Ref.: thisisbath.co.uk
http://www.thisisbath.com/displayNode.j ... K=13066175
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WINE BOTTLE CORK HELPS THE 9.45 LIMP HOME
11:00 - 24 August 2005
Quick-thinking railway staff in Bath used an unlikely prop to patch up a hole in a train's fuel system - a cork from a wine bottle. Passengers on board a Paddington to Exeter train found themselves grinding to a halt just a few hundred yards from Bath Spa Station on Monday evening.
The cause of the delay was a lump of concrete that had been deliberately left on the track by vandals on the outskirts of Bath.
The concrete block had smashed a small hole in the train's sightglass - a device on the outside of the train which shows how much fuel is left.
Train staff were alerted to the problem and stopped the train, fearing fuel could be leaking from the hole in the sightglass.
But passengers on board the 9.45pm from Paddington were surprised when the solution to the problem was announced over the train's Tannoy system - a humble cork.
Among the passengers was John Doran who was making his way back to Bath from London with his wife, Judy, after visiting their daughter.
"The train was coming to a gradual halt and people were getting up to get off the train," Mr Doran said yesterday.
"But then the train came to a complete stop about 200 or 300 yards from the station.
"Then over the Tannoy they said they were very sorry but there was going to be quite a delay. The train manager was rushing up and down looking very solemn."
Baffled, the passengers began what they thought would be a long wait at around 11.30pm.
However, about 20 minutes later another message came out over the speaker system, explaining that the train's fuel system had been damaged but fixed with the cork from a wine bottle.
"Quite a few people had a smile on their faces when they heard this," said Mr Doran, who lives in Claverton.
"It seems one member of staff had run down to the buffet car, got a bottle of wine and used the cork to plug the hole. I have to take my hat off to him for that display of ingenuity."
The Dorans got off at the station, but the train limped on to Bristol for repairs. The passengers were then put on to a different train to take them on to Exeter.
A spokesman for First Great Western, which runs the service, said an investigation had been launched to discover who had put the concrete block on the track.
He said: "We are determined that the people responsible for this act of vandalism are caught, and we will be giving our full support to the police investigation.
"Some damage occurred to the sightglass used to check fuel levels, and to allow the service to continue, the quick-thinking driver used a cork to prevent drips falling on to the track."
A spokeswoman for Network Rail, the company which oversees the nation's rail tracks, said the concrete left on the track was the latest in a long line of vandal attacks on the line outside of Bath.
"This area is something of a hotspot for this sort of thing," she said. "There are also more incidents recorded during the summer holidays.
"It is extremely dangerous because there is the risk of a derailment and a risk that the people doing it could get hit by a train."