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Scariest Rail Experience
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F Great Eastern
Established Member
That's what happened to me, although the driver cared, but all of the passengers around me looked at me if I had 10 heads.
grumblingalong
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I think it was more the shock having been completely naively unprepared for our fellow passengers.
Trog
Established Member
A parcels train doing 75MPH at night with only a single dim bulb in the head code box to advise of its approach. It can only have been a couple of hundred yards away from me when I spotted it.
Scariest experience would be when something exploded underneath my train, and smoke started billowing out. Would be scary enough if you were passenger, but when your the guard and it's only your third day out by yourself it's even worse! Luckily once the initial smoke cleared there was no fire and all was relatively good. Relatively, as I then had to deal with a train full of passengers stranded between stations for 90 minutes.
Minilad
Established Member
Doing 125 on three aspect signalling and get a single yellow. Putting the brake in and watching the WSP light doing it's best impression of Blackpool illuminations.
That gets the old sphincter twitching I can tell you
That gets the old sphincter twitching I can tell you
Being from Nantwich this post jogged my memory, i'm 90% sure if is the person I am thinking of, they survived. However they did lose an arm and a leg. The person in question from what I remember was also heavily intoxicated and had no idea what had happened to them.
The scariest thing I've experienced on a train is the New York subway. I have just come back from there and it makes any service in this country seem like a luxury. There was even one person that decided to walk between carriages whilst the train was moving at full speed. One slip and he would have been under it.
Stampy
Member
Cycling home from work one afternoon in the late 1990's, and (out of the corner of my eye, whilst cycling over the Green Bridge) watching a man step out in front of a Class 91 going full tilt at Werrington Junction, just North of Peterborough...
I can still hear the "thud..... splat" noise to this day everytime I go over the said Green bridge....
hock:ad:
I can still hear the "thud..... splat" noise to this day everytime I go over the said Green bridge....
hock:ad:
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dcsprior
Member
Two scariest for me are:
2 - On a DLR service to Woolwich Arsenal in an early evening during the 2011 London riots, and it being announced that police had closed the station, and that we'd all need to get off at King George V. I caught the same train back the other way after it went to Woolwich Arsenal and back without passengers to pick up station staff; then travelled by Tube and Train to Welling via Canning Town, Canada Water and (I think) New Cross. I was in no immediate danger during any of this, but I was worried I wouldn't get to the house where I was renting a room midweek.
1 - On a Scotrail service from Edinburgh Waverley to Auchterarder, a group of lads started messing the guard around before Edinburgh Park - it must've been something rather serious such as threats of violence, as the police were called and the service cancelled with taxis called to take us onwards. I was relatively early to the taxis so got the front seat, soon after a young woman (I was in my early twenties, I think she was a year or two younger) got in the back, and then a coupe of the culprits - when I saw this I was brave/foolish enough to offer to swap seats with the woman so she didn't have to sit in the back with them, but not brave enough to report them. Cue an awkward ~40 mins, ending with one of them punching me in the jaw on their way out of the taxi
I've also been on a train which has hit someone - it was an Southbound EC service going full pelt through Welwyn Garden City. Whilst obviously regrettable, there was no danger to me, so I wouldn't personally class it as scary.
2 - On a DLR service to Woolwich Arsenal in an early evening during the 2011 London riots, and it being announced that police had closed the station, and that we'd all need to get off at King George V. I caught the same train back the other way after it went to Woolwich Arsenal and back without passengers to pick up station staff; then travelled by Tube and Train to Welling via Canning Town, Canada Water and (I think) New Cross. I was in no immediate danger during any of this, but I was worried I wouldn't get to the house where I was renting a room midweek.
