Just what [i]was[/i] going on behind rateable traction in the '80s?

[4SRKT]

I used to travel a lot on trains hauled by rateable traction back in the '80s, especially on summer Saturdays. These were some of the best times of my life, although there was definitely a slight 'carnival atmosphere' in the sense of some over excitable behaviour. Hardly surprising with two 37s up front though....

However, the other day I was reading somthing in Rail from September 1988 that read "BR's problems with the hooligan element on Saturday holiday trains was highlighted on Radio Shropshire's main news bulletins on June 16. Not selling the Cambrian Day Ranger has cost BR hundreds of pounds but when trains were held up six times, as on one Saturday, action had to be taken and extra police and ticket collectors have now mostly eliminated the problem."

Just what on Earth was happening????
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Balls. Can't do italics in thread titles then......

 

[Oswyntail]

Drunken brawling, IIRC

 

[4SRKT]

Really? I honestly can't remember it, and I went on the Aberystwyth tractors quite a bit. Was it cranks brawling with cranks, or were normals dragged in? I remember a lot of noise and boisterousness, huge amounts of flailing, and every bogroll in the train was out of the window by Westbury, but no actual fighting.