FOR MANY YEARS THE NORWEGIAN RAILWAYS CARRIED RIFLES in the locomotive cabs.  Not to fend off Butch Cassidy, but to euthanize wild animals that had been struck by the train.  The locomotive drivers’ union has been protesting the removal of the rifles and now the railway has relented partly.

Aftenposten (Oslo) is reporting:

Norwegian State Railways (NSB) and the Norwegian National Rail Administration (JBV) said that a range of other measures are also underway to reduce the number of accidents involving trains and wild animals, newspaper Nationen reports.

Several hundred animals have been left suffering along railway lines after engine drivers lost the right to have access to a weapon to shorten their agony.

Now the weapons are being replaced on two of the routes most exposed to this problem, but the rifles have had their bolts removed, which has not pleased drivers.

“Those drivers who want it can get the gun bolt before the journey begins,” said NSB information chief Åge-Christoffer Lundeby.

“This is the first step towards getting the old arrangement back. We want usable weapons, safely secured, on all trains,” said Øystein Aslaksen, head of the Norwegian Locomotive Workers Union.

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