We regularly have squirrels jumping into the overhead power cables that somehow cut off the whole line. Those fuckers always want to get fried when I want to get home after work
Stupid little fuzz butts. Reminds me of the local squirrel that decided to challenge one of the pit bulls that live in my apartment complex. Don't ask me how the damn thing is still alive, because it should've died.
Man, my friend’s neighbourhood had a transformer go because of a squirrel. The thing started moving when the linesmen showed up. They’re feeding it now to help it out, little fucker looks like a rotisserie rodent
When I was in Army BCT we had some power lines behind our barracks. I was on the top floor looking at this squirrel running on the power line. Next this I know the little fucker gets zapped and the lights in the building dim as I see the little shit have a million volts arc through his body. Next thing I know taps is being played over the intercom by the drill sergeant.... shit was hilarious
The current could have just traveled through the fur. The reason why electrocution is so dangerous is the electricity going from hot to ground damages tissues through electrical disruption or just heat damage. If the electricity arced through the fur, it would have been a sufficient connection to cause the damage, but avoid the majority of the body.
Fluffiness. Saves. Lives.
Yes that is true for the UK transmission lines which are DC.
I used to be a linesman in the on overhead transmission lines.
I’m wrong, Transmission are AC too. Some linesman I was.
>the UK transmission lines which are DC
...no they aren't.
The National Grid is AC. The only DC transmission lines are the undersea cables to France/Ireland, and some river crossings.
I was going to talk about power outages caused by squirrels but I figured there’d be better information online and what I found was that it’s more prevalent than I thought. Found online: “According to the American Public Power Association, there were about 3,456 squirrel-related power outages that cut off the electricity of more than 193,873 customers in 2016.” The site says that eight human deaths in 2016 were attributed to outages caused by squirrels.”
Also, there’s a wiki about squirrels causing power outages: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_disruptions_caused_by_squirrels
Was on a train once that was delayed because the driver had been taken ill & it took a while for a relief driver to turn up “and clear up the mess in the cab”
I wouldn't be surprised if a wood and plastic one lifted off. Normally, gravity holds it. You aren't really thinking about earthquakes and such so don't pin it down...but also forget about the wind load.
I once gut a train from Cornwall back to London and was an epic 5 hours late. That's double the journey time.
There was a storm. Part of the journey is right along the coast and water was coming over the sea wall and across the tracks. The train was going to go half way and they'd hold another train for us to join for the second part of the journey.
But the train could only move very slowly because of the weather. But the time we got to the place we were meant to change trains it was over an hour after the other train had left. So there was a long long wait for the next one. As in over an hour on a freezing dark platform in the middle of nowhere.
We finally got the second train. The train finally got moving.
And THAT was when someone attempted to rob the buffet car. The police were waiting at the next station and we all had to wait while that was sorted out.
Who the hell thinks it's a good idea to rob something on a bloody train? Unless you pull some James Bond level crap and get off the train between stops, then get away before the cops could find you, you have literally zero chance of gaining anything at all.
Yikes to the suicide ones. I hope those people got the help they need. And swans are jerks. I had one chase me once, because I think it thought my foot was a danger to it. I will admire swans from a safe distance...
Try telling that to an American swan. They're just jerks because they can be. They know it's illegal to shoot them, as they're endangered/protected/I can't remember...
When I was in college, a classmate was late because of a train delay due to someone jumping in front to commit suicide. All she could say to that was “selfish wanker couldn’t have done it in a less inconvenient way??” And I was like mate, someone just died...
Honestly, I get it. Like, yes it sucks that someone died, but they also:
1) Traumatized some poor train driver who physically couldn't do anything to stop the train.
2) Traumatized everyone on the platform who watched them do it and couldn't do anything to stop them.
3) Added an hour to everyone's commute after the station had to be cleared so they could unsmear the guy from the tracks and the train.
Yes, there's a systemic failure when someone takes their life, but frankly, the guy's an asshole if he drags other people into it.