1 - On a Scotrail service from Edinburgh Waverley to Auchterarder, a group of lads started messing the guard around before Edinburgh Park - it must've been something rather serious such as threats of violence, as the police were called and the service cancelled with taxis called to take us onwards. I was relatively early to the taxis so got the front seat, soon after a young woman (I was in my early twenties, I think she was a year or two younger) got in the back, and then a coupe of the culprits - when I saw this I was brave/foolish enough to offer to swap seats with the woman so she didn't have to sit in the back with them, but not brave enough to report them. Cue an awkward ~40 mins, ending with one of them punching me in the jaw on their way out of the taxi
I've also been on a train which has hit someone - it was an Southbound EC service going full pelt through Welwyn Garden City. Whilst obviously regrettable, there was no danger to me, so I wouldn't personally class it as scary.
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As many have said before, both of my "scariest" incidents involve fatalities and oddly both happened within a few months of each other.
First one was our 225 hit an elderly (if I remember correctly) gentleman at Chester Le Street as we passed through with speed, the brakes hit hard and we came to a sudden stop. I was with my Grandad at the time who used to investigate fatalities and railway accidents back in the BR days so he was all very used to it but for my first time it was something I had never experienced until that day.
The next one happened at Finsbury Park, a FCC 321 had hit a person and we had passed the scene a very short while after it had happened. Don't think I will ever forget what I saw.
First one was our 225 hit an elderly (if I remember correctly) gentleman at Chester Le Street as we passed through with speed, the brakes hit hard and we came to a sudden stop. I was with my Grandad at the time who used to investigate fatalities and railway accidents back in the BR days so he was all very used to it but for my first time it was something I had never experienced until that day.
The next one happened at Finsbury Park, a FCC 321 had hit a person and we had passed the scene a very short while after it had happened. Don't think I will ever forget what I saw.
Working a class 153 to Derby from Crewe and hitting a tree between Marchington and Sudbury in the dark and just hearing the bang of it smacking off the underside of the train, then the back of the obstacle deflector and finally flying out everywhere.
Standing on a platform watching a man trying to throw himself under a Freightliner, missing and then running up the track to another set of lights in the distance. I've never run so fast to the signal post telephone at the end of the platform to get the job stopped. Incidentally he was dragged back to the station in a headlock by the driver of one of the trains that got stopped into the arms of the police.
Standing on a platform watching a man trying to throw himself under a Freightliner, missing and then running up the track to another set of lights in the distance. I've never run so fast to the signal post telephone at the end of the platform to get the job stopped. Incidentally he was dragged back to the station in a headlock by the driver of one of the trains that got stopped into the arms of the police.
I have every respect for drivers. They are extremely skilled people and deserve respect, but there is one difference between them and passenger - they know what is happening.
The passengers usually do not, the bang followed by an emergency application is an immense worry, and railway parlance such as "signal failure" etc do no good. Furthermore, the coach 9 cars down the train that obviously has mechanical problems the driver knows nothing about. He should. A Class 321 with a deflated airspring is (to the rules) held to 45 MPH, and as such, so is the whole train - how does the man concerned (the driver) know if it's 9 cars behind him? Likewise how does he know if such a carriage is derailed? Unless he feels a grab behind him he won't.
The passengers usually do not, the bang followed by an emergency application is an immense worry, and railway parlance such as "signal failure" etc do no good. Furthermore, the coach 9 cars down the train that obviously has mechanical problems the driver knows nothing about. He should. A Class 321 with a deflated airspring is (to the rules) held to 45 MPH, and as such, so is the whole train - how does the man concerned (the driver) know if it's 9 cars behind him? Likewise how does he know if such a carriage is derailed? Unless he feels a grab behind him he won't.
kingqueen
Member
1) On a late evening 185 train from Manchester to Leeds, stuck in the wheelchair space next to an incredibly racist couple who started spouting on. Very very unpleasant and scary. (only white people present I'm glad to say, but still very scary...)
2) The brakes slamming on between Inverness and Edinburgh just as we went through a signal. Realising that it was a SPAD / technical SPAR, and wondering if we stopped in time. Asked the Guard: the light had gone from green to red directly in front of the driver; asked the TOC later: staff on an engineering posession elsewhere had made an error causing light to revert to red in front of the driver.
