a cigarette afterwards!

As a passenger on a GWR service to Paddington, I saw a Routemaster in a barn in Wiltshire or Gloucestershire. I'm wondering if it was Peter Hendy's RM1005.

 

[RSimons]

A friend was in the cab of a freight train in northern Manitoba, when the winter snow was deep except where the trains had cleared it from the track. As they went round a bend, there was a trapper and his dog team using the track as a road. The brakes were slammed on, the horn was sounded and there was a flurry of dogs and snow. The train stopped alongside the trapper, who was waist deep in snow. The driver stepped out of the cab, walked along the running board on the side of the locomotive and called down, ‘Would you like some toilet paper?’

 

[Acey]

Not the most interesting but the most alarming was when I was driving a 465 from CX to DT via Greenwich as
I approached a footbridge somewhere near Abbey Wood I saw some kids ( always a bad sign ) and somehow
they had contrived to hang a black plastic bucket at drivers eye level height from the bridge, I ducked down and
slammed on the breaks ,there was a loud bang and when I looked up the whole windscreen was covered in a
light brown /grey slurry which I initially thought was mud but when I turned on the wipers they made a grinding noise ,
turned out to be a cement/mortar mix which I managed to scrape enough off at Abbey Wood and got the unit
to Slade Green where it was taken out of service Ah -the joys of suburban train driving
Also I'm quite an authority on which supermarket shopping trolleys made the brightest/loudest bang when mangled over the third rail !

 

[randyrippley]

Back in the 1970s there were press reports of BR complaining about mudmoving low-level RAF Buccaneers playing "chicken" head-on with trains going through the Lune Gorge.
I imagine that would have been "interesting" for the driver

 

[Spartacus]

Back in the 1970s there were press reports of BR complaining about mudmoving low-level RAF Buccaneers playing "chicken" head-on with trains going through the Lune Gorge.
I imagine that would have been "interesting" for the driver

Never seen it with Buccaneers but I've witnessed a pair of Tornados playing 'chase the Pendolino', I think they caught it over Shap! Obviously having a lot of fun trying to keep close to it through the curves, it must have been one hell of a sight from the back cab, it was for me and I was just on the road!

 

[Mintona]

I’ve had a chinook toying with me near Didcot. It was hovering behind trees, and pointed directly at me. I felt like I was being used for target practice.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

I've been flashed, I've seen a couple of blokes having a fist fight in a station car park, low flying aircraft and crazy electrical storms. Fireworks at New Years Eve, Bonfire Night and Diwali from vantage points people would pay good money for, but the stuff you see every day which never gets boring that I like best. Sunrises, sunsets, wildlife. People would be shocked at how many birds of prey live right by them, you see scores of them on a daily basis and often in pretty build up areas.

 

[ungreat]

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

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

Meden Vale it was I recall

 

[D821]

Disgusting, but I can't help being impressed by her aim and timing.

 

[6Gman]

I just hope they weren't blocking the exit

That reminds me of a Max Miller joke.

 

[Stigy]

Skinny dippers at Nursling near Southampton occasionally…

 

[Neo9320]

Skinny dippers at Nursling near Southampton occasionally…

I love this, although the whole quote would make a great ‘cryptic stations’ post lol

 

[RH Liner]

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


Meden Vale it was I recall

That would be the old Welbeck Colliery branch then. I grew up at Welbeck Colliery Village before it became Meden Vale, and what you describe doesn’t surprise me one bit.

 

[Pinza-C55]

As a guard one of the strangest things I saw was in the 1980s when I worked at Kings Cross. There was a man who had once worked on the buffet cars but was homeless and he was commonly known as the "Hornsey Tramp". He used to gather material to burn during the day and then light a fire between the Up Fast and Up Slow at Hornsey station and stand beside it into the early hours of the morning with smoke billowing across the track. After a few months of these fires there would be a mountain of debris and ash , and BR would send a few men to clear it away on a Sunday. It must have been a serious hazard to drivers, him and the S&T cables but the BTP never seemed to stop him. He wore a threadbare pair of buffet steward trousers with red piping.

 

[D6130]

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.

On one glorious summer's evening, I was driving a 158 on the 16 18 Carlisle-Leeds when about halfway up the Mallerstang Valley - between Kirkby Stephen and Ais Gill Summit - I suddenly heard a loud noise to my left hand side and looked down to see a huge RAF C130 Hercules transport plane overtaking me about 200 feet lower than the railway! Quite un-nerved, I prepared myself to witness a huge pile of burning, smoking debris on the hillside ahead.... but about a mile further on, I suddenly saw the big, cumbersome-looking machine climbing almost vertically high into the air at the head of the valley.

On the day of filming the exterior shots for the Settle & Carlisle episode of Michael Portillo's first 2005 series of 'Great Rail Journeys', I was driving the 10 47 Leeds-Carlisle from Skipton onwards (unit no. 158 905). We were being pursued by the filming helicopter, which at every station stop flew on ahead a short distance, turned round, flew back behind the train and then followed the train again when we re-started. As often happens, on arrival at Settle, we picked up a large coach party of elderly people who were travelling to Appleby, where their coach would pick them up again. Crossing Ribblehead Viaduct, the helicopter was flying very close to - and at them same level as - the train....obviously to get some close-up viaduct shots. On arrival at Appleby, several of the alighting coach passengers came up to me at the cab window and complained bitterly that the helicopter had been flying too close and had frightened them. What could I do?....other than to refer them to the Aviation Standards and Safety Board.

