A FRONT-page news report with photograph on the subject was published on January 16 in a local English-language daily. It could well be the ‘news of the year’ for this surprising and definitely a rare event.
One wonders of the reason for this astonishing act of the woman; a contractor’s employee working on cleaning trains. Also, the ease with which she could drive away with a parked train, after entering the train depot. Possibly, once inside the driver’s cab, all that needed to be done was to turn on the key, and switch on the starting button or lever; and the train moved. For a steam train, the work of starting it is by far more difficult.
It takes some effort to operate the lever of main steam valve to the steam cylinders, for starting the driving wheels to turn. All this is to be done, after the boiler is stoked up with coal, or the fuel valve to the boiler is put on and ignited. Then, only when working steam pressure is achieved can the steam valve be opened.
For the woman it was easy because being a known face as a regular train cleaner, no one noticed her going into the train depot and entering the driving cab of the locomotive. Maybe, Swedish Railways will now think about security procedure before an electric train can start.
Possibly they can incorporate a password known only to the driver and different for every locomotive, to guard against it being started by anyone, so easily. I am sure readers will appreciate it if you provide further news about the matter, if and when the reason behind this hijacking is known and published in Sweden or Europe.
SA Mansoor
Dhaka