2) The brakes slamming on between Inverness and Edinburgh just as we went through a signal. Realising that it was a SPAD / technical SPAR, and wondering if we stopped in time. Asked the Guard: the light had gone from green to red directly in front of the driver; asked the TOC later: staff on an engineering posession elsewhere had made an error causing light to revert to red in front of the driver.
tsr
Established Member
Plenty of experiences on the railway are unnerving enough. I think that you expect things like fatalities to happen from time to time and be both sad and grim to deal with, and being locked in a metal tube with 1,000 people several times a day will probably also result in some of your onboard experiences being odd if not disturbing, but even things like the trains themselves can do odd things.
From a staff perspective, one of the first I can remember is having a train pull into Gatwick Airport a few years back and a white flash and booming noise coming from underneath the train as it stopped. Certainly not what you want at an international airport in peak holiday season! It then happened again, with a flurry of sparks. Pointing a torch at it revealed a loose cable banging against a tank or cylinder (I forget now) which was causing a small short circuit and a big echoey noise. For reasons which nobody could ever explain, the train was then dispatched by the platform staff anyway, causing the cable to do the same thing on departure. Cue a lot of very worried tourists and the signaller needing to be contacted. If I had actually been part of the team dispatching it, it wouldn't have gone anywhere, but hey ho, lessons learnt all round I think!
Turbostars do scary things too. If you're ever in the cab and the passcom goes at a quiet moment, the alarm noise on some of them is absolutely unearthly and definitely creates a sudden "brown pants" experience. And then of course that means it's definitely not the time you then want to go and squeeze your way through a full and standing train to get to it (the driver will inevitably have plonked the brake in emergency or forgotten to override the alarm anyway, on hearing such a dreadful noise). They also catch fire on special occasions.
One of the worst feelings is also "driver unresponsive" especially when there's no answer on cab-to-cab or the bells and you can't immediately get to them. I can raise the stakes on that one - I've been on a busy, long train having had an emergency brake application over the top of Falcon Junction, half way out of Clapham Junction, where I couldn't get hold of either driver instructor or trainee driver at the front. Then, just as I finally got to the cab, off come the brakes and the train starts to roll forward. Run back to a handset... "oh, yeah, someone just fell on the track just over there"...
From a staff perspective, one of the first I can remember is having a train pull into Gatwick Airport a few years back and a white flash and booming noise coming from underneath the train as it stopped. Certainly not what you want at an international airport in peak holiday season! It then happened again, with a flurry of sparks. Pointing a torch at it revealed a loose cable banging against a tank or cylinder (I forget now) which was causing a small short circuit and a big echoey noise. For reasons which nobody could ever explain, the train was then dispatched by the platform staff anyway, causing the cable to do the same thing on departure. Cue a lot of very worried tourists and the signaller needing to be contacted. If I had actually been part of the team dispatching it, it wouldn't have gone anywhere, but hey ho, lessons learnt all round I think!
Turbostars do scary things too. If you're ever in the cab and the passcom goes at a quiet moment, the alarm noise on some of them is absolutely unearthly and definitely creates a sudden "brown pants" experience. And then of course that means it's definitely not the time you then want to go and squeeze your way through a full and standing train to get to it (the driver will inevitably have plonked the brake in emergency or forgotten to override the alarm anyway, on hearing such a dreadful noise). They also catch fire on special occasions.
One of the worst feelings is also "driver unresponsive" especially when there's no answer on cab-to-cab or the bells and you can't immediately get to them. I can raise the stakes on that one - I've been on a busy, long train having had an emergency brake application over the top of Falcon Junction, half way out of Clapham Junction, where I couldn't get hold of either driver instructor or trainee driver at the front. Then, just as I finally got to the cab, off come the brakes and the train starts to roll forward. Run back to a handset... "oh, yeah, someone just fell on the track just over there"...
