Brentford Docks station - anecdote

Apologies if this is the wrong place. Someone's just posted this on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/JamesBrownsell/status/973201105814466561

(you need to scroll down and follow the tweets to get the full story).

There's two things here.

One is that it sounds slightly fanciful, or at the very least a story that had grown in the retelling. Any other accounts of this happening to that particular station.

The other bit, about the bucket of spanners, sounds a bit more plausible. Is it one of those things that was regular practice? (obviously I realise it wasn't official practice, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. We all get away with stuff we shouldn't at work)

 

Hmm. Hanging a bucket (of spanners or coal) on the counter weight of the signal is something I've heard of in GWR practice, which would have covered Brentford Dock but not sure its likely the signals were ever changed in the way suggested to mean it would no longer work.

The other part is rather more fanciful. I have read that when first delivered the USA 2-8-0's had a fairly violent safety valve lift, which allegedly saw signal lamps blown out and station canopies damaged. (They were apparently modified to stop it happening as badly) Its possible that if parked under the canopy at Brentford Dock (which wasn't really a station - it was a trans shipment point at the dock but there were covered parts that look to have glass panels in), that might have been enough to knock out a pane or two. But the bit about the driver doing the wrong thing and releasing the steam etc doesn't really stack up .

Sounds like a story that has been passed on a few too many times.

 

Yeah, that was my conclusion. You don't want to dump on an obviously much-loved family anecdote but it just didn't ring true.