Arrest after CCTV of bike thrown on live rail - 7 January 2011

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

A man has been arrested after dramatic CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) footage was issued showing a cycle being thrown on to live railway lines in Hampshire.

Sparks were sent flying when the bike was pushed on to the tracks at Woolston station in Southampton.

A man is then seen to flee along with two other people on Friday evening.

British Transport Police said a 24-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of endangering safety and he remains in custody.

[Brucey]

Video on the Daily Echo website
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/video/video/108184/

Looks like a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) 158 that passes after the bike is thrown

[Juliebtm]

I have just watched the CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) footage. What utter idiots that are about today  That could have been much much worse. They must have been waiting for the passing train announcement. A FGW^▸ (First Great Western) class 158 passes through the station shortly after the sparks were sent flying.

[JonG]

Absolute maniac.

Video on the Daily Echo website
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/video/video/108184/

Looks like a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) 158 that passes after the bike is thrown

If you look at the time at the bottom right of the picture the bike is thown onto the track approx 17:57:45 and the DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) passes at about 18:00:30-18:00:45, around 3 mins later.

[paul7575]

This case just came to court, he got a year's prison sentence...

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/9285848.Yob_locked_up_after_madness_on_railway/

Local radio still reporting that the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) service was a 'high speed' train...

Paul

[bobm]

Taking nothing away from the idiocy of what he did and I don't know the signalling arrangements there but if the bike was enough to trip the lights on the platform would it not also have had an effect on the signalling?  If the train was three minutes away would it not have encountered at least one signal which would have reverted to red?  Presumably if it had been an electric train it would have lost traction current anyway.

[Brucey]

I think the video goes dark because the camera is adjusting its light exposure (as you can tell, I'm not a photographer!)  I can't see this having affected the station lighting as they will be drawing current from different sources.

[paul7575]

A bike thrown across the live and running rails wouldn't usually trip anything - it wouldn't cause a low enough resistance. The over current devices are set at thousands of amps, otherwise a few trains together would trip them, and I think the apparent effect on the station lights probably is just due to the camera being confused as suggested.

If train crew want the power off in emergency they have to use a very 'heavy duty' short circuiting device, which is designed to draw enough current to trip the protective devices.  I couldn't say if a traction current failure would automatically result in the signals being altered, but along that line the two aspect signals are quite a distance apart anyway, hence the relatively long headways of 5 or 6 minutes.  There was never really a major risk, as the line speed through Woolston is pretty low due to the tight curve, but it's good to see the courts handing down a significant sentence anyway...

Paul   

[IndustryInsider]

I very much doubt the bike 'nearly melted' either!

[tramway]

I very much doubt the bike 'nearly melted' either!

Totally agree, should have said 'did'.