Stop & Examine

Rail staff to the rescue.

Standing on the platform at Birmingham New Street, waiting for her usual 0703 commuter train, Eileen Lawrence removed her diamond wedding ring to apply moisturiser to her hands… and heard the telltale ‘ping’ as it bounced out of sight onto the railway track below ( writes Lottie Witham).

Bystanders immediately came to her aid - one woman even suggested using her umbrella as a hook to clasp it, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Eileen reported the mishap to a member of staff, and the hunt began. But it took until the next day, when Network Rail’s track section manager for Walsall Phil Heeley was alerted of the incident and enlisted the help of track technicians Adrian Callaghan and Matt Hayes, that station staff were able to come to the rescue.

“In all my 40 years’ service I have never had a request like this one,” says Phil.

“I told Matt he would have to stop the movement of trains with a ‘line block’ before going on to the track, and if the wedding ring wasn’t visible he’d have to move the ballast stone by stone. I even considered trying to get a metal detector if that didn’t work.”

Fortunately, almost as soon as the team went down onto the track, they spotted the ring.

“When you hear about Network Rail in the news it’s often negative. I wanted to share my story about the lengths its staff went to reunite me with my wedding ring,” said Eileen.