Railway lines are dangerous

Dave was cleaning a cooker for a customer the other day who lived down a lane with a small handful of houses which had a railway crossing nearby. The crossing was the old type where you had to use a phone to ask if the line was clear and state how long you needed to cross the line, they then informed you if it was ok to proceed.

All went well as Dave opened both the gates, crossed the line in his Kooka Kleen van and then closed the gates behind him as you should always do. After the cooker cleaning work was done Dave went out to the van and could hear a young child calling the lady in the nearest house for help as the lady was out doing the gardening and the girl was waiting by the line with her dog on the wrong side of the gates.

The young girl couldn’t get the dog over the stile which was next to the gates and after a quick glance at the happenings Dave thought they would be ok. As Dave walked back to the house, seconds later he heard a train coming and felt sick. The train went past and Dave thought it was only seconds ago that they young girl and her dog were stuck on the stile trying to get across.

Dave waited for the horns and screams but there wasn’t any. Shortly after the lady came in and Dave asked what had happened. She relayed that the train was coming and there was no time to get across so she told the girl to hold her dog tight with both hand and wait for the train to pass (they were inside the stile next to the tracks.) while standing as close to the stile as possible.

It transpired that the girl had used the phone but then got bored of waiting and tried to get over before the train came but then got stuck. The lady had then helped the girl go back over the stile after the train had passed. The lady then phoned the girls mother to relay to her what had happened.

Railway lines are very dangerous and children don’t always understand that this is the case so always, even if you are an adult, take extreme care around railways.