The Great Escape ... Trespass special edition!

[Trackman]

I remember that. Looked like a biscuit tin full of light bulbs. Some years later I concluded it was probably multiple bulbs (or series strings of lower votage bulbs) in parallel. The chances of all the parallel elements quietly failing simultaneously would be very low.

Egg boxes or box of eggs or its full name conductor rail lamp test set.
Stopped being used by Network Rail about 10 years ago, don't know about the tube.

 

[Acey]

Lying in the 4 ft would have been most unpleasant had someone pulled the toilet flush chain at the same time ! I recall many years ago at Sundridge Park Station ( Kent) the driver of the " popper " had to make an emergency stop when an old lady jumped in front of the two car as it was slowing to stop ,the train stopped well in time and the driver went to assist the old dear who had broken her arm and other minor injuries,looked down at her and said " well,you made a right balls up of that ,didn't you ? "

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Many , many instances one could quote.

One of my drivers on the down DC line stopped beyond Kensal Green tunnel one evening and picked up a confused old lady (she was between the WCML lines and the DC lines) , who was convinced she was in a wood outside Vienna picking wild flowers with her mother before WW2. She had absconded from secure accommodation but it was a mystery how she got there. With remarkable and commendable persuasion he got her up into the 313 and safely dealt with. When I thanked (and commended him) , he said it was only right as she was someone's grandmother or mother.

A more unfortunate one was the jewelled and studded punk , pissed or something else , who waiting for the last eastbound at Camden Road decided "western style" to listen to the rails thrumming for the train. Regrettably he chose the wrong rail and you can imagine the result.

I would have thought in the 4ft - if the AWS magnet does not get you , before that an obstacle deflector / mini snow plough blade would be in the way.

 

[AndrewE]

Likewise, one of my late grandparents told me a story on a number of occasions how in her youth they would "get under the track" as a train passed over. She said she chickened out but had been seen by the footplate crew who threw a lump of coal in her direction, which promptly went home to be used on the fire! I would guess this would have been late 1930's/early 1940's.

which reminds me of a colleague's story: he lived by the Manchester line going NE from Crewe. A driver or fireman lived next door and on each trip they would push a large lump of coal off the footplate to bounce down the embankment into the back garden. It worked well until one day the lump bounced faster and higher than usual... and demolished the greenhouse!

 

[AndrewE]

When I worked for LU, I heard informal advice that if you are caught short in a tunnel, the best thing was to lay next to the centre conductor rail (withouttouching it) with your head towards the train. I don't know whether it would work, probably depends how slim you are. No-one has mentioned that the head is best towards the train; this is to try to avoid the windage lifting your clothing which could then catch.

Someone mentioned stories from long ago, but modern concrete sleepers are significantly lower in the centre than timber ones.

I remember my first PTS training on BR in about 1980. We were told that if you were in a tunnel when a train came you should lie in the cess between the sleeper ends and the tunnel wall!
My first excursion out on a live running railway was off the end of James St platform down into the Mersey Tunnel. My local man led me to hop over the central live third rails onto the other line each time a train approached, and to a tunnel wall refuge if trains were coming at us from both directions!

 

[Lucan]

We were told that if you were in a tunnel when a train came you should lie in the cess between the sleeper ends and the tunnel wall!

Good advice generally, but I should have said I was talking about the LU tube tunnels, not the cut-and cover. They don't have much of a cess!

 

[DustyBin]

I've crawled around under a class 101 and there was plenty of clearance, in fact there wasn't a great deal below axle height if I remember; other stock will differ obviously. I was jacking up axles so we could change some leaf springs in case anybody is wondering what on earth I was up to!