Trainee rail conductor rescues puppy on tracks mid-lesson

theguardian.com:

A puppy spotted on the tracks of a busy London railway has been rescued by a trainee who was in the middle of a train driving lesson.

Stefan Hug, from east London, only started learning to drive a train in January but was forced to stop a Southern service from Beckenham Junction to London Bridge on Wednesday morning after seeing the small black puppy running alongside the train.

The 32-year-old, who was accompanied by his driving instructor Kevin Timmins, said dogs are a rare sight on the railway track but the skills he learned in the classroom quickly “kicked in” as he completed his first rescue mission on the job.

“I think because you talk about it so many times the procedure just kicks in and you just know you need to bring the train to a stand, take a deep breath and think logically the next thing to do,” Hug said.

“Of course, that was contacting the signaller to get permission and authorisation to do anything before we step outside and try to retrieve the puppy.”

The trainee and his teacher collected the uninjured female puppy safely from the tracks, brought her on to a nearby platform and fed her some ham. Authorities are now searching for her owner.

The incident happened at about 7.50 am near South Bermondsey, the penultimate stop on the train’s journey.

“We had just left South Bermondsey,” Hug said. That was our last stop before London Bridge. Shortly before we left for South Bermondsey, I saw the puppy running on the left-hand side of our tracks. I engaged the brakes and brought the train to a stop.”

Timmins praised trainee Hug for his composure throughout the incident.

“Stefan alerted me that he’d seen a puppy running next to the front of the train. He immediately put it into the correct braking procedure to bring the