In article ,
Pyromancer wrote:
Upon the miasma of midnight, a darkling spirit identified as Jonathan
Morris gently breathed:
Brimstone wrote:

Such things didn't happen until some twenty or so years ago, at least not on
the scale that it does now. What's the reason do you suppose?

TBH, that's not true. There have always been tearaway kids, all through
history. Probably a lot more of them got killed in the past - times
were you could be hanged for stealing a sheep - but there were always
wild and out of control kids.

Quite. First death-by-interaction with a railway engine was, IIRC, in
1812, when a one of a group of children running in front of and across in
front of a train on the Middleton Railway was struck and killed. Vandalism
of trains by children is recorded repeatedly from the wooden-railway era.
It was certainly a problem on the Stockton and Darlington. Of course,
these were far more lawless (and much less law-respecting) societies than
ours..

For real large-scale lawlessness and the railways - the tramways of
Monmouthshire and Glamorgan played a key role in the Merthyr Rising.

--
Andy Breen ~ Not speaking on behalf of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
"Usenet should require licenses;
licenses that can be revoked." (Abigail, in the Monastery)