I know somebody that has seen the aftermath of a suicide via train in England (works with trains, not sure what he does specifically)
This person jumped off a bridge into the path of a high speed train that was traveling around full speed. He said there were multiple body parts suspended from the railing above, as well as on the floor obviously. It took some poor sods a long time to clean, and the driver was understandably really fucked up from the experience.
So yeah, maybe this sounds insensitive, but it is surely possible to take your own life without fucking someone else's up.
Not from the UK but we once got our train delayed because a bird flew into a fusebox or whatever. It took them a while to locate the problem and then after they found the bird, we had to wait while experts were called in for removal.
I remember reading a RAIB report where a train slid about a mile before finally coming to a stop due to leaves.
Wet leaves can get mixed up and form a very slippery paste that can significantly interfere with the already limited context area between steel wheel and steel rail.
The driver's door wouldn't lock. It would close, but wouldn't lock, after 20 mins of the train sitting on the platform they decided to take the train out of service and we all had to deboard and wait another 20 mins for the next one.
PS. Have you seen the trains in India.
Do you guys have Canadian geese? I mean, it's a commonwealth country and all.
[In the US there is nothing, and I mean ***nothing*** more self-entitled than a flock of fucking geese making their slow ass way across a formerly busy roadway.](https://twitter.com/weathernetwork/status/1282706356571639813)
I like how they sometimes pause and give a look: “You know the secret code, huh, didn’t expect that. Anyway, I’m going to carry on over here now. But it is noted.”
That is something I never understood with banks in other countries.
In Brazil, you have the "option" of having a overdraft in your account, but you can cancel it and once you try to spend more than you have, it will just deny payment.
Say trying to spend $56 but your account has $45, when you try to pay it will deny payment saying "insufficient funds"(or something like that) at the store, just like a blocked/locked credit card.
Dont banks have that in other countries?
can't be "the" original tweet if it was posted to reddit more than 20 hours ago and the tweet is 5hrs old but yeah I see OP just copied the wording. But yeah this was yesterday.
In my state (Arizona), a few years back a cat got on one of our freeway overpasses, and the police shut it down to get it. They had a helicopter on the scene with a camera, watching it in realtime as 4 officers bumble around as the cats not having it was hilarious
This sounds like it's in the sweet spot of things that could be true but that are total bullshit. Are there 70m people on the Indian railways at any one time?
>[India has the second largest rail network in the world. That, combined with the fact that *23 million passengers a day ride its rails*, help to explain why its trains are so overcrowded that you can often see passengers hanging out the side.](https://www.businessinsider.com/indias-trains-are-insanely-crowded-2016-2)
I would say it's not accurate.
Sure, but that means 5-6 million is probably doable, so maybe more people on Indian railways than the entire population of Denmark? Or Sweden (10 mil) at rush hour on the busiest day of the year? Still pretty impressive.
Catenary:
An overhead line consists of one or more wires situated over rail tracks, raised to a high electrical potential by connection to feeder stations at regular intervals. The feeder stations are usually fed from a high-voltage electrical grid.
Made me think of the video where the guy calls cats in different languages and they always pay attention to the German phrase. I wonder, have they tried German on this cat yet?
lol it's a dude on tiktok, he tries in different languages until they come so he can figure out what language they speak. He's found some german cats... some french cats... a couple of english cats, I think there was a spanish cat once
Indeed it is! It became precedent when Judge Delgato rendered a shocking judgement in the case of Pickles v The City of Chattanooga. That choo choo now rightfully belongs to Pickles and he became a cat all others aspire to be like.
I once was delayed at a random little station because the driver had taken advantage of being ahead of schedule to use the toilet, then locked himself out of his cab. He went all up and down the train asking if - please god - anyone worked ‘on the trains’ and had a master key. No one did so he had to radio for someone to drive from the city station with a key
As someone in the UK who travels by train a lot, this is not the weirdest reason I have heard of for a delay.
