The general manager of Bally Hooley Steam Railway is calling for the public to keep their eyes open after the train hit railway spike left lying across the tracks on Sunday. 

The 19-ton Bally Hooley locomotive hit the spike at only 5km/hr as it crossed Escape Street but experienced a severe jolt, which went un-felt by the train’s 120 passengers but was noticed by the diver and general manager Peter Lloyd.

Bally Hooley operates only on Sundays and staff conduct a line check every morning before taking passengers, but the spike appeared on the rails sometime between 1pm and 2pm. 

Mr Lloyd said although this incident was a close call, derailment remained a risk, especially since the train could get up to 16km/hr elsewhere on the line .

“All that needs to happen is to lift the flange of the wheel an inch or two clear of the track and all the other wheels can follow it,” he said. 

“It’s really very silly and obviously done by someone irresponsible that thought it might be funny but it has put people in danger. 

“We’d like to ask the public that if they see anything out of the ordinary on the tracks to please call us at the office and let us know.

"It only takes once incident and we could get shut down."

This isn’t the first instance Mr Lloyd has seen of the public interfering with the tracks. 

A length of timber was left across the rails several years ago and Mr Lloyd also reports small rocks regularly left on the sleepers, in addition to children messing with turn signal posts or playing ‘chicken’ with the locomotive and even cyclists trying to cut in front of the train. 

“We just try to make sure it’s clear to everyone that we take all the precautions we can, but there is still 19 tons of locomotive on these tracks and it can’t stop instantly,” Mr Lloyd said.