Did my London Midland train hit something this morning?

[mattdaniels]

On the 5:46am from Northampton to Euston. Galloping along at a fair rate of knots between Leighton Buzzard and Berkhamsted, there was a very loud bang (sounded like it came from up front, I was in coach B, three coaches back from the front) then a sort of clattering/banging sound from under the floor area and we did an emergency stop.

We sat there for about 5 minutes, no announcements or anything, then started off again as normal. Just south of the big depot at Wembley there was another large bang this time sounded like from behind me but the train didn't stop we just carried on in to Euston.

Anyone know what it was / what happened?

[Nickyboy]

Probably just a hobo, nothing to worry about

[JB!]

neutral section? over zealous ballast drops?

[john_p]

Probably something solid like a badger / deer etc?

If it had been a person you would still be there on the train

[Simpo Two]

Retired Maquis on holiday and looking for entertainment?

[kiteless]

Probably you heard one of these going off:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/shropshire/8644...

[Ross1988]

Animal possibly? Or maybe a left over det from the weekends work. Only stopping for 5 mins though? Would take 5 - 10 to walk the stopping distance of a train. Was your train the first of the day?

[WestYorkie]

kiteless said:

Probably you heard one of these going off:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/shropshire/8644...

I remember some mates and I finding one of these on a track when we were kids. Not knowing what it was we threw it on the floor and started chucking stones at it to crush it.
Guess which bright spark got the big stone weighing around 8lbs and dropped it on to it from directly above? Yup me.
It exploded and I think fragmented some of the stone which peppered my body, badly bruising my torso.
What a prick

[Bish]

Probably some over zealous ballasting as stated earlier.

I was on a Virgin Pendlino up North at about 7am one morning when the window next door to my exploded......luckily they are double galazed and it was only the outer layer. We had hit a lump of ballast and it had sprayed up making the most almighty noise.

[mattdaniels]

A nice lady from London Midland just responded to my email yesterday to say they have checked the control logs and it was "gravel on the tracks hitting the underside of the train".

[john_p]

mattdaniels said:

A nice lady from London Midland just responded to my email yesterday to say they have checked the control logs and it was "gravel on the tracks hitting the underside of the train".

.. thrown up by the dead body you hit