Trivia: Unusual, bizarre or oddly specific causes of delay

Many years ago now, on a (First?) Great Western HST from Bristol to Paddington was stopped at West Drayton "due to a bit of metal making a lot of noise beneath coach C".

There are some more in this very old thread
I found that when searching for the list there used to be of reasons for delay given, in which there were some hilarious ones. I first saw it in about 1998 and I don't think it had been updated since, but I can't find it online now. I think I remember it being noted has originating with the UK Railways FAQ, so possibly from usenet?

IIRC once in the Hyndland/Partick area a few years ago chaos ensued after a bird made a nest on the line. Driver announced this on the train as "due to a bird's nest on the line".

Once on the sudbury branch line (must of been late 90s), we were delayed by ostriches on the line.

Also coming back from creamfields music festival in 2002, the train we were on hit a cow. Cant remember much detail except we pulled into the next station and transferred to another train

One day when I was going from Abergavenny to Cardiff, the guard apologised for the shorter train than usual because "when we turned up this morning, this is all we could find".

Over recent years there have been numerous delays across the UK caused by trampolines being blown from peoples back gardens onto railway lines!

A large gazebo blocked the line at Kentish Town West yesterday morning.

TheSel said:

Today's 2V17, the 1823 Ellesmere Port - Manchester Victoria takes some beating:

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y22771/2019-10-21/detailed

"This service was cancelled due to the planned train being replaced with a slower train (MS)."

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That is a genuine excuse I've had before.
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y61235/2019-09-14/detailed
Was a 156 vice 319
Here was the useless heap losing time on the inbound
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Y69050/2019-09-14/detailed

Guy on the roof of the station threatening to throw things on the track - Colchester, good few years ago.

Heard the police sirens and everything.

Was going to mention the trampoline until I was beaten to it.

A personal favourite of mine is one of our Voyagers getting cancelled because of the fitter getting his hand stuck in a coffee machine trying to fix it. He is an excellent and dedicated fitter which made it all the more funny apart from the bean counters POV!

There are many other daft ones too which I’ll try and recall.

driver_m said:

Was going to mention the trampoline until I was beaten to it.

A personal favourite of mine is one of our Voyagers getting cancelled because of the fitter getting his hand stuck in a coffee machine trying to fix it. He is an excellent and dedicated fitter which made it all the more funny apart from the bean counters POV!

There are many other daft ones too which I’ll try and recall.

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No pun intended?

ACBest said:

No pun intended?

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I only realised afterwards. Better when they’re unintentional!

Delay to 1C66 06:45 Exeter-Penzance on 1st April 2006.
08:46 Lostwithiel Signal Box advises driver of 1C66 06:45 Exeter SD to Penzance has reported that there is a full sized Dr. Who Dalek on the over bridge near to 268 mile post (thought to be
268m 16ch Doublebois Old Station) and driver is concerned that it could end up the railway if miscreants get their hands on it.
St Blazey MOM advised and en-route to site to investigate further.
***
09:45 St Blazey MOM advises that he has removed the Dr Who Dalek, complete with a Wurzel Gummage head, from the bridge and placed it near to nearest access point from where the P'way will collect it.
MOM to advise P'way. FGW Exeter advised.

The best reason I had for my train being cancelled was "Due to an error having been made". Turns out instead of being on the path to Paisley Canal, some nugget sent the train down the Cathcart circle line.

Stan

A couple of occasions at ScotRail there were cancellations due to driver illness - unfortunately not only had the drivers been ill when at the controls, but the nature of the illnesses meant they unfortunately not been able to control bowel movements until they'd reached their destination, resulting in units having to be removed from service.

A pigeon weighing machine (used by pigeon racers) left on a terminating train at Dunblane once caused a full scale security alert. Line closed for 90 minutes and sniffer dogs, the works.

