Whale breach now rail brace
AMSTERDAM: An elevated tram ran past the end of its tracks in Rotterdam yesterday, but instead of plunging 10m to the ground from a pier it came to rest on a statue of a whale’s tail.
The conductor emerged shocked but unharmed, and there were no passengers on board. The statue, coincidentally entitled Saved by a Whale’s Tale, had not been intended to actually save a train.
‘‘Of course it does look rather poetic,’’ artist and architect Maarten Struijs was quoted as saying by the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper. ‘‘But it’s really lucky that the tail can bear the weight of the train.’’
Amid calls to leave it as a permanent addition to the artwork, local officials said it would not be safe.
Engineers were studying how the tram car and several others derailed behind it could be safely removed.