Man strips underwear to avert train tragedy in West Bengal

UNI / newindpress.com ^ | 12/09/2002

[dighton]

SANTINIKETAN: By stripping and waving his red underpants, a villager averted a major train accident early on Monday at Kopai in Birbhum district.

Nimai Das was relieving himself near the tracks when he spotted a missing fish plate and saw an approaching train. Immediately he stripped himself and began waving his red under pants frantically to stop the Burdwan-bound Rampurhat-Burdwan train service, railway sources here said.

The Howrah-bound Visva Bharati Express had passed some time back and a local train was approaching when Nimai Das spotted the death trap. His presence of mind saved many lives when the train stopped on Sahebgunge loop line near Kopai station, just short of the broken fish plate.

Train services were disrupted for some time.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Okay, I'm not a railroad guy. What is a fish plate?

[KneelBeforeZod]

red underpants? was it superman?

[Damocles]

[dennisw]

This is a brain teaser, right?

[petuniasevan]

That's the plate which connects two rails end to end.

[templar]

red underpants? was it superman?

Well, he was able to stop a speeding train,

[petuniasevan]

Here's a drawing of one:

[AnAmericanMother]

Fish plate holds the ends of two sections of rail together. Replaced the "rail chair" that used to fit underneath the rail ends in the early railroad days.

Obviously the bolts can come loose, allowing the rails to get out of alignment, thus causing a derailment.

Fish plates are a weak point and require a lot of manpower for regular inspection, so most American roads have gone to a welded rail system and use fish plates only at discontinuity points. Another possibility is to use glued or welded fish plates instead of the bolts.

[aomagrat]

Foolish Humans!
Your speeding locomotives are no match for our rancid underwear.
You are DOOMED!!!!!!!!!!

[dighton]

fishplate n : a steel plate lapping a joint of heavy timbers or railroad rails and secured to the sides so as to connect the members end to end.

-- Webster's III.

[AnAmericanMother]

Great minds travel the same channels. :-D

The New York Subway system still uses fish plates (relatively low speeds and loads.)

[Charles Henrickson]

What is a fish plate?

Yummm . . . lutfisk. . . .

[Cagey]

SuperFishPlate

[AnAmericanMother]

Somehow, I was envisioning something more like this:

. . . . although I guess a "shorty" set is more likely in that climate . . . :-D

And I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Bill Grogan's Goat yet . . .

[dighton]

Cool! After a long vacation, Kang and Kodos have returned.

[jigsaw]

Dang, is FR good or what?

Only seven minutes from the original post and there's a photo of the guy's red underwear, all washed!

What a website!

Still, I wonder if when the train crew saw the dude waving his underwear they stopped the train hoping for some sex.

[Savage Beast]

I guess Nimai is a shoe-in for this year's Grogan's Goat Award.

[Charles Henrickson]

[Savage Beast]

Are you prescient or what, Mother? Women just have this intuition...