Wrong routings (sometimes taken by drivers, sometimes challenged) cause disruption more than you think. An evening Cross Country voyager service from Glasgow Central to Edinburgh was booked via Mount Florida for route knowledge retention. The driver evidently was beyond the stage of route retention and needed a full refresher. Booked towards Kings Park and onwards to Newton, the train was signalled towards Cathcart and onto the Neilston branch. The driver took the route as far as Muirend (passing two stations and through Cathcart West Jn en route) where they suddenly realised that they didn't know where they were. The train had to come back wrong line to Mount Florida and resume its correct route, with Cathcart and Neilston services suspended while the train was recovered. Amazingly the driver was allowed to take the train to Edinburgh.

A 6 car class 380 has been sent into Neilston turnback siding, fouling the points (4 car 380 max length) and unable to come back out correct line, again had to be recovered wrong line to Muirend resulting in service suspension.

A class 158 has been sent onto the East Kilbride branch where not only are they banned, but being in the middle of a 6 car with 156s on either side, the guard didn't know it was there until they walking through checking tickets and reported to control that they had no traction knowledge. Had to be terminated at Clarkston.

There will be more once they come back to me. Probably every TOC is the same. Trains being cancelled due to all sorts of human errors behind the scenes - trains too long for platform, wrong traction type resulting in traincrew having no knowledge etc - is way more common that most people would realise. Railway staff are only human and make mistakes from time to time like everyone else. Staff have so much information to retain and remember that there will always be occasions where a vital peice of information is overlooked, resulting in disruption.

318266 said:

IIRC once in the Hyndland/Partick area a few years ago chaos ensued after a bird made a nest on the line. Driver announced this on the train as "due to a bird's nest on the line".

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There was once chaos around there because tree surgeons in the adjacent Gartnavel Hospital cut a tree that fell outside the hospital boundary and onto the overheads. Resulted in full scale suspension and a number of trains stranded without power, with passengers having to be rescued off trains on foot.

Chris M said:

There are some more in this very old thread
I found that when searching for the list there used to be of reasons for delay given, in which there were some hilarious ones. I first saw it in about 1998 and I don't think it had been updated since, but I can't find it online now. I think I remember it being noted has originating with the UK Railways FAQ, so possibly from usenet?

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Not sure what list you're talking about, but there's a list of the modern ones here: https://wiki.openraildata.com/index.php/Darwin:Late_Running_reason_codes_and_text

Some of my favourite highlights from this list:

• 550 This train has been delayed by a fire near the railway involving gas cylinders;
• 551 This train has been delayed by a fire near the railway suspected to involve gas cylinders;
• 555 This train has been delayed by a wartime bomb near the railway;
• 653 This train has been delayed by a supermarket trolley on the track;

and, delightfully vaguely, "115 This train has been delayed by a problem near the railway"

py_megapixel said:

Not sure what list you're talking about, but there's a list of the modern ones here: https://wiki.openraildata.com/index.php/Darwin:Late_Running_reason_codes_and_text

Some of my favourite highlights from this list:

• 550 This train has been delayed by a fire near the railway involving gas cylinders;
• 551 This train has been delayed by a fire near the railway suspected to involve gas cylinders;
• 555 This train has been delayed by a wartime bomb near the railway;
• 653 This train has been delayed by a supermarket trolley on the track;

and, delightfully vaguely, "115 This train has been delayed by a problem near the railway"

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Code 555 is particularly interesting - we had the North Woolwich branch suspended one afternoon due to a contractor in an adjacent building site at Custom House "finding" a WW2 bomb. Perfectly feasible. Job stopped and isolation obtained , Bomb Squad blue-lighted down , exclusion zone etc ....

It turned out to be "classic" 1950's airstream type fridge.

Posted on Twitter a few days ago, this is a rather unfortunate text shortening that results in a bit of an odd delay cause!

(picture shows a departure board with one train shown as cancelled with the reason "Service cancelled due to more trains than us").

Roast Veg said:

Llamas on the line between Tunbridge Wells and Hastings, relatively common.

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I recall this happening between Hildenborough and Sevenoaks too, and whilst searching for confirmation came across this press release from Southeastern which contains a few more unusual delays (scroll down!).

