Drunk man put 25kg of metal on city railway line

Published on 16/04/2004 01:00

A DRUNK teenager who put a piece of metal on a railway line could have caused a train derailment, Edinburgh Sheriff Court has heard.

John Byrne, 19, was yesterday ordered to do 300 hours of community service for placing the 25-kilogram piece of metal on the line at Westfield Road in June last year.

Byrne, of Gorgie Road, Edinburgh, had pleaded guilty to endangering people using the railway line.

Two security guards saw Byrne standing on the line and thought he was going to commit suicide. One went to call the police, while the other kept watch. Byrne took the piece of metal from the embankment and placed it on the track.

He wandered back and forward before taking the metal off the line.

When police stopped him and asked him why he had put the metal on the line, he replied: "I don’t know - stupidness."

Sheriff Noel McPartlin told Byrne: "Had the piece of metal been left on the track and a train struck it, the consequences do not bear thinking about."