Trespassing on the railways

[easternstreak]

Ay up!

I once saw a chap try to get off a train in Batley station. Thing was, the train was doing about 60mph. He survived. Just.

Wait, so it was non-stop. And the doors can be opened by hand. Right?

[PGBerrie]

Depends how long ago - on the first trains I travelled on, you opened the door by letting down the window with the strap, then you leant out of the window and turned the door handle. So you could get off while the train was still pulling into the platform. All at your own risk, of course.

Peter

[easternstreak]

Depends how long ago - on the first trains I travelled on, you opened the door by letting down the window with the strap, then you leant out of the window and turned the door handle. So you could get off while the train was still pulling into the platform. All at your own risk, of course.

Peter

Found that out on a preserved railway. Didn't open the door though.

[gregg011]

Jees thanks guys for these stories, it certainly is helping me see the scale of the problem. Although exactly what can be done for sheer stupidity I have no knowledge. However keep these stories coming if you can as it is always good for anecdotal evidence.

Many thanks for the contributers.

Gregg..

[giner]

Hi Gregg. Just do a search for Train Surfing on You Tube.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

I once saw a chap try to get off a train in Batley station. Thing was, the train was doing about 60mph. He survived. Just.

Wait, so it was non-stop. And the doors can be opened by hand. Right?

Indeed it was easternstreak. Circa 1985, BR Mk2 stock. Pre-central locking.

[2002EarlMarischal]

I certainly would not condone trespassing on the railway, but many many years ago, whilst a student at Birmingham University, I probably did just that!

I was travelling back from University station on the Cross City Line, heading for Four Oaks station. Inexplicably the train stopped just after Erdington station which was visible from the carriage window, even though the last carriage had cleared the platform by a good 100 yds.

We waited, and we waited, and we waited, and we.....(you get the idea?)

After over an hour with no communication whatsoever, I had had enough, so I climbed out of the carriage, walked down the side of the train, and out through Erdington station, and caught a bus instead. Strictly I was trespassing on the railway, but what would you have done?

[Goathingham]

Ignorance can be cured, but stupidity is terminal.

[strang steel]

It is interesting watching archive video of steam railtours in the 1960s. People are wandering over running lines, climbing signal ladders, water towers, etc.

Are/were these people all idiots? Or maybe was there a better awareness of self responsibility in those days?

[Brown Jack]

It is interesting watching archive video of steam railtours in the 1960s. People are wandering over running lines, climbing signal ladders, water towers, etc.

Are/were these people all idiots? Or maybe was there a better awareness of self responsibility in those days?

Hi
Anybody here in the fifties ever went on what they called the triangle at Leeds, spotting, here you were virtually sat at the side of the railway. You would spend all day there, eat your sandwiches there, the police would visit, yet you were just left alone. Then there were the visits to the engine sheds and plant works. It was the children of those days who, in ten or twenty years time help to invent all the modern things that we take for granted today, what idiots, makes you wonder how that generation survived.

Trev

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

I used to spot on the Triangle at Leeds in the '70s. Provided you didn't get too close to the running lines, no one bothered. The the idiots started putting coins / rocks / bits of wood / lumps of scrap rail and the like on the railhead and the area was cleared with chainlink fencing erected. I went back there about 2 yrs ago - looks like Stalag 14 with steel spear fencing with barbed wire at the top.

We have all suffered for the actions of a small minority. Problem is that kids these days are not taught self responsibility or even manners. Kids I went to school with were told by their parents never to say please or thank you because that meant that you were admitting that someone else was better than you. These kids are now almost certainly parents, possibly grandparents and look where we are.

[2002EarlMarischal]

Ay up!

We have all suffered for the actions of a small minority. Problem is that kids these days are not taught self responsibility or even manners. Kids I went to school with were told by their parents never to say please or thank you because that meant that you were admitting that someone else was better than you. These kids are now almost certainly parents, possibly grandparents and look where we are.

Hard to imagine any going back now.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

A couple of points, The old leather straps on the windows, I can just remember those, they were always hard to work as a 8 year old, the window always came with a heck of a crash, and the trouble you had if someone had cut the strap off to use at home for a strop, you couldn't get out of the compartment, whistles would blow and the train would start to move, and there you were banging on the window, if you were lucky a porter would see you and stop the train.

Was it the 2D coaches that had the handle on the inside of the door for a short while after introduction,because of Air Con, it was decided to do away with the need for opening windows at the doors, so a lever action handle was fitted, about six inches long, and Oh so easy to open those big wrap around doors, after a spate of deaths, with people falling out of trains, the door locks were changed and the windows were allowed to be opened.

manna

[60800]

Don't worry, my generation hasn't been completley ruined by the last. I've never trespassed and only hang out of carriage door windows behind steamers on the NYMR

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

Good on yer, Blackout.

You see lads - there's hope for some of these youngsters!