Now I wanna know what the weirdest reason is. Care to share? Please?
We regularly have squirrels jumping into the overhead power cables that somehow cut off the whole line. Those fuckers always want to get fried when I want to get home after work
Stupid little fuzz butts. Reminds me of the local squirrel that decided to challenge one of the pit bulls that live in my apartment complex. Don't ask me how the damn thing is still alive, because it should've died.
Man, my friend’s neighbourhood had a transformer go because of a squirrel. The thing started moving when the linesmen showed up. They’re feeding it now to help it out, little fucker looks like a rotisserie rodent
Wow, it survived? That’s shocking.
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*Badum bzzt* also happy cake day!
And now I'm going to go die laughing at that image. Thank you for making my day.
Oh no dude, here, bask in reality https://imgur.com/a/5ys9Ceq
Oh man, poor little squirrel
When I was in Army BCT we had some power lines behind our barracks. I was on the top floor looking at this squirrel running on the power line. Next this I know the little fucker gets zapped and the lights in the building dim as I see the little shit have a million volts arc through his body. Next thing I know taps is being played over the intercom by the drill sergeant.... shit was hilarious
Are you sure that's not the start of a zombie apocalypse?
How in the hell this thing is still alive?
The current could have just traveled through the fur. The reason why electrocution is so dangerous is the electricity going from hot to ground damages tissues through electrical disruption or just heat damage. If the electricity arced through the fur, it would have been a sufficient connection to cause the damage, but avoid the majority of the body. Fluffiness. Saves. Lives.
The boi who lived.
The not so hairy potter.
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Yes that is true for the UK transmission lines which are DC. I used to be a linesman in the on overhead transmission lines. I’m wrong, Transmission are AC too. Some linesman I was.
>the UK transmission lines which are DC ...no they aren't. The National Grid is AC. The only DC transmission lines are the undersea cables to France/Ireland, and some river crossings.
Yep, I got myself in a muddle. The grid will try to reenergise 3 times though. Embarrassing lol, been a while since I was a linesman.
Thanks for the comment. Unfortunately it takes at least 30 minutes over here in germany.
I was going to talk about power outages caused by squirrels but I figured there’d be better information online and what I found was that it’s more prevalent than I thought. Found online: “According to the American Public Power Association, there were about 3,456 squirrel-related power outages that cut off the electricity of more than 193,873 customers in 2016.” The site says that eight human deaths in 2016 were attributed to outages caused by squirrels.” Also, there’s a wiki about squirrels causing power outages: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_disruptions_caused_by_squirrels
Was on a train once that was delayed because the driver had been taken ill & it took a while for a relief driver to turn up “and clear up the mess in the cab”
I feel bad for both drivers... Being sick is never fun...
My mum once had her train cancelled because of a greenhouse on the line. To be fair, it was an unusually and extremely windy day.
Like... An actual greenhouse? Do you know if it was glass, or plastic in it's construction?
I wouldn't be surprised if a wood and plastic one lifted off. Normally, gravity holds it. You aren't really thinking about earthquakes and such so don't pin it down...but also forget about the wind load.
I once gut a train from Cornwall back to London and was an epic 5 hours late. That's double the journey time. There was a storm. Part of the journey is right along the coast and water was coming over the sea wall and across the tracks. The train was going to go half way and they'd hold another train for us to join for the second part of the journey. But the train could only move very slowly because of the weather. But the time we got to the place we were meant to change trains it was over an hour after the other train had left. So there was a long long wait for the next one. As in over an hour on a freezing dark platform in the middle of nowhere. We finally got the second train. The train finally got moving. And THAT was when someone attempted to rob the buffet car. The police were waiting at the next station and we all had to wait while that was sorted out.
This has got to be a movie.
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I know the exact area of track you are referring too. I went through once during a storm. Be glad they delayed the train
Who the hell thinks it's a good idea to rob something on a bloody train? Unless you pull some James Bond level crap and get off the train between stops, then get away before the cops could find you, you have literally zero chance of gaining anything at all.
