Train drivers of reddit, I’m looking for some advice on operating procedures. I’ve driven into a tunnel on my standard route, but after a few minutes all lights and signalling went out on the track. Due to risk of collision ive stopped the train and tried radioing Control, but nobody is answering. Any help is appreciated.
Edit 1: We’ve been stopped for 20 minutes now and passangers are becoming impatient, one has even pressed the passenger alarm. I don’t have a guard on-board, I’m the only staff. I have some phone signal, but nobody is answering personal numbers. The situation is becoming pretty urgent here, so if anybody has any advice I’m very open to it. Tunnel is completely dark aside from my headlights, track ahead is clear.
Edit 2: I’ve started to move the train at 5mph, as we’ve been stationary for 45 minutes and I’m concerned that the passengers are becoming uncomfortable or unwell. I am sure that this is a safe speed, and I will be able to stop if there is any obstruction on the track. Have any other rail staff ever had anything like this happen to them? I’m concerned about what could be happening on the network, I’ve never been unable to contact the team before. Someone please let me know if there has been some kind of incident, news pages don’t seem to be loading for me at the moment. I am continuing with caution.
Edit 3: New request - Somehow we’ve managed to get lost within the tunnel. At some point, I’m not sure when, the track we are following transitioned. I must have missed a changeover, though I don’t know how that’s possible with the speed and the attention I’m paying. I was focused ahead, making sure that there were no obstructions, and suddenly I realised that the environment had changed.
The walls of the tunnel have become rough, looking unfinished. The overhead electrical wires and lights have competely gone, and even the walls are free of grafitti. It’s all unfinished stone, looking more like a mineshaft than anything designed for a train. I don’t know what to do. All I can guess is that somehow I’ve taken us down a disused track, maybe very old or very new, and I’m at risk of derailing us if the condition degrades. Oddly the rails are in good condition down here and roll out as far as my headlights can pick out, but I don’t know how long that will continue. It’s believe it’s too dangerous to continue, and I’m going to have to turn us around. I suppose my new question is what my liability is here. Passenger safety is the most important thing, and I’m doing everything I can, even though I’ve messed up. Something is not right with all of this. Again, I’m appealing for any help that can be offered.
Final note is that the air is cold down here, much colder than the other tracks. The day has been mild so far, but nothing like this. I opened the window briefly and I could swear my breath was fogging.
I’m going to stop the train and drive us back out the way I came. Hopefully I can raise someone on the radio in that time.
Edit 4: The sitation has devloved and I’m looking for any advice on how to get my passengers to safety.
As many of you know, I have to walk through the train and access the second cockpit at the other end to change direction. I sent a PA message first informing the passengers that we were stopping due to unforseen complications, would be reversing, and that we would reach the next stop as soon as possible. I then left the driver carriage and entered the train proper.
Unsurprisingly the passengers were very agitated, and I had to spend longer that I liked trying to field questions and conerns from scared and angry people, with a number of them bringing up threats of lawsuits or similar. Luckily I was able to push through the majority of the carridges, stepping through the separating doors without too much issue. A point I should note here is that the carridges are not conjoined; the doors lead outside and I have to step across the gap to enter the next car (making sure to lock the doors behind me). This means that I spent time outside the train, and I can confirm the air is icy and thin. Any thoughts of exploring the tunnel on foot are gone, I want to be out of here as soon as possible.
The only other area of concern were the cars in the middle of the train. The people inside were frightened, and jumped violently as I entered. They said that they had heard sound from outside the train, scraping in the tunnel and even something banging against the walls of the carridge. Although I did my best to placate them and took a brief look around as I moved on, I couldn’t find anything that would cause sounds like that. No loose wires or stones, no signs of animals. I’m sure it’s nothing, but it is still a good reason to get moving quickly.
I have taken my seat in the second cockpit, and have begun driving back the way we came. It is disturbingly similar to the view I had driving into this awful tunnel, but I suppose hewn rock looks like hewn rock. I will update when I can.
Edit 5: I have lost control.
This forum is now for me to document that I took the best decisions I could under the circumstances. I am doing all I can to keep this train, and the people inside it, safe.
