Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Train "joyrider"

A 19-year-old train buff from Rawmarsh, South Yorkshire , has been sentenced to 200 hours community service after going joyriding in a 49-tonne locomotive.

Daniel Matthews sneaked into sidings at Sheffield's Tinsley marshalling yard in May. He started the engine and drove it up and down for 40 minutes.

Rotherham Magistrates heard he was such an expert he knew how to change points so the train could switch tracks. Matthews even left it switched off and safely parked before cycling away.

He was identified after police released CCTV footage of him and another man on BMX bikes in the area.

Inspector David Boldison of British Transport Police said it was an act of stupidity. "Potentially it was very dangerous," he said. "If he'd managed to get himself on to the main line, where there were passenger trains, then potentially that could have had bad consequences".

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Probably a Jr Highjacker in training..

did I say that?

dom said...

groans
I can't believe you said that.

You should have seen this dude come out of court , he looked like he'd been more at home at a grunge gig , he had such a wry grin too.

yellowdoggranny said...

200 hrs of community service? you have to kill someone over here to get 200 hrs. of community service..hahahahah