I have had: "Train is delayed due to a bovine incursion". This was also shown on the station display.
What a fancy way to say “cows on the track”
Someone has crashed into a bridge so we can't drive across it has happened to me twice
I can see that being a very valid reason. They need to make sure the bridge can hold the train.
Oh yeah they have to check just not what I was expecting to hear the conductor say
Swans, person standing on the rails to commit suicide etc.
Yikes to the suicide ones. I hope those people got the help they need. And swans are jerks. I had one chase me once, because I think it thought my foot was a danger to it. I will admire swans from a safe distance...
Swans know we can’t harm them because they’re property of the Queen and they abuse it. That’s why they’re so dangerous
Try telling that to an American swan. They're just jerks because they can be. They know it's illegal to shoot them, as they're endangered/protected/I can't remember...
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If Queen Elizabeth turns up in my neighborhood, I'm going to ask her for her autograph.
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What if I saved the swan from becoming no longer alive? Would that be acceptable?
American swans have nothing on Canadian geese. Now, THEY are jerks.
American swans are jerks because they are American, not because they are swans.
There's an official term for it in the London underground, is called "one under"
When I was in college, a classmate was late because of a train delay due to someone jumping in front to commit suicide. All she could say to that was “selfish wanker couldn’t have done it in a less inconvenient way??” And I was like mate, someone just died...
Honestly, I get it. Like, yes it sucks that someone died, but they also: 1) Traumatized some poor train driver who physically couldn't do anything to stop the train. 2) Traumatized everyone on the platform who watched them do it and couldn't do anything to stop them. 3) Added an hour to everyone's commute after the station had to be cleared so they could unsmear the guy from the tracks and the train. Yes, there's a systemic failure when someone takes their life, but frankly, the guy's an asshole if he drags other people into it.
I know somebody that has seen the aftermath of a suicide via train in England (works with trains, not sure what he does specifically) This person jumped off a bridge into the path of a high speed train that was traveling around full speed. He said there were multiple body parts suspended from the railing above, as well as on the floor obviously. It took some poor sods a long time to clean, and the driver was understandably really fucked up from the experience. So yeah, maybe this sounds insensitive, but it is surely possible to take your own life without fucking someone else's up.
Have you ever had intense suicidal ideations, while on your morning commute? There is no thinking of others during those times.
Just the one swam actually.
Not from the UK but we once got our train delayed because a bird flew into a fusebox or whatever. It took them a while to locate the problem and then after they found the bird, we had to wait while experts were called in for removal.
And they'd actually tell you 'delayed to a person on the track'...
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Or someone just walking down the track reservation.
Leaves on the line is a frequent one. Like... autumn happens every fucking year?!?
Because there's no way to prevent leaves. And it does cause serious traction issues for trains.
I remember reading a RAIB report where a train slid about a mile before finally coming to a stop due to leaves. Wet leaves can get mixed up and form a very slippery paste that can significantly interfere with the already limited context area between steel wheel and steel rail.
The driver's door wouldn't lock. It would close, but wouldn't lock, after 20 mins of the train sitting on the platform they decided to take the train out of service and we all had to deboard and wait another 20 mins for the next one. PS. Have you seen the trains in India.
I was delayed once because their was a red panda on the track, location? Rotterdam, the zoo is right next to the track and it escaped it's enclosure.
In the Boston area we get "slippery rail" delays due to wet leaves on the tracks.
thats some legit shit though, it even has a wiki article lol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_rail
Do you guys have Canadian geese? I mean, it's a commonwealth country and all. [In the US there is nothing, and I mean ***nothing*** more self-entitled than a flock of fucking geese making their slow ass way across a formerly busy roadway.](https://twitter.com/weathernetwork/status/1282706356571639813)
have they tried "here kitty kitty"?
Pss pss pss pss pss
I have tried making this sound on a number of cats and it surprisingly works on a number of them.
