Baby under caught on CCTV

[Kevo00]

We have the benefit of hindsight. The mother didn't.

[Nextra]

Also in Aus, any culvert can be very quickly overwhelmed by extreme rainstorms, so draining forwards onto the track might make sense.

I may be corrected by the Aussies on this board, and I've never been to Victoria, but where I have been in NSW I gained the impression that railways tend to be somewhat ad hoc in Aus, and that individual stations can vary a lot, with no consistent standard applied. Take a look for instance at Scone's 'relatively' narrow platform http://www.nswrail.net/locations/photo. ... SW:Scone:2, Macdonaldtown's tiles which might use a little TLC http://www.nswrail.net/locations/photo. ... in_south:0 or Broadmeadow's relatively substantial ones http://www.nswrail.net/locations/photo. ... admeadow:5.

This seems about right, over here the general idea is to make the stations purpose built meaning that sometimes you'll get platforms that are too small, too big too wide etc etc. I can't speak for Victoria but from my experience with the Cityrail network seems to just board up the problems instead of actually fixing them. My favourite example is Thornleigh station where the have tacked on an extension to the platforms to take the 8-car sets but only a very skilled train driver can get all the carriage doors on the platforms and more often than not, you'll have half a carriage hanging over the end over the station.

[noofnoof]

I think I was at Taringa station when I noticed its improper slant, the platform was concrete before the bitumened over it.

[L&Y Man]

I've heard that that was because the baby was strapped into the buggy and the buggy got caught on the front of the train.
The only injury was a minor bump to the head.

It raises some interesting questions about station design. Having the edge lower then the middle is great for rainwater run off, but you would have thought the reverse would have been safer (so things role towards the middle of the station).

I know the height of the platform edge is dictated, but does anyone know if the profile of the station is (either in Australia or anywhere else?)

As a general rule, platforms should always slope away from the running lines, not towards. In addition, I do not know why prams are allowed to be sold without a spring-loaded brake which needs to be held off and which applies if let go.

There have been many cases over the years of prams rolling into roads, rivers or canals, etc. Having an automatic brake would prevent this sort of thing.

[L&Y Man]

Further to earlier post, on 2nd August 1898 at Wellingborough on the old Midland Railway, a group of schoolboys playing with a postman's barrow on a platform which sloped towards the running lines at about 1 in 20 let it go. It rolled onto the track just as the 6.30 express from St Pancras to Manchester was approaching. The subsequent derailment cost six people their lives. I can remember seing such barrows chained and locked when not in use, possibly to prevent a repetition of the above.

Parkinson's Law states, "If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong", to which Sodde's Corollary adds, "Yes, and in the worst possible way at the worst possible time".

If all engineers, architects and designers thought of this first, things might be different.

[caveatemptor]

It'll be a cool story to tell when he's older.

[Brianetta]

Parkinson's Law states, "If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong"

No, that's Murphy's law. Parkinson wrote, "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."

There. Something could go wrong; it did.

[L&Y Man]

Parkinson's Law states, "If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong"

No, that's Murphy's law. Parkinson wrote, "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."

There. Something could go wrong; it did.

Sorry, I did mean to say Murphy's Law.

L&Y Man