 

[ungreat]

That would be the old Welbeck Colliery branch then. I grew up at Welbeck Colliery Village before it became Meden Vale, and what you describe doesn’t surprise me one bit.

Yep that was it!

 

[LowLevel]

I recently passed (at caution) a class 56 chasing a cow at walking pace near Leigh on the North Staffs.

 

[TwoYellas]

A group of contractors, on a break, lounging around in a clearing the other side of the fence from the lines. Except one of them - who was on the floor praying to his Lord and maker.

 

[Zontar]

As a guard one of the strangest things I saw was in the 1980s when I worked at Kings Cross. There was a man who had once worked on the buffet cars but was homeless and he was commonly known as the "Hornsey Tramp". He used to gather material to burn during the day and then light a fire between the Up Fast and Up Slow at Hornsey station and stand beside it into the early hours of the morning with smoke billowing across the track. After a few months of these fires there would be a mountain of debris and ash , and BR would send a few men to clear it away on a Sunday. It must have been a serious hazard to drivers, him and the S&T cables but the BTP never seemed to stop him. He wore a threadbare pair of buffet steward trousers with red piping.

Quite a sad story, but impressive how humans can adapt to survive.

 

[mmh]

Not a driver but as a passenger ( aged about 15) i did see a man flashing at trains. He was near Sheffield. He got a bit of a shock as our train ground to a halt at the signal and 20 odd 15 year old lads started banging on the windows and shouting out of the drop lights as he scuttled away!

I have inadvertently "flashed" at a train. A few years ago, driving to Oban. Torrential rain, couldn't resist the call of nature must longer. Stopped at a lay-by which turned out to be above the railway line. Went and relieved myself just in time for the (I believe) something like every 2 or 3 hours train to go past. Oops.

 

[DarloRich]

I have inadvertently "flashed" at a train. A few years ago, driving to Oban. Torrential rain, couldn't resist the call of nature must longer. Stopped at a lay-by which turned out to be above the railway line. Went and relieved myself just in time for the (I believe) something like every 2 or 3 hours train to go past. Oops.

Yes officer, on entering the layby, my clothes accidentally fell off

 

[Spaceflower]

Things in the night. Shooting stars, aggressive badgers, being predated on by owls, coming up on a herd of ghost deer and watching them silently depart via fictional platform 9 3/4 into the fog, sunsets (not so much sunrise). Na, I don't drive, I walk.
Simple things that move you.
And I'm not talking about Freightliner. Stepping outside of Ipswich station, I was thrust into a world even quicker than the one I'd just left. I peered over the bridge into the what I guess passed for a river in these parts. Obviously tidal and obviously the largest open sewer in England. Then, boom, a 4lb sea bass, hunting with purpose in the rubbish strewn shallows, occasionally flashing its flanks enticingly with a brilliance that far outshone any gold. A true diamond in the rough. Just for me.

 

[CHAPS2034]

Not from the cab but the first coach...

In the autumn of 1978 I took a short break to the IOM to explore the island and visit some friends who lived in Port St Mary. Although we had a hire car, we decided to go to Port St Mary on the train, especially as it was the last day of operation for the year. In fact we caught the last train of the year back towards Douglas - it was around tea time and the loco was bedecked with a headboard saying so.

All went well until we ground to a halt just close to the airport amid much whistling from the loco. Sticking my head out of the window, I spotted about half a dozen cows standing on the track. Despite the steam and whistling, they just stared at the engine and refused to move.

Just adjacent to the track there was a gate which had been left open by the look of it. After a few minutes of this impasse, the fireman alighted waving his shovel at the cows to shoosh them back through the gate.

And shoosh them he did - but not through the gate as they trundled off down the line in the direction the train was travelling. The cows and pursuing fireman, still brandishing his shovel and shouting ruderies, disappeared round a bend and out of sight. Just like something out of the Keystone Cops...

About 5 minutes later, they came back into view coming back towards the train. The driver leapt out and guided them into the field whilst the red faced fireman went back to his firing duties with much muttering...Great teamwork!

With a toot we set off again and eventually reached Douglas where a welcoming party was waiting for the last train. Everyone had a good laugh about it and that was it for the season.

 

[leezer3]

That reminds me of the time we chased a deer most of the way from Bodmin Road to Bodmin General with a Large Prarie on a cold damp winter day.

As anyone who had been on this line knows, stopping halfway up in these conditions invariably ends up with the 08 being called out to rescue you.

No idea what the crew would have done if we'd hit the thing, but that was quite interesting to watch.

 

[87007]

Did wonder on a recent evening journey, how much/little driver sees at night when travelling at 100 mph +?

 

[TwoYellas]

Yes officer, on entering the layby, my clothes accidentally fell off

"It was then that the three hourly train service passed."

 

[Pshambro]

As a passenger on a winter 1990s cross country service we were pulling into Leamington Spa and I saw a young couple painting (decorating) in the nude with (of course) the light on. It was one of those period properties close to the station and had large Georgian windows so was very obvious to all aboard the 47 hauled Mark II rake I was on.

 

[TwoYellas]

As a passenger on a winter 1990s cross country service we were pulling into Leamington Spa and I saw a young couple painting (decorating) in the nude with (of course) the light on. It was one of those period properties close to the station and had large Georgian windows so was very obvious to all aboard the 47 hauled Mark II rake I was on.

Fantastic - what colour were they painting the walls?