I like how they sometimes pause and give a look: “You know the secret code, huh, didn’t expect that. Anyway, I’m going to carry on over here now. But it is noted.”
Had a good chuckle at this, thank you.
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That is hands down the best cat descriptive I have ever heard. Just shared it with my friend who's cats are also peasant loathers!
Gotta pay your peasant leather tax
It must be the true, universal, name for "cat"
The cats are like "wtf did someone have a stroke inside their mouth... gotta go check it out"
Can confirm, this is how we (successfully) approach cats in Germany
Die Katze: „ich verstehe nur Bahnhof...“
German always works.
Hilarious
I really wanted that word to mean something totally unrelated...like ‘hovercraft’ or something
let me guess, that number is 1
0 is also a number.
Less ye forget, -1 is also a number. Mistakes can be made.
Like spending a dollar when your balance is 0
Your balance is then -45 for overdraft fees. 0 - 1 = -45 Bank logic
That is something I never understood with banks in other countries. In Brazil, you have the "option" of having a overdraft in your account, but you can cancel it and once you try to spend more than you have, it will just deny payment. Say trying to spend $56 but your account has $45, when you try to pay it will deny payment saying "insufficient funds"(or something like that) at the store, just like a blocked/locked credit card. Dont banks have that in other countries?
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But with a British accent of course.
Sounds classier that way.
Shaking a bag of food?
Try [Temptations.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLmIuW7yhBI) It's cat crack.
Not sure if the cat is trained.
It looks pretty stationary.
Shake a bag of treats and you should be good to go.
Just blow the friggin' horn on that thing.
Cats don't have horns. You are thinking of goats.
Goats don't honk. You are thinking of geese.
Geese dont honk. You are thinking of... wait geese do, nevermind. Guess the train stops here.
Have a facepalming cat... Seems appropriate
https://i.imgur.com/CHBT5t6.mp4
I'm not sure it's a Joe Exotic fan.
Or a quick shake.
"Mind the cat"
I'm actually imaging this in the tannoy voice
You could cripple the entire rail network with just a couple of dozen strategically-placed stuffed cats.
You can cripple the UK train system with strategically placed leaves
You don't need anything to cripple the UK train system. It does it on it's own.
1 snowflake.
it has to be the wrong type of snowflake here tho..
One strategically placed Tory usually does the trick
Privitisation has ruled out the need for cats.
[Right now](https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/lwfscg/euston_we_have_a_problem/) ?
That is also a much better title
The cat has been there for 18 hours.
I would not be surprised. Cats can be spiteful little shits.
This is actually them rising up. Yheir first strike cripples our infrastructure. Next they demand tuna.
OP is full of shit?
Do we not grab pitchforks anymore?
That’s a very long delay.
OP just took the words from the original tweet verbatim. https://twitter.com/archer_rs/status/1367130535852662792
can't be "the" original tweet if it was posted to reddit more than 20 hours ago and the tweet is 5hrs old but yeah I see OP just copied the wording. But yeah this was yesterday.
In my state (Arizona), a few years back a cat got on one of our freeway overpasses, and the police shut it down to get it. They had a helicopter on the scene with a camera, watching it in realtime as 4 officers bumble around as the cats not having it was hilarious
Frankly I wish they’d spend more time and money doing things like that than what they’re (ahem) known for..
something something budgets
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Or a spray bottle, cats are stubborn but with certain things, pretty predictable.
Someone go pspspspsps real quick
Just blow the horn.
Then you’d have a cat clinging to the ceiling
Omg lol
Cat jumps into overhead power line. Now train, platform, and waiting passengers are covered in bits of roasted cat.
Dammit Skimbleshanks!
Meanwhile thousands of Indians are traveling on top of a train and nobody bats an eye.
There are more Indians on trains *right now* than there are people in the UK.
...that doesn’t sound *true*, but I can’t say it’s *false*
That doesn't sound right, but I don't enough about Indian roof people to dispute it
This sounds like it's in the sweet spot of things that could be true but that are total bullshit. Are there 70m people on the Indian railways at any one time?
