Thomas The Tank Engine Gets Into A Fight

ICBM

With a car. And wins, obviously.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-46249122

How dozy do you need to be to drive onto a level crossing when the lights and sirens are going and there is a large blue steam engine approaching at the enormous speed of 8mph?

Funkfingers

Mercedes-Benz drivers sincerely believe that they own the road on which they drive. Nothing can possibly be more important than them.

My musical collaborator can verify this. He spent part of his career with Essex Constabulary, issuing tickets for road traffic offences. One recipient was the fur-coated posh woman of urban myth, driving a Benz. On being pulled over, she actually said the words, "oh, officer, shouldn't you be arresting real criminals?" 

mart

ICBM said:

With a car. And wins, obviously.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-46249122

How dozy do you need to be to drive onto a level crossing when the lights and sirens are going and there is a large blue steam engine approaching at the enormous speed of 8mph?

I find this absolutely shocking. I’m truly lost for words.

Do you really not know a tank engine from a non-tank engine?

Funkfingers

mart said:

Do you really not know a tank engine from a non-tank engine?

I hope that you realise, your comment makes you a trainspotterspotter.

axisus

mart said:

Do you really not know a tank engine from a non-tank engine?

well I have never seen a train with a gun turret?

richardhomer

@ICBM - that is NOT a ‘tank engine’ - it’s a ‘tender engine’ - a bit shocked by your lack of precision here....

rawk100

Merc drivers are a bunch of tankers anyway...

robgilmo

scrumhalf

richardhomer said:

@ICBM - that is NOT a ‘tank engine’ - it’s a ‘tender engine’ - a bit shocked by your lack of precision here....

Tender? It seemed to do enough damage to the car, seemed quite robust.

ronnyb

I witnessed an accident on a level crossing involving a Reliant Regal van. The type in Only Fools and Horses. The crossing was an automatic half barrier and the van drove under the barrier into the path of an oncoming train. The train took the front end of the van off, spun it round and crushed the back end so there was only the middle of it left. The driver miraculously was shaken but unhurt.

ThePrettyDamned

The train should have waited. THEY WERE ON THEIR WAY TO THE GOLF CLUB.

Glad no one was hurt, but assuming the level crossing was working I don't know how you get it wrong, they're really visually obvious. 

lasermonkey

Mercedes. Golf club. Why am I not surprised?

I'm quite familiar with that level crossing. You really would  have to be a complete twat to not notice there's a train coming.
Twat.

mart

richardhomer said:

@ICBM - ... - a bit shocked by your lack of precision here....

Come on, you shouldn’t be surprised at that - we all know he plays a Ric bass.

ICBM

I did actually know it’s not a tank engine . I just couldn’t remember which of the other ones is a 0-6-0 tender engine... it’s 45 years since I read the books! I seem to remember that Thomas does have a tendency to get into accidents too.

Appropriately, the fact that the car was a Mercedes is now listed on the Wikipedia page for the Y14 class locomotive under ‘accidents and incidents’.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GER_Class_Y14

Moominpapa

Would love to see the letter from the Merc owner to his insurance company explaining how this wasn't his fault in any way.

richardhomer

ICBM said:

I did actually know it’s not a tank engine . I just couldn’t remember which of the other ones is a 0-6-0 tender engine... it’s 45 years since I read the books! I seem to remember that Thomas does have a tendency to get into accidents 

James is the 0-6-0 tender engine - but is red. Edward is blue - but a 4-4-0.

I really am sad, aren’t I?

ICBM

richardhomer said:

James is the 0-6-0 tender engine - but is red. Edward is blue - but a 4-4-0.

I really am sad, aren’t I?

Not that sad. Having done a bit more research into the matter, it appears that James is in fact a 2-6-0. The 0-6-0 tender engines are Douglas and Donald, which have been both blue and black at different times - they're a Caledonian Railway and not Great Eastern Railway type, but actually pretty similar to the one involved here.

(Yes, I did look all that up .)

LuttiS

Think it's the Isle of Sodor railway actually

Cols

PC Jon Parker, of Norfolk Police tweeted: "Currently on scene at a train vs car incident. Unsurprisingly, the train emerged the victor."

Classic.

BRISTOL86

“The engine - built in 1912 - had been travelling at 8mph to Weybourne to hook up with a dining car”

axisus

In all fairness, how many of us could avoid a crash when there is a level crossing, flashing lights and bells ringing, and a train tearing up at 8mph? I've had a think. All of us. All of us could.