A surprising number of people are completely insane

[Le Gavroche]

This weekend in Cumbria, a chartered heritage steam train called Tangmere was on a day out with coaches and passengers, down the Cumbrian coastal rail line, and ended up causing an estimated 25 trackside fires, some of which spread to become fairly major fires.

It turned into a major incident with pretty much every fire appliance in the area working through the night to try to stop the spread of the fires.

https://cumbriacrack.com/2025/04/05/wildfires-brea...

Standard rail services on the rail had to be cancelled, road were closed, and some properties were affected.

This isn't entirely surprising given it was very sunny all week, and has been the driest March and driest start to April for more than 60 years. The grass is bone dry.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/cj9ejl21p72...

But this post isn't about a train spewing sparks and hot ashes everywhere and causing fires in tinder-dry grass, it is about the impressive number of people who commented on the news articles on Facebook, claiming that the fires were nothing to do with the steam train, and were all deliberately caused by unknown individuals, as part of an organised conspiracy theory to ban steam trains, ban fossil fuels, claim it was global warming, control us, and whatever else they managed to come up with.

I estimated about 15-20% of all comments under local news, BBC, and other articles on this, were claiming some kind of conspiracy theory or activists were to blame. The UK government, the WEF, the WHO, the Freemasons, climate activists, and everyone else apparently. I even recognised a few of the names of posters as people I went to school with, worryingly.

I do not understand why so many people are apparently scared, paranoid, and basically mental. They actually believe this stuff. I get that the pandemic upset some people mentally and made them think the government was out to get them, or whatever wibble they invented in their own minds, but it seems to be getting worse, with more and people getting sucked in.

Probably why I usually try not to read comments under news articles these days.

[bristolracer]

Facebook
Gives the village idiot a voice

[loskie]

this. They were once confined to the corner shop/pub/school gate. Now they have a global audience.

[anonymous-user]

More fool you for wasting time reading it in the first place.

[Le Gavroche]

Cheese on Toast with Worcestershire Sauce said:

More fool you for wasting time reading it in the first place.

I don't disagree with you at all.

I rarely read the comments, but on this occasion, I spotted a few along the lines of "Oh yeah, a train caused all these fires did it? Pull the other one..." and decided to read more, and was just hooked on the stupidity. It got worse and worse the more I read.

[Grande Pedro]

I like steam trains and heritage and all that, but if a run did start multiple fires that stretched the fire brigade was it such a great idea to do it after a dry few weeks? It's not like they're needing to run scheduled services, is it?

[vladcjelli]

Was this always a problem with steam trains?

Don't remember the start of The Railway Children being like a scene from Dante's Inferno.

[Hill92]

vladcjelli said:

Was this always a problem with steam trains?

Don't remember the start of The Railway Children being like a scene from Dante's Inferno.

Yes, from the earliest steam trains. Various technological mitigations were put in place such as spark arrestors on locomotives.

Parliament even passed the Railway Fires Act 1905 to address the issue.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Edw7/5/11/sec...

The risk of lineside fires back in the days of steam locomotion was one of the reasons the railways were aggressively stripped of vegetation all over the country. Vegetation isn't cut back much as much these days due to far higher labour costs and the fire risk being limited to non-essential heritage tours. Network Rail routinely bans steam trains from the network during high risk periods.

[vladcjelli]

Hill92 said:

Yes, from the earliest steam trains. Various technological mitigations were put in place such as spark arrestors on locomotives.

Parliament even passed the Railway Fires Act 1905 to address the issue.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Edw7/5/11/sec...

The risk of lineside fires back in the days of steam locomotion was one of the reasons the railways were aggressively stripped of vegetation all over the country. Vegetation isn't cut back much as much these days due to far higher labour costs and the fire risk being limited to non-essential heritage tours. Network Rail routinely bans steam trains from the network during high risk periods.

Seems like a bit of an oversight on the train operators part then.

Thanks for the education, appreciated.

[Le Gavroche]

Hill92 said:

Yes, from the earliest steam trains. Various technological mitigations were put in place such as spark arrestors on locomotives.

Parliament even passed the Railway Fires Act 1905 to address the issue.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Edw7/5/11/sec...

