It's not everyday I have to rescue stray pets from the line - however this one was lucky - the Station Supervisor at Charing spotted a dog running up the track towards Lenham and warned the signaller, who in turn warned me via the radio - thinking this was yet another wind up or false alarm I was surprised to see a black labrador sitting inbetween the running rails on the opposite track.
I stopped the train and after some effort, managed to coax the dog to jump over both live rails - however he refused to jump up into the cab (from track level to cab door it's a good 5-6 foot drop) - so I had to pick him up and shove him in through the door - I never realised how much a wet, muddy fully grown labrador weighed!
Still, the story has a happy ending - after dropping him off at Charing and leaving him in the care of the station staff and local villiage policeman - the dog warden was called out from Ashford and found he had a microchip I.D tag implanted, and 'Blue' was reunited with his owner who lives some miles away from the station.
A minor drama in Charing and aparently the whole villiage is knows about it now! - Poor thing had a lucky escape as the fast Cannon Street service was only a few minutes in the other direction.
