During a recent visit by a steam special to Bristol, I was appalled to see a group of idiots wander off the end of platform 5 at Temple Meads, and down onto a track-level footpath leading to an adjacent loco spur. The steamer was over on platform 3, three lines away, and stabled on the spur right alongside these morons was a Class 47, noisily chugging away. Worse still, platform 5 was empty at the time, with the potential for an arrival at any moment. Needless to say their attention was focussed firmly on the steamer, and with its noise plus that of the chugging 47, which was also obscuring any view of approaching trains, had any arrival turned up it could easily have come as a nasty shock, both for the spotters and the Driver no doubt.
If these muppets are prepared to merrily trespass at somewhere like Bristol Temple Meads, it's no wonder that all manner of lunacy is displayed out on the main lines, away from any official eyes. It has been said many times before, but it only takes one person to get wiped out by a passing train - as the guy in that now famous YouTube video at the level crossing almost was - and the whole situation of mainline heritage will be examined very closely indeed. Let's hope, for everybody's sake, that doesn't happen, but there are certainly some individuals out there who would benefit from a bloody good collar-feeling by the BTP; enthusiasts or not.
