Media centre

Monday 9 Feb 2004

NETWORK RAIL RESCUES BOY’S PRECIOUS SCHOOL FOLDER

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

Schoolboy Cameron Crocker thought he had seen the last of his school folder when he tossed it in the air and high winds blew it on to the railway line. Cameron, six, a pupil at St Anne’s Infant School, Bristol, was crossing Langton Court Road bridge with his mum and grandmother after school when his folder met its fate. Mum Gina Grohmann thought she had little chance of getting back the folder, which contained all his school work. The bridge crosses the main Bristol to London Paddington railway line near Bristol Temple Meads station and high speed rail services regularly use the lines. But Gina contacted Network Rail and within 24-hours the folder was delivered to her door by Network Rail’s Mobile Operations Manager, Gerry Davidson. “We were walking across the bridge after I had collected Cameron from school and he was throwing his folder up in the air. It was very windy and a gust just caught it,” said Gina, of St Anne’s Bristol. “I contacted Network Rail but never thought I would see it again. I certainly didn’t expect to get it back within 24 hours. He lost it at 3.30pm and the next day I had a knock on my door at 2.30pm. I am very grateful to Network Rail.” -more- Schoolboy 2 Gerry Davidson said a colleague had looked for the folder first, but had failed to find it due to fading light. Gerry himself has checked the next day and found it among undergrowth along the side of the track. “It took a while to find but I was very pleased to be able to return it to Cameron,” he said. “It is very important that Miss Grohmann contacted us rather than try to retrieve the folder herself. Railway lines are every dangerous so, if anybody find themselves in a similar situation, they should contact us and we will do our best to assist.”