danlefou (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

The train that hit the Reliant 3-wheeler was a Class 150 diesel multiple unit, a lightweight railcar set used for cross-country stopping services. You can see how light it is by the stopping distance from 15 mph. The old guy was lucky that the train was accelerating, not braking, when it hit him. Otherwise he would have been in the middle of the track when the train arrived.

danlefou (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

The loco is a Class 31 general-purpose diesel-electric introduced in the late 1950s and now obsolete on public routes. Several run in preservation, and Network Rail, the track and infrastructure company, have three for hauling their maintenance trains. The one used here is thought to be out of service, and thus expendable if the crash test happened to damage it beyond repair. In some shots you can see the other 31 that pushed it up to speed before letting it coast unoccupied into the car.

MasterMindz4042 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

what kind of train is that?

danlefou (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

The fact that there is no connection is what makes it a JOKE. It's not as if he doesn't drop subtle clues by wearing TWO orange jackets and TWO hard hats, or going on about kids copying their grandparents, or showing a snail, is it? Top Gear, a humorous program about motoring, chose to make both a serious demo of the danger of running the lights at a crossing and a satirical joke about over-zealous safety regulations. They credit us Brits with the intelligence to realise that.

Spiritualseeker2007 (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

Level crossings are a something that should be gotten rid off i cant believe in this day and age we still have them . We put man on the moon but we cant make a crossing for a train under or over a road way

AppleSouffle (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

I'm not seeing a connection here. Even if there were a crash test dummy in the van wearing a high visibility jacket, the van would have still gotten squashed like stepping on an aluminum can. Alas, that they crushed a nice van for this test. They should have used an old, rusty Chevrolet or a Peugeot. So, when a train engine crashes into a little car or a mini-van, the vehicle gets horribly mangled and then it's junk! What a surprise! Who knew?

liamwitdre (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

no hes takin the piss lol

907GSey (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

now see if you wore your high visibility jacket you woulda never got hit by that train. =D haha WTF? really lol

synthplaya (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

poor snail...lol

smartestinUSA (November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am)

was the van demaged by the train that destroyed it?