http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201..._railway_trestle_flees_approaching_train.html
It starts off like a dream — a late summer day, a lush backdrop and a picturesque trestle bridge, where a bride and groom are posing for what will surely be memorable wedding photos, surrounded by friends and family. Then, a foreboding sound pierces the idyll — chug-a-chug-a-chug-a — followed by the sobering realization that this ain’t the love train coming round the bend.
Another, more alarming sound — choo-choo! — and now the bride and groom are retreating as fast as formal footwear will allow.
On Saturday, near Orangeville, that scenario played out when an approaching passenger train put the brakes on a newlywed couple’s photo shoot. The train’s lumbering speed prevented the story from having a tragic ending, but the crew didn’t take the incident lightly. The wedding dashers made their exit before police could arrive.
Around 3:15 p.m., the unidentified wedding party was posing for photos on a trestle bridge along the rail line between Orangeville and Brampton. The Credit Valley Explorer, a sightseeing train, was approaching the bridge at the same moment. The bridge is 350 metres long and 26 metres high at its tallest point — and does not feature an obvious escape route.
The party’s reaction to the appearance of the train was captured by Mike Davis, a local magazine publisher who was riding in the observation car. The tiny figures look like the boys in Stand by Me, if Vern and Gordie were wearing high heels.
Happily, they didn’t need to run. The Explorer moves at a crawl, the better for passengers to take in Caledon’s bucolic countryside, so it was able to stop before trundling onto the bridge.
“We were going over the bridge slowly so people could look at the vista,” said Steve Gallagher, manager of operations for the Orangeville Brampton Railway. “We had the train under control and we were able to bring it to a controlled stop.”
The freight trains that sometimes use that stretch of track, shuttling cargo between Orangeville and Brampton, might not have been able to stop so quickly, Gallagher said.
But as it was, the matrimonial party walked to safety at a leisurely pace. “There wasn’t any sort of panic that I saw,” said Davis. “They looked like they were sort of walking slowly.”
Mind you, it’s hard to run on train tracks when you’re wearing heels — with luck, these will be the last spikes to ply those rails.
When the group had cleared the bridge, they repaired to a white stretch limousine parked on an adjacent road. Members of the train crew confronted them there, and asked that the party stay and talk to police. The group declined.
“We called the police, and when we asked (the party) to stay until the police came, they left,” said Gallagher. “Understandably, our crew was very upset with the whole situation. You don’t want to see anyone get harmed or hurt.”
Freelance journalist Phil Gravelle, who was also aboard the train, said he saw “the wedding party guys kind of waving their arms around.”
He added, “It was obviously an animated exchange.”
Ontario Provincial Police later arrived at the scene, but did not respond to multiple requests for comment about whether they were pursuing the matter.
“No trespassing” signs line the tracks, Gallagher said.
It starts off like a dream — a late summer day, a lush backdrop and a picturesque trestle bridge, where a bride and groom are posing for what will surely be memorable wedding photos, surrounded by friends and family. Then, a foreboding sound pierces the idyll — chug-a-chug-a-chug-a — followed by the sobering realization that this ain’t the love train coming round the bend.
Another, more alarming sound — choo-choo! — and now the bride and groom are retreating as fast as formal footwear will allow.
On Saturday, near Orangeville, that scenario played out when an approaching passenger train put the brakes on a newlywed couple’s photo shoot. The train’s lumbering speed prevented the story from having a tragic ending, but the crew didn’t take the incident lightly. The wedding dashers made their exit before police could arrive.
Around 3:15 p.m., the unidentified wedding party was posing for photos on a trestle bridge along the rail line between Orangeville and Brampton. The Credit Valley Explorer, a sightseeing train, was approaching the bridge at the same moment. The bridge is 350 metres long and 26 metres high at its tallest point — and does not feature an obvious escape route.
The party’s reaction to the appearance of the train was captured by Mike Davis, a local magazine publisher who was riding in the observation car. The tiny figures look like the boys in Stand by Me, if Vern and Gordie were wearing high heels.
Happily, they didn’t need to run. The Explorer moves at a crawl, the better for passengers to take in Caledon’s bucolic countryside, so it was able to stop before trundling onto the bridge.
“We were going over the bridge slowly so people could look at the vista,” said Steve Gallagher, manager of operations for the Orangeville Brampton Railway. “We had the train under control and we were able to bring it to a controlled stop.”
The freight trains that sometimes use that stretch of track, shuttling cargo between Orangeville and Brampton, might not have been able to stop so quickly, Gallagher said.
But as it was, the matrimonial party walked to safety at a leisurely pace. “There wasn’t any sort of panic that I saw,” said Davis. “They looked like they were sort of walking slowly.”
Mind you, it’s hard to run on train tracks when you’re wearing heels — with luck, these will be the last spikes to ply those rails.
When the group had cleared the bridge, they repaired to a white stretch limousine parked on an adjacent road. Members of the train crew confronted them there, and asked that the party stay and talk to police. The group declined.
“We called the police, and when we asked (the party) to stay until the police came, they left,” said Gallagher. “Understandably, our crew was very upset with the whole situation. You don’t want to see anyone get harmed or hurt.”
Freelance journalist Phil Gravelle, who was also aboard the train, said he saw “the wedding party guys kind of waving their arms around.”
He added, “It was obviously an animated exchange.”
Ontario Provincial Police later arrived at the scene, but did not respond to multiple requests for comment about whether they were pursuing the matter.
“No trespassing” signs line the tracks, Gallagher said.
