Horror as rail rivet smashes into playroom
A SCOTS mother has told how she feared a child could have been killed by a chunk of steel rail debris that crashed through the window of her playroom.
Louise Stewart, 36, heard a loud bang and glass shattering before discovering the chunk of metal on her floor.
She suspects the pandrol clip – used to keep tracks in place – was knocked loose by a passing train travelling at high speed.
The childminder and her husband, Iain, live beside a railway line in Carnoustie, Angus, with their daughter Jeannie, six, and one-year-old son, Dougie.
Mrs Stewart said: ‘We heard a loud bang at 6am [on Wednesday] but the door was closed, so I didn’t realise what had happened until I walked in [later] in the morning.
‘It’s been sliced off the railway track and smashed my doubleglazed windows and dented the cupboard door. I use that room as a nursery when I look after kids, so I’m just thankful nobody was in the room. Glass is shattered everywhere, all over the toybox.
‘It could have killed someone had they been in the room. Children are usually in the room.
‘When I saw it I thought someone had chucked something through the window but then I saw the clip and realised it was from the railway.
‘My neighbours said they heard a train going past us really, really fast. I don’t know if it was speeding. It makes me worried.’
Mrs Stewart said the playroom had been her daughter’s bedroom until three weeks ago, when they moved her to the room next door. She now fears the bill for repair work is likely to be substantial, adding: ‘There’s no talk of compensation or costs of repairs but Network Rail says there are no missing clips on the railway.’
Network Rail has launched a probe and inspectors confirmed the metal loop is a pandrol clip. A spokesman for Network Rail said: ‘We are speaking directly to the resident and investigating.
‘Our engineers have inspected the line and there are no clips missing from the infrastructure.’