Network Rail bosses have spoken out to reassure the people of Bristol that a mysterious blue light being seen at night in the sky over the city isn’t the start of some kind of UFO invasion, but is, in fact, a train.
And while Network Rail have explained that their new high-tech train is one of the most advanced in the country, it is ‘not quite out of this world’, and has travelled from the depot north of Bristol, rather than from a distant galaxy.
People living in Bristol have over the city - and more recently this week, and have been and conspiracy theories about what on earth it could be.
Under certain conditions - thin, relatively low cloud - the light bounces back off the cloud and looks like there’s something bright blue in the cloud itself.
But the source of the light is very much Earth-based and is more Thomas The Tank Engine than Star Trek.
The rail infrastructure organisation have just got a new, and rather large, gadget and they call it their New Measuring Train.
It trundles along the recently-electrified railway lines around Bristol and shoots a blue light up into the night sky, to check for wear and tear on the overhead electrified wires.
A Network Rail spokesperson said the New Measuring Train - they’ve even abbreviated it to NMT - often gets mistaken for UFOs.
“Our measurement trains plays a vital role in maintaining the railway – helping us to spot potential faults before they affect services,” he said.
“The train travelling in the Bristol area last night is certainly one of the most advanced on the network, but it’s not quite out of this world,” he added.
For those who really want to know the details, the blue light is beamed from the roof of the train is part of a measurement system that monitors the amount of wear and tear on the overhead line created by the train pantographs that slide along the underside of the contact wire.
The data that bounces back of the wire is used to prevent something Network Rail call ‘dewirements’, caused by the overhead line braking as a result of the wire wearing too thin.
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