In the UK a few years back there was a kid who was a train fan, and one day he managed to get himself a hi-vis jacket, sneak into a rail yard, start up one of the shunters and move it around a bit. He was smart enough not to put it out on the running lines but it still could have gone very wrong if he had not known roughly how to operate a shunter.

Train fan, that he must have been or are, luckily it did not happen anything serious :doh:

I'd be keenly interested to know what kind of stuff has been ripped off from our depots in the US. :hmmm:


EDIT:

That's one bright kid. I hope the company was smart enough to show him around a bit and further entice him into a future career choice.

Sometimes learning means going that far. I suspect that some folks in higher positions got there simply by being curious. :yep:


@Gargamel: You didn't get into the Chief's mustache tweezers, did you? :O:

This is maybe not as magnificent, but I was just reminded of something along the same lines that (apparently) happened to my father when he was young. He and his friends were hanging out in the town and saw that a man was tinkering with a car's door. Now this was back in the good old days when you could open a car's lock with a teaspoon, so the man got the door open quickly and it didn't seem like anything was wrong.

A moment later he came to them and politely explained that his car seemed to be having some problem and wouldn't start. So he asked if father and his friends could give him a little push. Of course they volunteered to help and the car started easily enough. Off drove the man. And a few minutes later came another, walked to the spot where the car used to be, stared it for a while and then loudly shouted: "Where the **** is my car?!"

:oops:

Hey, you stole our railway managers! That sounds exactly like something that could happen in here. Except that in here they would publicly blame either the snow, the heat, the leaves on the tracks or rain for their mistake depending on what season it is.

errr.... wut?

Aw nevermind.That joke blew up in my face. :damn:

Wouldn't be surprised if this is how most equipment goes "missing". Happened at a friends workplace, where £10,000 pounds of equipment turned up during a stock check they had no idea it was there:doh:.

I was once sent to a scene where someone had successfully stolen a herd of about 20 sheep but their lorry broke down and the stupid buggers tried to shepherd them through a towns main street.

:)

It sounds like all railroad managers worldwide went to the same clinic when they did the training for their job. They transplate their brains with the ones of a mayfly:

summer: "Oh, all of a sudden this giant fireball appeared. It melted our tracks, sorry for the delays."

autumn: "There were this strange brownish things lying on the railway. We don't know where they came from - we're very sorry for the delay."

winter: "Out of the blue this white stuff fell from the sky. We never saw something like this before - we're extremely sorry"

spring: "All the railroads were blocked by mating animals - we're... Oh, gtfo if you don't like our service you can walk, customer peasant!"

Or more like "yeah, we kind of know what it is and what it does, but we asked it really really nice with cherry on the top not to come this year, despite of it doing so for the last bazillion years. First time for everything, you know. Maybe we'll be luckier next winter!"

Though to be fair, the drivers have the same problem every year too. "Yeah, yeah, I'll change the winter tyres tomorrow...actually, I'll do it tomorrow...or tomorrow..."
And then later: "Huh? I crashed into this lightpost?! It wasn't my fault! Why didn't anyone tell me it's slippery during the winter? I'll sue God for not mentioning properties of different seasons in the Bible!"

Every year the newspapers have headlines like "the winter surprised the drivers". It's a common joke around here.

Ah, I see the customer service representatives from our railways have found a new job abroad.

It does sound familiar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX1cl3kBQB8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1glI8dunqSc

Oh, the german railways has a long and proud tradition of despise towards their customers. :D
Every year before christmas they change the plans. So if you want to book earlier than 6 weeks before the holidays they can't say when the trains run. If you want to board an international train: Well **** you for wanting to get out of Germany - they can only tell the price untill the border...
You want informations at the station? Well, pay 2-3 € for talking to the majesties at the "service centre"! The alternative is to call the hotline for 2€/min.

And people wonder why we have so much car and plane traffic here...
I never had this trouble in a foreign country - but I must admit that I never tested the finnish railways... ;)

or ours