A 12-year-old boy who put a bicycle wheel on a Bradford railway has been ordered to spend time learning safety from a train driver.

The boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, will learn about safety issues with Railtrack as part of an 18-hour reparation order after admitting to trespassing on a railway and obstructing an engine.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening behaviour in a separate incident.

Prosecuting, Andrew Mackintosh told Bradford Youth Court how police checking for vandalism on railway property spotted four youths coming off a track close to the Bowling Tunnel one afternoon in January.

After they were arrested, officers discovered a "substantial amount of debris" scattered at the scene.

A wheel was found on the track itself along with a bucket and a bicycle frame. A television set was also seen nearby.

Commenting on the sentence, Northern Spirit spokesman Karen Shipley said: "We treat any act of vandalism extremely seriously and always push for the toughest penalty through the courts.

"Today's result was a welcome step forward and hopefully important lessons will be learned.

"The youth was not only trespassing on railway property but could have caused harm to other people and killed himself in the act."

And secretary of the Rail Passenger Committee for North East England, Ernie Preston, said after the case: "It is amazing that somebody so young is involved in this kind of vandalism, but it is one of the biggest problems facing the railways.

"The number of obstructions increases inexorably year on year and is a major cause of derailments.

"Anybody placing an obstruction on a railway line should be dealt with as severely as the law allows, because the way it is going somebody's going to get killed.

"But in this case we are talking about a juvenile and it seems to be a sensible approach.

"If he gets an appreciation of the possible consequences of his action, and communicates what he's learned to his friends, it might actually do some good."

When interviewed, the boy admitted going down to the railway and putting a bicycle wheel on to the track.

Mitigating, Philippa Murray told the court that he was with other youths who put items on the track and left them there.