International Railroad Discussion > Meanwhile, in Japan...

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2016/06/29/japanese-train-stopped-in-its-tracks-after-elderly-resident-leaves-vegetables-in-its-path/

Thanks for the smiles. As of now, major news sites have not picked up the story (incident occured June 26, Japan Time), but blogs have covered the story, with lots of potato-related jokes.

The train in question is Odakyu Line's "Rapid Express" which runs between Shinjuku and Fujisawa. The vegetable incident occured on Odakyu's Enoshima Line, branch off the main Odawara Line. On the average, about 9 trains per hour go through the location, so it's still a relatively busy line for being far from Tokyo (about 30 miles).

My guess is that the engineer big-holed the train after seeing unidentified object (potatoes) being dropped by the elderly man, for safety reasons. The English article didn't translate the "safety confirmation (安全確認)" wording from the Japanese article.

What might be puzzling is why the engineer or the crew member went outside to pick up the potatoes to take them off the ROW. I can only assume it was courtesy, so the elderly man wouldn't have to go back in the ROW to pick them up and get run over by the next train. However, that elderly man just stood there, and didn't help him... rude.

Oh yeah, another info not mentioned in the English article. Delay caused by the vegetables was 10 minutes.

They would have waited for the bomb squad in L.A., after running them over.