Trivia: Strange things seen from trains.

[61653 HTAFC]

I've spent today riding the GWR Castle sets (well, two of them) and covering my first bit of track West of Teignmouth in my life. On the outward journey I noticed that in someone's garden in the Dainton area, was what appeared to be a helter-skelter from a children's climbing frame, laid on its side next to assorted other junk. Things like that always fascinate me as I wonder how it ended up there and how the person ended up with it!

Anything else that you've seen out of a train window and wondered what the story behind it is?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Anything else that you've seen out of a train window and wondered what the story behind it is?

How about the concrete cows seen near to the WCML on the section between Wolverton and Milton Keynes Central stations?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

How about the concrete cows seen near to the WCML on the section between Wolverton and Milton Keynes Central stations?

I thought the MK concrete cows were some sort of civic art project... though I am a bit curious as to what the thinking behind it was. Presumably because cows were kept there back when it was all fields?

 

[sad1e]

There's an abandoned factory a bit south of Wolverton station that still has British steel branding and signs up. Thought that was odd as British steel hasn't existed for many years now.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

There's an abandoned factory a bit south of Wolverton station that still has British steel branding and signs up. Thought that was odd as British steel hasn't existed for many years now.

Now I've got XTC's "Making Plans For Nigel" in my head!

 

[PlatformEdgeVT]

Somewhere close to Mickle Trafford Junction, just north of Chester, there's a statue of a Cassowary.

 

[azOOOOOma]

There’s a panda in the woods near Northallerton. Not sure what it is

 

[D1537]

About ten years ago I was on a Trans-Pennine service between Slaithwaite and Marsden and looked up to see a wallaby happily bounding across a field next to the line.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Not entirely unique, I've seen a few, but there's a decayed pickup truck (just the body) in the forest between Swinton and Salford Crescent.

Also Giraffe on the M6 is visible from the train.

 

[geoffk]

There are, or were, llamas in a field near Rawtenstall on the East Lancs Railway (Townsend Fold to be exact).

 

[DelW]

For many years, there was a topiary bird next to the North Downs Line between Chilworth and Gomshall. Apparently it commemorated a railwayman killed in a Victorian accident, and was maintained for over a century by the local p-way gangs. Sadly Network Rail deemed that it couldn't be accessed safely (or possibly wouldn't allow the time needed), and it's now an unrecognisable shrub.

 

[sad1e]

Forgot to mention this earlier but if you are on Thameslink or EMR between Kentish town and west Hampstead Thameslink on your west there is a small enclosure with a few mountain goats in it. if i recall correctly it's very close to Carlton Road junction (photo of the location from google attached)

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Now that we're in Trip Reports, I'll also mention the fox which I saw crossing the steam railway tracks just outside Bodmin Parkway. Probably not that unusual, but its tail was in much better shape than the raggedy threadbare tails seen on the urban foxes I'm more familiar with!

 

[65477]

A few years ago my brother and I went on a train trip whiles our wives went to a garden show. When we all got back together we had a hard time convincing them that we had seen a herd of elephants from the train.

It was, of course, a trip on the Severn valley railway which passes a safari park.

 

[duffield]

There are, or were, llamas in a field near Rawtenstall on the East Lancs Railway (Townsend Fold to be exact).

Llamas (or maybe Alpacas) used to live in a field between Attenborough and Trent East junction on the Nottingham to Derby line. Haven't seen them for a few years now. They are often used to guard flocks of sheep from predators, which appeared to be the case here.

But the funniest thing I've seen from the train was when I took my wife on the Severn Valley railway for the very first time, and as we approached Bewdley I got to say "Oh look - there's a ... giraffe?? and there's an ... elephant?!".

Neither of us had had the slightest clue beforehand that there was a safari park right next to the railway.

 

[Bevan Price]

Now that we're in Trip Reports, I'll also mention the fox which I saw crossing the steam railway tracks just outside Bodmin Parkway. Probably not that unusual, but its tail was in much better shape than the raggedy threadbare tails seen on the urban foxes I'm more familiar with!

Perhaps more unusual a few years ago was a fox investigating the tunnel mouth at Liverpool Lime Street...

 

[Penmorfa]

There were quite a large herd of red deer in a disused oil depot at Beeston Castle between Crewe and Chester. I could'nt say if they are still there.

 

[Penmorfa]

I stood on the platforms at Didcot Parkway about 4 years ago and counted 47 red kites flying above me. The presence of a land fill site nearby may have had something to do with it..

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Perhaps more unusual a few years ago was a fox investigating the tunnel mouth at Liverpool Lime Street...

High level or low level?

 

[Trackman]

What baffled me was a small stretch of track in a farmer's field, complete with masts, OLE and wired.
This was at the time of the Lichfield TV four tracking.
It was about 300m away from the new track.
Training exercise? Saying that, they should have been trained before going out on the job.
---
The hand at Stoke (Hand with Chronos).
Spent years trying to figure this one out, gave in to google at the end.

 

[duffield]

I was pretty disappointed with my first viewing of the Angel of the North approaching Newcastle on the ECML. I'd imagined it towering over the railway, instead it looked tiny and if you blinked you'd miss it (I thought the train would have slowed down more at that point).

Wandering briefly off topic, I was intrigued by the "Giant Clothespeg of Grantham" (not near the railway) and assumed it was a monument to a well-known local factory which once manufactured half of England's clothespegs. It turned out amusingly it had no local significance and was an entirely random (and quite controversial) piece of public art which had initially caused injuries and had to be fenced off until it was modified.

 

[sluf]

I was on a GA FLIRT from Cambridge to Norwich a couple of years ago and saw two USAF V22 Osprey tiltrotors landing in the field alongside the railway line as we passed - very impressive

 

[birchesgreen]

I did see a naked man in a state of... lets say... enthusiasm... advance towards a flock of sheep in a field near Banbury when i was travelling Chiltern. THANK GOD the train did not stop right there and then...

On a much nicer vein, i saw one of the new RAF Wedgetail AWACs (well i assume RAF anyway) at Birmingham Airport when passing on the way south through Marston Green on friday.

 

[yorksrob]

Saw a barn owl whooshing backwards and forwards when stopped somewhere in Wiltshire on a railtour.

 

[lyndhurst25]

holbeck, HO, 55A

Staithes Viaduct, Barnsley - mid 1980s, “stockings and a basque”. Say no more

 

[dgl]

Flamingos...
Well the OP didn't specifiy that it had to be on NR tracks and Cricket St. Thomas had a short railway!

 

[Ianigsy]

Several bare bottoms - I was once on a train which was mooned while approaching Goole.

 

[MotCO]

I seem to recall seeing a Routemaster in a shed in the grounds of a property alongside the GWR whilst returning from Cheltenham, maybe in Wiltshire. I thought it might have been Peter Hendy's RM1005.

 

[duffield]

I might be imagining this but I could swear that about 35 years ago I saw an abandoned pigeon van rotting away in a siding just outside Brighton. I know such things did exist and I guess what I saw must have had "Pigeons" stencilled on it or it wouldn't have stuck out. Memories are hazy due to time and it being a beer festival day!

I do remember joking with my companions about whether any unfortunate pigeons were abandoned with the van, and about the prospect of releasing them from their basket with a cry of "Fly free, feathered friends" and having a sad little pile of bones fall out.

 

[The exile]

Several bare bottoms - I was once on a train which was mooned while approaching Goole.

Experienced that several railtours in succession in the early 90s - winter ones at that. Pleased to say the moon appears to have waned since then.