• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Joyriders Take 49-Ton Train

Status
Not open for further replies.

Coxster

Established Member
Joined
9 Jun 2005
Messages
9,244
Just had this shown to me by Chris Jolly - http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1537598

TWO youths were last night being hunted after they broke into an industrial yard in Sheffield and went joyriding in a 49-ton locomotive
The pair, who arrived at Tinsley Marshalling Yard on mountain bikes, opened track points on lines in the yard so they could drive the powerful shunter around the site, which stores freight wagons used for transporting heavy goods.
Police say they could have easily derailed the engine, killed or injured themselves, or entered the main railway line from the site, based next to Sheffield Airport.
They are now urgently trying to identify the pair and have released CCTV pictures in the hope someone will recognise them. They also believe they might have boasted about the incident to friends and are appealing for them to come forward.
Inspector Graham Bridges said: "They were driving the locomotive up and down the tracks. They could have easily killed themselves.
"There was also the possibility that they could have got on to the main line.
"If they had we believe the signaller would have spotted it quickly, but nevertheless they placed a great deal of people in danger."
A security guard at a nearby business was the first to spot the pair on CCTV at around 6.15pm on Sunday night and alerted police, but by the time they arrived the pair had left of their own accord.
Officers from British Transport Police were last night studying forensic evidence, including fingerprints from the engine, and 10 minutes of CCTV footage. It is still unclear how long the youths actually spent in the yard.
DS Paul Kazimierczyk, said: "Two youths gained access to a shunting locomotive and they have managed to get this thing going and moved it up and down the yard itself.
"Points were tampered with. Then they just left it.
"They were picked up by a local security officer on a neighbouring business' CCTV camera system. This is being treated as a serious incident."
Anyone who can identify the youths can call British Transport Police on Freephone 0800 40 50 40.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

ikar

Member
Joined
20 Oct 2005
Messages
514
Location
Europe (Rijeka, Croatia)
Police say they could have easily derailed the engine, killed or injured themselves, or entered the main railway line from the site, based next to Sheffield Airport.

If they were smart enough to start the loco and drive it arround, than I don't think they'd be stupid to derail...

No regular chav could do this...
 

Guinness

Established Member
Joined
13 Jun 2005
Messages
3,736
They must of had knowledge of how to drive a train so must of been a chav/enthusiast split.
 

66526

Member
Joined
9 Nov 2005
Messages
332
Its pretty complex to start up the engines etc so I can't think of how they could have done it...
 

Demps

Member
Joined
11 May 2006
Messages
692
Location
York
now dosent this incodent give the railways a 'novel' texture, giving it colour and setting it aprt from the norm. Personally i think its a discrace that they could just enter a 08 (after clinbing walls or wateveretc.) but also i think it adds a little bit of comedy... well seen as though no one was injured i dont find this incodent is that bad, potential mybe Forensic lol, dont you think the forensic detectives have more serious incodents to deal with?. The youths who done this dont have to be enthusiasts, any person can turn a key and flick a few switches (hence: hotwiring etc.)
 

Demps

Member
Joined
11 May 2006
Messages
692
Location
York
lol yeh, i can see them being reeld in as recruits for drivers, a bit like the current army's appeal for more recruits seen as though they are low in numbers.
 

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,429
Location
Yorkshire
Demps said:
Forensic lol, dont you think the forensic detectives have more serious incodents to deal with?.
If it was a road incident, the HSE would say "Sorry, we're too busy investigating a preserved line going 2.1 mph over the speed limit", the police would take 50 hours to respond. Forensics would not be involved. They'd be told not to do it again and given a ban on driving until they are 17 (yes how ironic!). It wouldn't make the papers, except for a tiny mention in the local paper. They'd be joyriding again within days.

As it is a rail incident, the rail yard will be closed off for weeks, forensics will be taken off murder cases to investigate, and the purpetrators will be locked up for years and the newspapers will claim that passengers on the main line were in danger, aren't the railways unsafe, etc etc, and it will be made out to be almost as bad as a nuclear disaster.

;)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top