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One evening earlier in the year, I was waiting for a Merseyrail train back into the city centre at Hunts Cross and I had the distinct feeling I wasn't alone and I was being watched very closely. I know for a fact there was nobody else in the station as I had a good look around all of the platforms, all the time feeling that somebody was following me, at one point I'm certain I heard somebody mumbling into my ear. Despite that, it hasn't put me off being at Hunts Cross station after dark, in fact I'm planning on going there again at some point to see if it happens again.
I wouldn't say it was a scary experience, but it was definitely unnerving.
I wouldn't say it was a scary experience, but it was definitely unnerving.
eastwestdivide
Established Member
Mid-80s, front seat of a DMU in the cutting between Conisbrough and Doncaster, warm DMU fug nearly sending you to sleep, enjoying the view ahead as the driver's blinds were up, and BANG BANG BANG, detonators and heavy braking.
I think it was a recently-discovered broken rail, with no time yet to put up temporary restriction signs, because we crawled over a short section of track and then sped up again.
And another front end of DMU experience, heading across the flat lands of Lincolnshire and seeing a car cross the track ahead on a level crossing.
I think it was a recently-discovered broken rail, with no time yet to put up temporary restriction signs, because we crawled over a short section of track and then sped up again.
And another front end of DMU experience, heading across the flat lands of Lincolnshire and seeing a car cross the track ahead on a level crossing.
Scariest moment? Well, let's have a think.
It would have been about 1974. I was in the front of a 37 returning light engine from Norwood to Cambridge. We were burbling along at about forty miles-per-hour at about three o'clock in the morning. It was dark and cold outside, it was hot and humid inside. As we approached Elsenham I suddenly came to - realising that I had dropped off somewhere around - well I could remember passing Roydon. We approached Elsenham on a red and as we crept up to the home signal it very slowly lifted - an unofficial indication that the signalman wanted us and, sure enough as we approached the box a red handsignal was displayed from the 'box window.
"What colour was Stansted's starter" asked the driver of me, "I think I must have dozed off, I can't remember seeing it". "Nor can I" I replied, "I don't remember passing 'Stortford".
The signalman approached us with a face that looked like he'd won the bingo but had lost the card.
"'allo mate, sorry to stop you but the barriers at Ugley have failed. Approach and pass over at caution will you"?
A pair of sphincters relaxed and we both burst out laughing. The signalman must have thought there were a pair of lunatics in charge as the cackling duo resumed their way home.
In those dim and distant days the last AWS magnet was - in effect - Bishop Stortford's starter which co-acted as Stansted's distant. The next one was - depending on which way Ely North Junction routed you - either at Peterborough East or Trowse.
It would have been about 1974. I was in the front of a 37 returning light engine from Norwood to Cambridge. We were burbling along at about forty miles-per-hour at about three o'clock in the morning. It was dark and cold outside, it was hot and humid inside. As we approached Elsenham I suddenly came to - realising that I had dropped off somewhere around - well I could remember passing Roydon. We approached Elsenham on a red and as we crept up to the home signal it very slowly lifted - an unofficial indication that the signalman wanted us and, sure enough as we approached the box a red handsignal was displayed from the 'box window.
"What colour was Stansted's starter" asked the driver of me, "I think I must have dozed off, I can't remember seeing it". "Nor can I" I replied, "I don't remember passing 'Stortford".
The signalman approached us with a face that looked like he'd won the bingo but had lost the card.
"'allo mate, sorry to stop you but the barriers at Ugley have failed. Approach and pass over at caution will you"?
A pair of sphincters relaxed and we both burst out laughing. The signalman must have thought there were a pair of lunatics in charge as the cackling duo resumed their way home.
In those dim and distant days the last AWS magnet was - in effect - Bishop Stortford's starter which co-acted as Stansted's distant. The next one was - depending on which way Ely North Junction routed you - either at Peterborough East or Trowse.
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There's some very interesting stories on here.
