Trivia: Odd or Bizarre moments in the rail industry

[Clansman]

Got inspired by the Twitter (X) page on bizarre moments in UK politics, which got me thinking about if there were any railway equivalents. The definition of odd or bizarre is loose and can incorporate anything one deems to be abnormal, strange, or exotic.

The best one I can think of is Talgo shipping out one of their Renfe carriages to Scotland to put on display in Kincardine and Dundee to promote their plans to invest in a facility at Longannet in 2020 (attached).

Other notable mentions could be the shipping of 141s to Iran, HSTs in Mexico, or LNER getting a blooming mascot.

Surely got to be some other whacky things that have happened over the years?

 

[OhNoAPacer]

Appointing Chris Grayling as Secretary of State for transport

 

[GatwickDepress]

Southern's 'Go Loco' campaign advertisement starring everyone's favourite character Loco Toledo was... interesting.

 

[Basil Jet]

The experience of a Mr Huskisson were fairly remarkable!

 

[zwk500]

The grounding of an entire fleet of brand new intercity trains and the stock transfers to cope with it was a fairly gobsmacking episode.

 

[Amos]

Avanti being recently awarded a possible 9 year contract extension?

 

[SteveM70]

The sight of 73s on the cally sleeper

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announcing in October last year that the northern leg of HS2 (from Birmingham to Manchester) was being binned off.

And doing so at the 2023 Tory party conference, which was being held in a former railway station building located... (wait for it) ...in Manchester!

 

[Mat17]

Two come to mind:

Companies introducing new rolling stock plagued with issues that leaves them in the sidings out of service, but withdrawing the old stock that is in working order and scrapping it knowing full well they will eventually be unable to run services.

Second, fairly new stock (e.g. 332s) being binned and scrapped whilst older stock soldiers on. Surely they could have gone north?

 

[507 001]

Second, fairly new stock (e.g. 332s) being binned and scrapped whilst older stock soldiers on. Surely they could have gone north?

Not this one again…


I’ll add a couple;

-The cancellation of the APT project.
-class 379s in storage
-The Pacers…

 

[Rail Quest]

A 60+ year loco design (class 37) still being in revenue earning service thanks to it's route availability

 

[Spartacus]

Freightliner once took a HHA to Bridlington. I can't remember what the reason was, it wasn't any prospect of traffic, but I did manage to convince someone who should have known better that freightliner were going to load up coal, from a ship unloading onto a conveyor on the wharf wall or a semi permanent arrangement a little into the sea.

 

[Cach17]

The Intercity East Coast franchise changing hands/rebranding four times in the space of eleven years.

Also, National Express deciding to name their East Anglia franchise 'One'. It's no surprise they rebranded it to NXEA after a few years.

 

[aliceh]

The (apparently serious) consideration of Transpennine Express getting Class 442s

Southern's "taxi replacement" from Newhaven Marine station to Newhaven Harbour

Cleckheaton Railway Station being stolen

Smethwick West being served for a year after messing up closure

 

[yorksrob]

Birmingham Snow Hill closing then reopening a few years later.

The South Eastern and London Chatham and Dover Railway companies almost bankrupting themselves through rivalry, then being merged under a managing committee.

Shipley having six platforms, but never having had them all in use at the same time.

Having Chairman of BR, Sir Robert Reid being succeeded by Chairman of BR Sir Robert Reid.

The 8VAB unit (assorted VEP vehicles with a rewired loco hauled buffet car).

EPB's in the 1990's with L&SWR underframes.

Tickets from West Yorkshire to Barton upon Humber, routed via Hull, but which don't allow travel on the bus over the Humber Bridge.

Trains entering Eltham Park station while not having fully left Eltham Well Hall.

BR patenting a flying saucer.

 

[Purple Train]

Anything involving SWR and rolling stock. 701s, 442s, 458/4s, you name it.

 

[OuterDistant]

BR sending a class 89, 90, 91, 150/2 and two International coaches to Hamburg in 1988 for an exhibition.

 

[Rescars]

Building lots of Nightstar sleepers and then not running any trains.

 

[Mag_seven]

Class 90s and Mark 3 coaches working Edinburgh to North Berwick local services.

 

[43066]

Eurostar “north of London” 373 sets operating domestic ECML services.

 

[GordonT]

The managerial fraud which resulted in the sale of the former LTS franchise unit to its management being cancelled 9 hours before the handover was due to take place. It involved vast numbers of season tickets with a London Transport Travelcard element being printed off embossed with Fenchurch Street in central London but sold at Upminster in east London. This was advantageous to LTS because the company got a greater proportion of revenue from tickets issued at Fenchurch Street than it did at Upminster. If phase 2 had gone ahead doing a similar scam at Barking it is reckoned that around £1m could have been misappropriated from LT to LTS between the two ventures.

 

[Taunton]

Bulleid Pacifics slipping even when starting off light engine.

Getting both Oxford and Bath part-ready for electrification - and then giving up.

 

[A S Leib]

They fall under the category of 'makes sense with context', but I'd add the Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway operating a road replacement rail service and the brief existence of Heathrow Junction and Workington North stations.

 

[SteveM70]

The Talyllyn operating a bus replacement train

 

[gg1]

Swansea Maliphant depot being fully wired up with OHLE in the early 2010s only to see the equipment removed shortly afterwards without ever being used.
The Wombourne branch - open by the GWR in 1925 along with 9 new stations which only saw 7 years of use. The line closed to passenger in 1932.

 

[The Puddock]

325002 & 325008 being hauled from Polmadie to Fort William and back in February 2010.

 

[eldomtom2]

The Llangurig branch - 1.5 miles of track laid in 1863, used by precisely one train on opening day, then lay completely unused until being dismantled in 1882!

 

[CarltonA]

British Railways paying Tony Hancock to make derogatory "Hancock Reports" about BR in order to discourage rail travel. He received about half as much as Dr Beeching got as chairman.

 

[norbitonflyer]

The managerial fraud which resulted in the sale of the former LTS franchise unit to its management being cancelled 9 hours before the handover was due to take place.

Oh to be a fly on the wall when the managers were told they weren't going to be tycoons after all. Apparently they didn't realise that deleting emails from their (BR) computers didn't remove them from the server.

Another fly on the wall moment would be the realisation that SWT and Alstom had rather different ideas as to how quickly two class 458/0 units would need to be coupled and uncoupled. (30 minutes including a reboot may be fine in a depot, but not in platform 1 at Woking.......)

The oddest moment of which I was personally a witness, and only recently learned the story behind it, was c1990. I was minding my own business waiting for a Tube at West Brompton, to be greeted by the sight and sound of "Gordon Highlander" running along the parallel West London Line with a Class 73 in tow.

 

[43066]

The government purporting to introduce “minimum service levels”, only to find they’re unworkable and unusable. Whilst simultaneously presiding over Northern issuing a “do not travel” notice due to the same government being unwilling to properly incentivise volunteer staff to work overtime!