Darwin Award Contenders?

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-54612122

[New Judge]

Yes the Esk Valley line is very quiet (six trains each way daily, only three of those in current daylight hours). But all the rest has been said. It is stupid beyond belief. Any trespass on a railway endangers not only those taking part but also the driver of the train and on occasions others on board. I had a friend who was driving a train when a "jumper" appeared in front of him. He never drove a train again. It also encourages people who may not be blessed with quite as much sense (!) as those in the photograph. People are stupid, I'm afraid.

[roopower]

NJ, I was thinking about the drivers of the trains. It's all very well saying the people on the line deserve what they get, but the driver certainly doesn't

[New Judge]

I would agree up to a point, roo. But those behaving stupidly certainly don't warrant being killed for simple stupidity. If that was the case most of us would have been sentenced to death by now! But there are indeed other people to consider.

My friend was driving his train at about 90mph when somebody jumped off the platform and hit the front of the train before they reached the ground - perfectly timed. So you can imagine the scene he witnessed which I'm sure was a lot worse than might have followed if these idiots had been hit by a slow moving train. But nonetheless anything like that would be traumatic. My friend was off work for about three months suffering severe trauma. I was one of those who tried in my own amateur way to "counsel" him and I know all the gruesome details. I did a lot of listening. When he returned he was put onto shunting and other low speed duties but he couldn't even hack that so he had to give up the job he really liked doing. A couple of the platform bods who witnessed the event were similarly affected (as no doubt was anybody else who saw it) though I don't know what happened to them long term.

[Sunk]

TTT,
// err so there are a lot of trains at one end? none ever go back again? Right oh! Think it through me old china! //

Which part of “single train working line using a token” didn’t you understand?
The next train out of Glaisdale is the 3pm heading to Whitby. It will take the Token as far as Whitby. Whitby is a terminus with not through trains. No other train is allowed to proceed to Whitby without the token. It will return to Glaisdale at 4.30pm and leave the token there, and proceed to Middlesborough.

So after 3pm there is a one and a half hour window in which to take a photo
It is a bit like the Beatles crossing Abbey Road. They did it when there was no traffic :-)

[Sunk]

I emailed this thread to a friend who lives in Whitby.
He tells me there has been a lot of work done on the line this year and a replacement bus service was used instead. In September it was shout for a fortnight while they replace a bridge and relayed 1940s track.

[Mozz71]

//It is a bit like the Beatles crossing Abbey Road. They did it when there was no traffic :-)//

Weren't they on a zebra crossing? :-)

[mushroom25]

// In September it was shout for a fortnight while they replace a bridge and relayed 1940s track. //

yes. in late september redundant materials were still being shipped out between passenger trains, on engineer's specials. (my company was providing the locos......)

[New Judge]

//Which part of “single train working line using a token” didn’t you understand?//

But you didn’t explain it fully. From the earliest days of the token or tablet system used for single track railways, it was recognised that it would sometimes be necessary to allow two trains to travel in the same direction consecutively. The original Tyers tablet system was modified to provide identical interlocked tablet issuing machines at the end of each stretch of single track. Each machine could hold a number of tablets for the same stretch but only one could be withdrawn from either of them at any time. A second tablet could not be withdrawn (at either end) until the first was replaced. This meant it was only the total number of tablets that was critical, not which end of the line they were.

The Esk Valley line still operates a physical tablet (or token) system with tablet issuing apparatus at Whitby, Glaisdale, Battersby and Nunthorpe. Drivers withdraw tokens themselves at the first three with a signaller doing the honours at Nunthorpe.

[Sunk]

Mozz71

Weren't they on a zebra crossing?

The people at Glaisdale were on a crossing, as can be seen by the gate, and pathway across the track.

No one was ever going to come to any harm by this photoshoot.

[Sunk]

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/D6CD/production/_114998945_mediaitem114998941.jpg

[New Judge]

//No one was ever going to come to any harm by this photoshoot.//

That's almost certainly true. But there are a lot of gullible (and frankly stupid) people about. Level crossing incidents are common and children (and others with similar intelligence) seeing this picture will think it's perfectly OK to stand in the middle of a railway track to take a photo. "If someone can have their wedding photo taken on a railway line, why can't I take a selfie?" I'm sure you can see that.

[mushroom25]

// The people at Glaisdale were on a crossing, as can be seen by the gate, and pathway across the track. //

just as a point of pendantry, the people were not at Glaisdale, but at Sleights station, between Grosmont and Whitby.

[ToraToraTora]

sunk: "Which part of “single train working line using a token” didn’t you understand? " - you didn't say that you said "The Esk Valley line is a single track so you know which direction the train will come from." - So either you believed they always went in the same direction or you thought that the people concerned had memorised the timetable and knew at any one time when and what direction from which a train is coming. I went with the former.

[ToraToraTora]

sunk seems determined to focus only on this incident, this post is more of a general point about the dangers of Trespassing on the railway generally. I'd like to see a "contrarian off" post between sunk, ummmm and TCL that'd be a Turkish!

[ichkeria]

Here’s another contender

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en/article/epdgm4/new-yorker-suspends-jeffrey-toobin-for-zoom-dick-incident