Category:
1990s

British Rail’s Train Safety Experiment

Jan 1993: In order to find out how close workers could safely stand by the tracks while the new high-speed trains were going by, British Rail announced it would conduct an unusual experiment. It would tether employees to wooden posts located around six feet from the tracks and then measure the force of the slipstream on them as the trains went by at 140 mph.

Although members of the public weren't invited to participate in the experiment, about 50 of them volunteered to be guinea pigs anyway.

Sunday London Telegraph - Jan 31, 1993



It was difficult to find out the results of the experiment, but after some digging I located a postscript printed in the Magazine of the Pennine Railway Society. The test never took place. Faced with widespread criticism, British Rail's Health and Safety Executive cancelled it.

Loco Notion
Barmy BR proposed to tether workers to trackside posts as high-speed trains thundered past at 140mph. Bosses wanted human guinea pigs to stand as close as 6ft 6in to the expresses to test the effect of their slipstream. Rail
union chief Jimmy Knapp branded the idea barmy and suggested BR use Transport Secretary John MacGregor instead.
The workers would have been attached to posts by special harnesses that would allow them to move to the side but not forward. They would have been asked for their reaction after the trains had roared past. The tests would have helped to determine the distances from trains at which staff could work in safety. They would have taken place between York and Darlington.
However the Health and Safety Executive banned the scheme. The tests have been postponed pending further discussions to see how BR could get the information another way.
One disgruntled railwayman described the scheme as harebrained and said he joined BR to drive a flipping engine, not to play flipping bondage games. However a number of civilians have volunteered to take part in the scheme, preferably dressed in leather and chained from head to toe.
The effect when someone stands in the slipstream of a high-speed train is likely to be they'd get sucked under it. If tied to a post perhaps it would suck their boots off, or maybe they'd go blue in the face.
The idea is on a par to that of abolishing the timetable to stop the trains running late.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 03, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Experiments, Trains and Other Vehicles on Rails, Transportation, 1990s

Troll Barbie

Released in 1992. It was some kind of Barbie/troll doll combo. So, nothing to do with Barbie posting inflammatory comments on social media. Though, by coincidence, the first known use of 'troll', as an Internet activity, also occurred in 1992.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jul 01, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: 1990s, Dolls and Stuffed Animals

Struck by falling dog

I posted a few days ago about a woman who was struck by a sheep that fell off a bridge. Here's a similar (but fatal) case of a motorcyclist hit by a dog that fell off a bridge.

So, while I knew that people being hit by falling humans is a recurring phenomenon, evidently so is people being hit by falling animals.

Rapid City Journal - July 18, 1993

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jun 27, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Accidents, Death, Dogs, 1990s

Snake As Tourniquet

I find only three instances of this useful and innovative technique in all my searching. But surely there must be more...?








Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 26, 2023 - Comments (6)
Category: Death, Hobbies and DIY, Medicine, Reptiles, Snakes, Worms and Other Slithery Things, 1950s, 1990s

Jello craving saves man’s life

The lesson here is to not hold back if you've got a craving for a snack. That snack may save your life!

Daily Oklahoman - Feb 27, 1994

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jun 24, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Accidents, Jello, 1990s

The Reserved Embrace Theory

A fringe theological theory, advanced by Rev. Robert Kirsch, holding that a Catholic priest could have sex without violating his vows as long as the sex was passionless. The church rejected his theory.

Albuquerque Journal - Nov 18, 1992 (click to enlarge)



Kirsch died in 2005. According to his obituary, the lawsuit described above never went to trial.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jun 20, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Religion, 1990s, Sex

The Naked Guy of Berkeley

Andrew Martinez attended UC Berkeley during the early 1990s. While there he became known as the "naked guy" because of his refusal to wear clothes — ever. Text from the magazine of the Cal Alumni Association:

Like well-meaning parents, both the University and the city were tolerant of Martinez's "militant nudism"—his own preferred term for what he was up to—at first. For a semester, he was allowed to attend classes naked, and although he was arrested for jogging in the nude one night near the dorms, the charges were dropped after the prosecutor reasoned that nudity without lewd behavior didn't break any laws. It was only after some female students lodged complaints about the Naked Guy's state of undress that the University adopted a rule explicitly forbidding nudity on campus. Martinez was finally expelled after turning up at a disciplinary hearing—naked. The city followed suit seven months later, adopting an anti-nudity ordinance in July 1993. Martinez was the first person arrested under the new law. He showed up at City Hall to protest its passage—naked—and was sentenced to two years probation.

image source: East of Borneo



What became of Martinez:

he made it back into the news on May 21, 2006. A headline in the San Francisco Chronicle that day read "Champion of nudity found dead in jail cell." Years after leaving Berkeley, Martinez had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. According to the article, he had struggled with mental illness for at least a decade, "bouncing among halfway houses, psychiatric institutions, occasional homelessness and jail, but never getting comprehensive treatment." In the end, he pulled a plastic bag over his head and suffocated himself. He was 33.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jun 12, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Eccentrics, Nudism and Nudists, 1990s

Food Bombs

I imagine this would have been the most expensive way possible to deliver humanitarian supplies. Though also the fastest.

Modesto Bee - May 30, 1992



Weekly World News - July 7, 1992

Posted By: Alex - Thu May 18, 2023 - Comments (5)
Category: Food, 1990s, Weapons

Power Athletic Shoes Commercial

Our shoes will crush all opposition and restore the Fatherland!

Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 26, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Dictators, Tyrants and Other Harsh Rulers, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Advertising, Shoes, 1990s

Serial aperitif thief

Philippe Delandtscheer may have preferred to steal aperitif, but that's not all he stole. He was later arrested for stealing meat from a supermarket.

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix - Feb 15, 1996

Posted By: Alex - Sun Mar 05, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Crime, 1990s

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Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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