Imagine seeing this from a train !

[David Benton]

Not a train in site but a railway line ( preserved steam operation) down the middle of a NZ small town street.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/arti ... d=12127743" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I wonder what a train crew might think of this coming towards them ?.
To our railwaymen/volunteer members , what is the strangest sight you have seem from the cab or train?.
And to us passengers what sights/scenes have stuck in your minds over the years?
I think the one stuck in my mind, was in Morocco. As our train approached a dirt road crossing, it whipped up quite a cloud of dust , a mother on a horse , shielding the baby she was carrying from the dust. It seemed a universal act of motherhood, in a exotic location with a mix of modern train and timeless rural transportation. I doubt my description, or a photo , would do it justice.

[Motorman]

As a motorman on a light-rail line here in Germany, I often think: "Oh god, I'm getting paid for seeing THIS!" There are too many scenes in daily business that can't be described other than "bizarre". Too many to remember all. But that's life outside the internet.
I tell all our neophytes "You will erase the term 'Impossible' out of your vocabulary after at least one week on duty."
P.S.: I'm on this job now for more than twenty years, my TV-consumption has dwindled since and I have no need to go to the ZOO anymore.

[johnthefireman]

Your mention of a horse, David, reminds me of an occasion when I was firing a steam locomotive in South Africa and we were held by a red signal with our loco blocking a small level crossing where a dirt track crossed the railway line. A woman with a small herd of horses was waiting to cross. As the wait got longer and longer I was finding it more and more difficult to keep the locomotive quiet, trying not to spook the horses. Eventually the boiler was full and I couldn't put any more water in to keep the steam pressure down, so the inevitable happened - the loco safety valve blew with a roar and the horses scattered. Fortunately for us the signal then changed to 'proceed' and we were able to go on our way before a presumably very angry woman came back with her horses.

Perhaps the fairly common event which I still find most bizarre is people trying to beat the train across level crossings. It's difficult not to notice a three or four hundred ton train with a large black steam engine on the front, spouting smoke and steam, with a bright headlight and the crew hanging on the whistle cord, bearing down on you at speed, but cars and even bicycles try to dodge across just in front of us at the last minute. It's truly frightening. In South African law the train has the right of way, but you don't want to wipe out a whole family in a sporty saloon car.