Things people try to take on trains

[33011]

Are there any strange things you have seen being taken by passengers on trains? When i was working on Guildford platform about 10 years ago a couple of us were asked to meet a Virgin Voyager with a couple of trolleys. She had a brand new Double bed still in wrapping and was charged £10 excess baggage. Bargain. I have also seen a young gent trying to get on a train with his broken down moped.He was refused. One other that springs to mind is a fairly regaular passenger from Lymington Town with her pet Raccoon. Right over to you lot

 

[michael769]

O twitter yesterday someone asked Scotrail if they could take 4 hamsters on the train.

 

[Wyvern]

Railway Porter (to Old Lady traveling with a Menagerie of Pets). “‘STATION MASTER SAY, MUM, AS CATS IS ‘DOGS,’ AND RABBITS IS ‘DOGS,’ AND SO’S PARROTS; BUT THIS ‘ERE ‘TORTIS’ IS A INSECT, SO THERE AIN’T NO CHARGE FOR IT!” [Punch, 1869, Vol. 57, p. 96]

 

[wintonian]

Well there is the one last year where the passenger tries to take his horse with him

Unsurprisingly there is quite a thread about it here somewhere.

 

[Smudger105e]

I have also seen a young gent trying to get on a train with his broken down moped.He was refused.

When I first started riding a motorcycle, I borrowed my mother's Vespa 75cc scooter. I was in Brghton with it, and the exhaust sheared off (it was rather rusty!). I pushed it to Brighton station, put it in the brake van luggage compartment, and took it home to Aldrington. No rail staff batted an eyelid.

Have the rules on taking vehicles with engine on changed? I understand that there was a stipulation on the amount of fuel that could be carried, maximum 1/2 gallon I was told...

 

[Oswyntail]

When my daughter was studying sculpture in Manchester, she found a piece of driftwood on a visit home that she wanted to use in one of her pieces. So, when she went home after the hols, she took it with her - a twelve-foot tree branch. No one batted an eyelid, apparently.

 

[Johnnie2Sheds]

When I worked at Loughborough station in the mid 80s some wag tried to get an upright piano on the stopper to Nottingham. I did tell the gent that he might have a problem, and indeed the guard refused it. So we were left with this piano in the booking hall for about a week, while transport was arranged. The number of people who came up and played it was amazing.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Originally posted by Oswyntail
When my daughter was studying sculpture in Manchester, she found a piece of driftwood on a visit home that she wanted to use in one of her pieces. So, when she went home after the hols, she took it with her - a twelve-foot tree branch. No one batted an eyelid, apparently.

Wouldn't it have been a bit big if you say it was 12ft, where did she keep it

I have seen a couple myself

I've seen an asian family bring a load of pots and pans full of food aboard an Arriva train at Frodsham (or it could have been Runcorn East).

I've also seen someone board a Merseyrail train at Overpool and Alight at Ellesmere port with a household waste wheelie bin. Don't think it was full because the woman pulled it on and off with ease. Pretty typical for that area though.

 

[33011]

When I first started riding a motorcycle, I borrowed my mother's Vespa 75cc scooter. I was in Brghton with it, and the exhaust sheared off (it was rather rusty!). I pushed it to Brighton station, put it in the brake van luggage compartment, and took it home to Aldrington. No rail staff batted an eyelid.

Have the rules on taking vehicles with engine on changed? I understand that there was a stipulation on the amount of fuel that could be carried, maximum 1/2 gallon I was told...

I've no idea but with nowadays health & safety i would guess at no fuel would be allowed. Anyway where would you put your moped on modern stock?

 

[Flamingo]

I know someone who found a motorbike on their train. I believe BTP were eventualy involved when the passenger refused to leave the station they were chucked off at.

 

[Ploughman]

A group of us had a day trip on an excursion from Southport to Barry mid 70s.
On the return journey our compartment was filled with about 1/2 a ton of scrap steam engine bits.

 

[Ferret]

I know someone who found a motorbike on their train. I believe BTP were eventualy involved when the passenger refused to leave the station they were chucked off at.

Back in my days as catering staff, I saw somebody moving house from Preston who turned up with a bed and a fridge! And the TM let him travel!!!!!!! I bloody wouldn't have!

