Trivia: Strange things seen from trains.

[Sun Chariot]

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

Two spring to mind:

In the very early 1990s, between Cholsey and Goring on the GWML, I used to see a back garden just south of the railway, which had a Deltic cab proudly installled. BR blue. I've never ascertained which Deltic it came out of but a grey cell thinks it was 55021.

1997 or thereabouts. Morning commute to Hackney Downs, from Theobalds Grove, via Seven Sisters loop. As the class 315 approached the junction between Lea Valley and Seven Sisters routes, I just glanced up from my book - and, at a full height landing window in one of the terraced houses facing the viaduct, stood a middle aged woman... utterly starkers!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

1997 or thereabouts. Morning commute to Hackney Downs, from Theobalds Grove, via Seven Sisters loop. As the class 315 approached the junction between Lea Valley and Seven Sisters routes, I just glanced up from my book - and, at a full height landing window in one of the terraced houses facing the viaduct, stood a middle aged woman... utterly starkers!

That wasn't quite what I had in mind, but it fits as long as the moderators are okay with it!

Reminds me of something covered in my A-Level Law class (as an aside by a tutor) about a court case involving a man charged with interfering with farm animals after he was witnessed in the act by passengers on a passing Hull to Scarborough train!

 

[Jimini]

I wonder if anyone on here was either a) a driver or b) a passenger who encountered this situation from a while back?

 

[Ken H]

On Skipton station around dusk. A posse of railwaymen were looking over the main station roof. Thinking they were looking at a structural problem and they said look, and pointed. There was a cloud of starlings doing that swirly cloud thing. A murmaration I think its called. I thought that was a Somerset thing. I got on a train soon after so not off topic!

 

[Bald Rick]

A lady subathing. Let’s just say she was responsible for a couple of SPADs

 

[Jimini]

A lady subathing. Let’s just say she was responsible for a couple of SPADs

Never heard them called that before

 

[ls2270]

Somewhere on the London to Norwich main line it’s possible to see polar bears and wolves in enclosures from the train. They’re on the right hand side if you’re heading away from London. If I remember correctly they’re between Manningtree and Ipswich but someone on here will no doubt be able to confirm/correct this location.

 

[Kite159]

A goat on a trampoline near Salisbury

 

[Peter Mugridge]

A Gloucestershire Old Spot pig on a lead at Long Eaton station.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

On Skipton station around dusk. A posse of railwaymen were looking over the main station roof. Thinking they were looking at a structural problem and they said look, and pointed. There was a cloud of starlings doing that swirly cloud thing. A murmaration I think its called. I thought that was a Somerset thing. I got on a train soon after so not off topic!

Witnessing it from a station is close enough!

 

[CaptainHaddock]

The first time I saw the abandoned Duke Of Lancaster ship from the North Wales coast line near Holywell was quite startling and unexpected. Now it's been there for over forty years it's less of a surprise to see it!

 

[Weary Walker]

Somewhere on the London to Norwich main line it’s possible to see polar bears and wolves in enclosures from the train. They’re on the right hand side if you’re heading away from London. If I remember correctly they’re between Manningtree and Ipswich but someone on here will no doubt be able to confirm/correct this location.

I believe that is the zoo named Jimmy's Farm. Polar bears & Arctic foxes in the areas nearest the railway.

 

[cjw714]

Not that strange and more something not seen from the train but it always amuses me how many people fail to notice the deer in the grounds of Powderham Castle between Marsh Barton and Starcross although it is understandable that most people are preoccupied with the stunning views of the Exe Estuary from the other side of the train.

 

[D6130]

That wasn't quite what I had in mind, but it fits as long as the moderators are okay with it!

Reminds me of something covered in my A-Level Law class (as an aside by a tutor) about a court case involving a man charged with interfering with farm animals after he was witnessed in the act by passengers on a passing Hull to Scarborough train!

Way back in the mid-1970s, on a Southern Region "Pleasure Seeker" excursion returning from Chester to Portsmouth Harbour, we stopped for a couple of minutes at a signal on the Grand Junction line just after Bushbury Junction. There was at that time - and may still be now - a site for travelling people in the fork between that line and the Wolverhampton line....and in plain view in the middle of the site, an elderly man was seeking pleasure very vigorously from the rear end of a donkey, while holding its tail aloft with one hand. As you can imagine, this prompted much shouting, heckling and other verbal abuse from the teenage bashers who were hanging out of the windows.....all of which was completely ignored by the elderly pleasure-seeker.

 

[Sun Chariot]

....and in plain view in the middle of the site, an elderly man was seeking pleasure very vigorously from the rear end of a donkey, while holding its tail aloft with one hand.

Cue the double entendre about ass

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Way back in the mid-1970s, on a Southern Region "Pleasure Seeker" excursion returning from Chester to Portsmouth Harbour, we stopped for a couple of minutes at a signal on the Grand Junction line just after Bushbury Junction. There was at that time - and may still be now - a site for travelling people in the fork between that line and the Wolverhampton line....and in plain view in the middle of the site, an elderly man was seeking pleasure very vigorously from the rear end of a donkey, while holding its tail aloft with one hand. As you can imagine, this prompted much shouting, heckling and other verbal abuse from the teenage bashers who were hanging out of the windows.....all of which was completely ignored by the elderly pleasure-seeker.

He ought to have been more discreet...

 

[birchesgreen]

Funny how three of us at least have now mentioned beastiality. No wonder so many people just look at their phones while on the train.

 

[FrontSideBus]

Does seeing plenty of big puffs of feathers wooshing past the window count? As some poor Woodpigeon get's his ticket punched?

 

[Henffordd]

I always enjoyed the sign on a building approaching Newport: "Welcome to Newport: home of the Mole Wrench". I wonder what happened to the sign? The building it was on has long gone.

 

[Intercity110]

Once saw a parachute jump from the tube ~Ruislip area. probably not strange, but it’s certainly something I’ll never forget.

 

[birchesgreen]

Once saw a parachute jump from the tube ~Ruislip area. probably not strange, but it’s certainly something I’ll never forget.

Doesn't seem much of a jump, i assume the tube train was on a fairly high bridge?

 

[LittleRedTrain]

On the line between Salisbury and Exeter, an old London Underground tube carriage hidden away in the undergrowth. Not sure if it's still there.
I believe it is the one referred to here: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClDUZ5lI7jY/

 

[Mr. SW]

Some time in the 1990s, a dinosaur in a back garden just north of Luton.

 

[JD2168]

On the train to Barnsley after leaving Wombwell on the curve near the fishing lake the is a farm which on a bank high up appears to have a coach backed onto it

 

[JGurney]

Seen both from inside and outside: all the passengers of a railtour (10 x Mk1 coaches, IIRC, so perhaps 400-500 people) having to board through one door.
This was at a Long Marsden open day. UK Railtours (or may still have been HRT then) ran a tour there from London. All went well on route there. As part of the open day there was a tank engine and 2 or 3 coaches doing rides round the internal lines.
Unfortunately that internal train derailed at the only platform. With most of the platform blocked by the derailed stock, when the railtour came to collect its passengers for the return journey, there was only room to have one end door of one coach at the platform. The entire trainload had to board via that door. It took quite some time.
Eventually everyone was boarded. The train was about to set off when stewards were alerted that a family on board had had through the train was the depot internal trip. They were extracted from eight coaches down from the door, and then the train finally got away.

 

[Thornaby 37]

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

Once saw something similar one hot summer Sunday in the early 1990s while on a railtour hauled by top & tail class 20s on a freight only line in the East Midlands
Something was shouted from one of the train windows which probably couldn't be repeated here