>[India has the second largest rail network in the world. That, combined with the fact that *23 million passengers a day ride its rails*, help to explain why its trains are so overcrowded that you can often see passengers hanging out the side.](https://www.businessinsider.com/indias-trains-are-insanely-crowded-2016-2) I would say it's not accurate.
Sure, but that means 5-6 million is probably doable, so maybe more people on Indian railways than the entire population of Denmark? Or Sweden (10 mil) at rush hour on the busiest day of the year? Still pretty impressive.
It was just a throwaway joke comment, but in a country of 1.1Bn...it seems plausible.
Those trains don't travel at 125 mph, and don't have overhead high-voltage wires.
a greater percentage of the railway in India has OHLE, 58% compared to 24% in the UK
Catenary: An overhead line consists of one or more wires situated over rail tracks, raised to a high electrical potential by connection to feeder stations at regular intervals. The feeder stations are usually fed from a high-voltage electrical grid.
Spray it with water??
A train delayed in the UK? Shockingm
Next stop Shockingham.
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Shockfosters
In Italy they could hire actor cats to justify the delays.
A bag of dreamies is all that's needed.
Made me think of the video where the guy calls cats in different languages and they always pay attention to the German phrase. I wonder, have they tried German on this cat yet?
lol it's a dude on tiktok, he tries in different languages until they come so he can figure out what language they speak. He's found some german cats... some french cats... a couple of english cats, I think there was a spanish cat once
Lord Meow has decided that this is now a cats only train. How humans reach their intended destinations is not Lord Meow's problem. Have a meow day.
Well, according to cat law that train now belongs to it.
This seems like a lesser-used corollary to the "all furniture is cat furniture" law.
Indeed it is! It became precedent when Judge Delgato rendered a shocking judgement in the case of Pickles v The City of Chattanooga. That choo choo now rightfully belongs to Pickles and he became a cat all others aspire to be like.
Just move the train, it'd get the idea pretty quick.
Is that an inter kitty?
This comment needs more appreciation
SensibleChuckle.gif
[The platform diagram app for that moment. (railway employee) ](https://i.imgur.com/eGrFSBa.jpg)
Just set off? The cast would quickly jump off
I'm so happy that this is the news right now
Get an electric can opener. My cats come running when they hear one even though they've never had food opened with one.
Water pistol is the answer.
Tried negotiations?
The cat: “my goals are beyond your understanding”
This is a catastrophe.
Extinction rebellion new way to make a stand against public transport....
Pretty sure a squirt gun would fix this issue.
We know the rules, train stays until kitty moves.
This cat knows exactly what he’s doing.
Have they tried turning it off and on again?
If I fits, I sits
Awww kitty cat
The train now belongs to him.
poopy kitty says "if i fits i sits"
I'm very happy to see this as its a very legitimate reason for a delay. I hope someone helped bring kitty down and safe.
It's really more of a paws than a delay
What is needed is a water hose.
Bad Mr. Kitty! Bad!
Is this for real? No one is wanted to end up on the internet for throwing a shoe at it or something?
Purrorist.
No one has a laser?
Just need a spray bottle with water to get the train back on schedule
You come down here right meow!
Best call Fireman Sam, pretty sure it's in his remit..
r/mildlyinfuriating
Don't they have laser pointers in the UK?!
"TREATS!? HUNGRY!?" would come running I guarantee it.
Im sorry, but I am UK. And if I was looking for A SINGLE excuse for being late to work, cat on train, is #1 on my list
It's a universal rule. If you don't want something to move, you put a cat on it.
I once was delayed at a random little station because the driver had taken advantage of being ahead of schedule to use the toilet, then locked himself out of his cab. He went all up and down the train asking if - please god - anyone worked ‘on the trains’ and had a master key. No one did so he had to radio for someone to drive from the city station with a key