 

[Tomonthetrain]

A family of 6 with everything including the kitchen sink. It was Liverpool

 

[richw]

Are there any strange things you have seen being taken by passengers on trains?

I once took my ex girlfriend on a train. Looking back she was a very strange thing!

 

[A-driver]

A guard I used to work with once told me when he was doing tickets he found an elderly couple in first class with a microwave plugged in to the1st class sockets on a 377 heating up ready meals. He asked what they were doing and they explained they had just bought their first ever microwave and wanted to test it out!

 

[12CSVT]

I know someone who found a motorbike on their train. I believe BTP were eventualy involved when the passenger refused to leave the station they were chucked off at.

I've seen somebody throw a wobbly at Bristol Parkway when he was refused access onto a train with a motorbike.

 

[bnm]

A young lad with a tumble dryer on sack trucks between Shirehampton and Stapleton Road. The conductor allowed it on board.

 

[TheEdge]

I was once traveling back from university and on a train between Shrewsbury and Hereford a gentlemen was sat there enjoying a full cheeseboard he had brought with him, complete with cutlery, wooden board and crusty loaf.

He got off in Hereford, speaks volumes!

 

[Fred26]

I took a telephone table from Welwyn Garden City to Stevenage a couple of years ago. It's quite large. I'd bought it from a charity shop in Welwyn. I'm still using it now.

 

[StoneRoad]

A lot of years ago I took a BSA Bantam motorcycle from Newcastle/tyne to Llandudno Junction.....tied to the cage in the brake van.....drove up the Conwy valley, over the Crimea Pass and down to my father's home near Porthmadog. Reversed the trip about three months later, again without problems.

 

[Flamingo]

Motorbikes are specifically forbidden under the NRCOC.

 

[LE Greys]

I've taken enough strange things myself. Last year, my parents refused to drive me up to uni, so I had to take all my kitchen equipment (collected over four years of undergrad), textbooks, a huge box of paper, my camera with all the lenses, bedding (not provided any more) and various presents for people I know. Took two trips, but the whole lot made it. Some of it didn't go home, though (we have enough corkscrews).

Bring back Red Star, please!!!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Last year I saw a bloke on the Nottingham bound platform at Long Eaton with a fully grown Gloucester Old Spot pig on a lead...

 

[Tomonthetrain]

Another thing I've seen on the train is someone bringing a blow up doll and tried to use it to have his seat kept whilst he went to the shop. He was blowing it up whilst boarding

 

[richw]

Motorbikes are specifically forbidden under the NRCOC.

what about mopeds?

 

[wintonian]

what about mopeds?

They are specifically prohibited as well.

There is however no specific prohibition on quad bikes.

 

[Wyvern]

I've seen an asian family bring a load of pots and pans full of food aboard an Arriva train at Frodsham (or it could have been Runcorn East)..

They didn't start to cook a meal did they?

That used to be quite common on flights in the Middle East.

I did once have get some larger size plastic trunking from Derby in 4 metre lengths and took it home on the Matlock train. I was able to thread it along onto the luggage rack.

 

[elagueesti]

I don't know if this really counts as "luggage", but amused me nevertheless.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I don't know if this really counts as "luggage", but amused me nevertheless.

Legends

I've seen an asian family bring a load of pots and pans full of food aboard an Arriva train at Frodsham (or it could have been Runcorn East)..

They didn't start to cook a meal did they?

That used to be quite common on flights in the Middle East.

They didn't start to cook it, but they were dressed like they were going to a party and they got off at Warrington. With me being half asian whenever I go to an Asian party, the tradition is to bring lots of food with you, so I assumed that's what they were doing. IIRC they had the mother pushing a pram with a toddler inside holding a box of food, the father carrying a big pot of food, a small girl of about 7 holding a pot and a guy about 12 holding a pan by the handle that was covered in foil and one of them pots that secure the lid to itself and he was holding it by the handle at the top. With what they had I'm surprised they managed to get on the train without tripping up or dropping something.

As for the second bit, I've been on a load of Emirates flights and never seen what you described

 

[Wyvern]

I'm going back to 1979-80 and was only told it, so it could be a myth. On the other hand it was said a fire had occurred on one plane so I imagine a stop has ben put to it.