318266 said:

IIRC once in the Hyndland/Partick area a few years ago chaos ensued after a bird made a nest on the line. Driver announced this on the train as "due to a bird's nest on the line".

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Had it been a particularly uncommon corvid, requiring the protection of law, services may have had to be suspended indefinitely due to the wrong kind of crow.

Equally, should the police be in pursuit of a group suspected of dishonestly appropriating the property of others with the intention of permanently depriving them of it, they might pass onto railway property in an attempt to shake off the law. In which case, thieves on the line would be a plausible reason for delay.

I'll get my coat....

py_megapixel said:

Not sure what list you're talking about, but there's a list of the modern ones here: https://wiki.openraildata.com/index.php/Darwin:Late_Running_reason_codes_and_text

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It wasn't a list of official reasons but, like this thread, unusual ones that had been heard. "Deranged female on the line", "waiting for the other driver", and an already severely delayed passenger train being offered the route into Ferrybridge power station stick in my mind.

After a bit more searching I've finally found an archived version:
https://web.archive.org/web/20071110203021/www.rodge.force9.co.uk/faq/excuses.html

I also found this one, heard at Salisbury in May 1999:
"Sorry to all passengers on platform 2 awaiting the xx:yy service to London
Waterloo - due to necessary engineering works, the driver for your train is
on a bus which has broken down...'

Wasn't there that Cross City one which made its way onto YouTube where the signaller was cautioning drivers on the redditch branch?

This evening down here in Melbourne trains were delayed due to an injured lizard on the tracks:
https://twitter.com/metrotrains/status/1188723385095749633

bussnapperwm said:

Wasn't there that Cross City one which made its way onto YouTube where the signaller was cautioning drivers on the redditch branch?

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Ah yes...the gentleman pleasuring himself... I remember hearing that.

Got delayed on a service on Wednesday, returning from the forum meal at York. It was down to "a piece of faulty equipment in the driving cab". I doubt the guard meant the driver. It turned out to be a DSD fault. The service was subsequently terminated at Doncaster due to a re-occurrence of said fault.

306024 said:

Cockle shed on the track Leigh-on-Sea
Emu on the track near Bishops Stortford
Cow in platform 6 at Norwich
Driver climbing signal ladder at Ilford to escape from an Alsatian dog

Plus of course the many delay excuses that affected Reginald Perrin on his commute to Waterloo.
http://www.leonardrossiter.com/reginaldperrin/Train.html

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I was thinking about that. "Train 11 minutes late, someone stole the tracks at Surbiton".

py_megapixel said:

653 This train has been delayed by a supermarket trolley on the track.

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That there's actually a code specifically for a supermarket trolley on the track makes me think that it's an unfortunately common occurrence.

On a similar note, I recall back in the 1960s my granny telling me that her journey to Kingston from Richmond was held up because, according to the station announcement, someone had chucked a tin bath on the track and, being Southern Region third rail DC, it had welded itself to the track. For some reason I'll never fathom, she found it rather amusing.

Dr_Paul said:

That there's actually a code specifically for a supermarket trolley on the track makes me think that it's an unfortunately common occurrence.

On a similar note, I recall back in the 1960s my granny telling me that her journey to Kingston from Richmond was held up because, according to the station announcement, someone had chucked a tin bath on the track and, being Southern Region third rail DC, it had welded itself to the track. For some reason I'll never fathom, she found it rather amusing.

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Along with bikes they're a complete pain in the arse because they crumple up, wrap themselves around the underside of the train and damage bits of equipment and piping under there.

Whenever I find them abandoned on station platforms or nearby I always take them on board the train and deposit them at a staffed location in case they find their way or are assisted on to the line.

Earlier this year a dog did a cr@p on a packed Merseyrail train.

Staff decided to continue running the train until its destination where it would cleaned, but passengers were given the option of getting off at the next station and waiting 15 minutes for the next train.

So the train itself wasn't delayed but those passengers who got off and waited for the next train would have been delayed!