We have been backtracking for longer than we were orginially moving down this forsaken tunnel and there have been no track switches, no changes, no way back to the correct route. All I can see is the cone of light in front of me as the train moves. It’s colder too, cold enough that I there is condensation on the windows, that I can feel it seeping through the walls of my cabin. And we’re decending; I am now also certain we are travelling downhill. There is a pull, gentle but very real, towards the windscreen, and I don’t know where it’s taking us. All I know is that I’m travelling at a safe speed to stop if I need to, but fast enough to get us away.
Because now I hear things too.
I thought I had driven over something at first, but then I heard more. Thumps along the side, like we were hitting branches, but there was nothing ahead of us we could be hitting. Then it was the roof, a thud, followed by scraping, something moving along over my head. I tracked it, whatever it was sliding backwards towards the length of the train before disappearing. There were moments of silence after, then the screech of the passenger alarm made me jump out of my skin. It came again, and again, someone hammering the button.
‘There’s something outside, something on the train!’ Came a panicked woman’s voice, before being immediately cut off by another alarm and a man’s shout.
‘We’re in number three, something is banging on the roof! What the hell is happening, you’ve got to stop thi-‘
The alarm went again, and again, each time a new terrified voice being cut off by the next.
‘There’s something on-‘
‘Help us! What are you doi-‘
‘-etween the doors! At the front of-‘
‘-looking at me! You’ve got to do something the window’s-‘
‘Police now! Call the fucking police right now! Call th-‘
‘Unlock the goddamn d-‘
I can still hear them, even without the comms. The screams are coming from the carriage behind me, with the crashes and bangs still going. I’ve turned off the alarm though, turned off the radio. I have to concentrate. I have to get us out of here. What am I meant to do here, what am I meant to say to those poor people? I can’t help them, all I can do is drive this cursed train and pray that we see sunlight again.
6: Christ help me. They’re people. There’s people on the tracks.
I thought it was a manequin when I saw the first. Pale and still, arms by its side, staring as we went past. It turned its head though. Turned its head and watched us go past. Then there was more, dozen of them, hundreds. They lined the track, only inches between them and the train that rushed past. Not even a flinch from them, completely emotionless. Are they what is making that noise, could they be climbing on my train? They are nothing like the squatters that we get, these things are unnatural.
I no longer care about procedure, about safety, all I care about is getting this train somewhere else. If this is a mineshaft, a new track, even if it’s hell itself I don’t care. I’ve maxed out the speed, now I’m just watching those creatures and the track blur past. This has to end somewhere.
The sounds from behind me seem to have stopped. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I dare not ask on the radio.
I’ll update again if I can.
Update 7. Apologies for the delay
Thank you to everyone that reached out by message asking after me. I apologise for the delay in getting back to you all. I am safe, and as of yesterday I quit my job as a driver. I don’t think I will ever set foot near a railway again.
About an hour after my last post, there was suddenly a burst of Sunlight. We came hurtling out of the tunnel, far faster than the legal limit, and I had to immediately slam on the emergency brake. Normally when you hit the brakes like that you hear shouts from your passengers, but the cars behind me were dead silent. Slowly I began moving again, heading towards the nearest station, barely able to see in the harsh daylight after so long underground.
My boss wanted to fire me. Its not like I can blame him, I was AWOL for two hours, and reappeared with a dented train pulling the wrong way into a station on the wrong track. By all rights I could have been arrested. The union had my back though, talked her down to an immediate resignation if I didn’t press charges for the faulty signalling.
I expected hell when I opened those train doors at the station. As the train stopped I felt light and shaky, trying to process what had just happened in the normality of a railway stop. In the moment I tried to say something on the radio, to apologise or announce the station, but my mouth was dry and my hands were trembling too badly. So instead I just opened the doors, opened my own, stepped out onto the platform and braced myself for the hell of shouting and screaming and threats that would come my way. But there were none. Instead they just filed out, silent and pale, and stood there on the concrete staring at me. I’ll never forget that as long as I live, how they watched me, hundreds of them, blank-faced as I just turned and ran.