The risk of lineside fires back in the days of steam locomotion was one of the reasons the railways were aggressively stripped of vegetation all over the country. Vegetation isn't cut back much as much these days due to far higher labour costs and the fire risk being limited to non-essential heritage tours. Network Rail routinely bans steam trains from the network during high risk periods.

Interesting thanks.

[Chauffard]

vladcjelli said:

Was this always a problem with steam trains?

Don't remember the start of The Railway Children being like a scene from Dante's Inferno.

Ah, but back in 1911 climate change was not a thing, the summers were mainly damp, cold and drizzly, lineside fires were a rarity.

[Mammasaid]

Le Gavroche said:

Cheese on Toast with Worcestershire Sauce said:

More fool you for wasting time reading it in the first place.

I don't disagree with you at all.

I rarely read the comments, but on this occasion, I spotted a few along the lines of "Oh yeah, a train caused all these fires did it? Pull the other one..." and decided to read more, and was just hooked on the stupidity. It got worse and worse the more I read.

West Cumbria - Jam Eaters, say no more....

https://jlsmithwriter.substack.com/p/who-are-you-c...

[hidetheelephants]

Chauffard said:

vladcjelli said:

Was this always a problem with steam trains?

Don't remember the start of The Railway Children being like a scene from Dante's Inferno.

Ah, but back in 1911 climate change was not a thing, the summers were mainly damp, cold and drizzly, lineside fires were a rarity.

As noted above; lineside vegetation was not allowed to grow, as labour costs rose doing it manually was swapped for chemical warfare. Take a look at period photographs, embankments look like bowling greens.

[okgo]

Social media infects their minds and they then get caught in the echo chamber whilst being too stupid/old/aware to realise what’s happening.

[Terminator X]

50% of the population have an IQ of less than 100. All of them posting on social media etc.

TX.

[Vanden Saab]

We all had or have that friend who is economical with the truth. You end up not just thinking they may be lying this time but actually assuming everything they say is a lie. Then there is always a partner, parent, sibling or friend who either cannot see the lies and actually believes every word they say or worse still almost certainly knows they are lying but goes along with it anyway because they think it is for the best.
This is what happens when Governments, authorities and academics or in fact anybody in a position of power, influence or control either leave out important details, embellish the truth or outright lie to the population. They say it is for the best but in reality all it does is to erode trust in everything they say.
We are at this point now where a great many people believe nothing they are told. You can blame stupid people but is it really stupid or just natural to assume people who have repeatedly lied to you over a course of years is doing so in every case, it is no more daft than thinking everything you are being told is the truth.
Separating the lies from the truth is no easy task especially when the people who are now saying 'trust me bro' have a proven record of lying In the past. You might be better asking how do clever people convince stupid people they are not lying this time when they have done so repeatedly.
The truth? You cannot handle the truth.

[BikeBikeBIke]

Hill92 said:

Yes, from the earliest steam trains. Various technological mitigations were put in place such as spark arrestors on locomotives.

Parliament even passed the Railway Fires Act 1905 to address the issue.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Edw7/5/11/sec...

The risk of lineside fires back in the days of steam locomotion was one of the reasons the railways were aggressively stripped of vegetation all over the country. Vegetation isn't cut back much as much these days due to far higher labour costs and the fire risk being limited to non-essential heritage tours. Network Rail routinely bans steam trains from the network during high risk periods.

Thanks, that's fascinating.

"Obvious once you know."

[turbobloke]

vladcjelli said:

Was this always a problem with steam trains?

Don't remember the start of The Railway Children being like a scene from Dante's Inferno.

Yes it was always a potential problem, but recently with heritage steam trains they've taken to having people from the train team drive a car along any trackside roads in hot dry weather to check for fires started by the train. It was covered in a TV documentary about one of the heritage steam groups.

[Tankrizzo]

In my experience, these sorts of people will ignore all evidence that proves what they're saying is utter bunkum. Even if it's put right in front of them.

So they need to be ignored as they'll never change.

I often wonder what, apart from mental health, leads people to become like this.

[otolith]

Reading the comments on anything tends to result in a loss of faith in humanity.