I thought I didn't have any, but then I remembered this:
I was on holiday in Sri Lanka in 1998 and caught a train from Haputale to Colombo and paid a bit extra to sit in the old British looking observation car right at the back of the train. It was a beautiful journey winding through tea plantations and mountains at a gentle pace, eventually the train descended from the mountains and hit a fairly level double track section on the last thirty mile run into Colombo. At this point the driver seemed to find notch 11 on the loco and wound it up to an incredible speed.
We were taking corners far faster than anything I've ever experienced in this country and it felt like we were going to be flung off the track. The only other people in the carriage were a Sri Lankan family and both their kids were in tears and terrified, the thing was so decrepit that every corner bought a tortured, groaning sound from underneath and then a massive bang when the slack in the bearings finally caught up with the g force.
I tried to stand but couldn't and eventually half crawled out of the coach and walked a bit further up the train where although it was still a bit scary it wasn't quite so bad.
Just thought of another. Was on a 142 going down to see my dad in Teignmouth one evening when going flat out along Exminster straight the thing started to fishtail from side to side in a very unnerving way. The driver hit the brakes and took about 10mph off it and it all sorted itself out. I asked a friend who drives for FGW and he said that that sometimes happens, I'd never experienced it before though.
I thought I didn't have any, but then I remembered this:
I was on holiday in Sri Lanka in 1998 and caught a train from Haputale to Colombo and paid a bit extra to sit in the old British looking observation car right at the back of the train. It was a beautiful journey winding through tea plantations and mountains at a gentle pace, eventually the train descended from the mountains and hit a fairly level double track section on the last thirty mile run into Colombo. At this point the driver seemed to find notch 11 on the loco and wound it up to an incredible speed.
We were taking corners far faster than anything I've ever experienced in this country and it felt like we were going to be flung off the track. The only other people in the carriage were a Sri Lankan family and both their kids were in tears and terrified, the thing was so decrepit that every corner bought a tortured, groaning sound from underneath and then a massive bang when the slack in the bearings finally caught up with the g force.
I tried to stand but couldn't and eventually half crawled out of the coach and walked a bit further up the train where although it was still a bit scary it wasn't quite so bad.
Just thought of another. Was on a 142 going down to see my dad in Teignmouth one evening when going flat out along Exminster straight the thing started to fishtail from side to side in a very unnerving way. The driver hit the brakes and took about 10mph off it and it all sorted itself out. I asked a friend who drives for FGW and he said that that sometimes happens, I'd never experienced it before though.
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47403
Established Member
Not a scary train ride but I was about 12yr old, I'd had a day on the rails with my Dad, He wasn't obsessed but for my sake showed a passing interest in Railways, credit to him though, he knew the different classes of loco's that were around, I think we'd been to York n Donnie and got back to Newcastle about 10pm. Despite being on a train for yonks, my Dad decided he'd go to the now long gone loos that were on platform 8 then(Platform 2) now before we went for our bus home. I'd wandered over by the big destination boards, where boots n costa and that are now, to see if anything was due in, whilst waiting for him, a guy strode up and asked, if I would go on the metro to Whitley Bay with him? saying he would pay me, as he didn't know the way. I just said, no, I'm waiting for my Dad and here he is now, pointing at him, as my Dad was now striding towards me and the guy took off. My Dad dragged me down the metro stairs to find him but we couldn't see him. We then went and found a police man, who was stood outside Central Station and I had to give a statement.
Never been as scared as that night, mind you my Dad got a bigger fright and my stepmother got one too, when Dad n I got out the police car outside the house, ofcourse, my Dad got a canning off her about leaving me.
Never been as scared as that night, mind you my Dad got a bigger fright and my stepmother got one too, when Dad n I got out the police car outside the house, ofcourse, my Dad got a canning off her about leaving me.
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RichmondCommu
Established Member
My scariest experience was on the 12th December 1988 just south of Clapham Junction station. I was one of the walking wounded but 35 traveled by train that morning and never made it home.
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