Railway work gets seal of approval

'Albert' the seal was watching over maintenance workers at the Wellington railway yard. Photo / Kiwirail

A seal named Albert had to be shooed away from railway tracks in Wellington by maintenance staff.

Crew were surprised to find the wee mammal overseeing their maintenance work near the Wellington Rail Yards on Friday afternoon.

Traction electrician Caleb Scott said the seal was sitting near the tracks under the motorway overpass, watching them work.

"As we moved along the track doing our work it followed our path from the other side of the tracks," Mr Scott said.

"We notified train control to let them know just in case the seal made a mad dash onto the tracks.

"The seal seemed happy enough watching us from a distance but then decided to make its way across four tracks so we took action to guide it back over to the underpass.

"At first he was easy to be guided and seemed to just follow us but then we needed to gently use a broom stick to guide him in the right direction."

Mr Scott said about three passenger trains had to stop briefly while the seal made it over the tracks.

"Albert, as we named him, then lay down under the underpass and fell asleep. We reckon he must have been tired after all that activity."

Kiwirail said the seal did not cause any delay to services.