Chicago Train Robberies

[writesong]

I reckon everybody in this forum has probably seen this news report, but just in case anyone hasn't, here is the URL:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-chicago-railroad-thefts-20170303-story,amp.html

 

[Rialroad Coal Man]

Theft from trains in Chicago is nothing new.  When I worked there in 1967-1968 and again in 1970, it happened on a regular basis.  The Erie yard looked like an armed camp due the number of heavily armed Special Agents. On the PC in 1970, we were not allowed to run any cargo on the line between 59th and 55th street.  We could run the wrecker and lite engines that way, everything else had to go around via Brenice and Coalour.  Any car with friction bearings left standing for any period of time would have the brass stolen.  A common trick was to place a concrete block on a rope from an overpass to shatter the windshield so that the crew would stop due to the glass in their faces and thus be able to rob the train.

[Norm48327]

Pretty common in Detroit too. The section from Delray to downtown is known to crews as "The Ho Chi Min Trail". If they have to stop for a signal it's likely the bad dudes will part an air hose so they can take what they want before the train moves or the cops get there.

[Firelock76]

I was surprised to see these guns being shipped by rail, saw the story in my local paper this morning.  When I worked for a gun company back in the 80's, retailer and distributor, we always recieved our shipments by truck.  They came point-to-point, directly from the manufacturer or importer directly to us, few or no stops in between.  And in this case, it was a 111 gun shipment, not enough to fill a boxcar by any means.

Of course, we had no rail spur, but still...

I wonder who the recipent was supposed to be? 

And if this is the same story in my local paper, the theft occurred in 2015. Why is it making the news now?

[BaltACD]

Firelock76

I was surprised to see these guns being shipped by rail, saw the story in my local paper this morning.  When I worked for a gun company back in the 80's, retailer and distributor, we always recieved our shipments by truck.  They came point-to-point, directly from the manufacturer or importer directly to us, few or no stops in between.  And in this case, it was a 111 gun shipment, not enough to fill a boxcar by any means.

Of course, we had no rail spur, but still...

I wonder who the recipent was supposed to be? 

And if this is the same story in my local paper, the theft occurred in 2015. Why is it making the news now?

I am suspecting the shipment wasn't in box cars.  Trailer or container is much more likely.  With only 111 guns, my bet is on a UPS or FedEx trailer/container.

[Firelock76]

Balt, that makes perfect sense, never thought of trailer or container on flat car.

[CShaveRR]

UP's ex-CNW Rockwell Sub used to be the worst for this.  We've had employees injured while trains were stopped on this line (as they almost always had to be, for entry into Global 1).  The line is, as is usually the case in Chicago, above grade, with the tracks crossing every street on overpasses.  Also, with tracks abandoned but overpasses nort removed, it's one great big field of nightmares.

The combat tacktic I've heard about are a police escort on that subdividion for all intermodal trains, better control of interference at Ogden Junction (the end of the sub near Global 1), removing trackage up there and replacing it with a road for the gumshoes, and surrounding the right-of-way with strong fences topped by razor wire.  

My first transfer run was down the Rockwell line back in 1971 (my second start for the railroad), and when the train went into emergency I was the one who had to walk back along the train.  Fortunately I didn't have to go back into the wild area before finding it.  This was before intermodal was such a big thing, and it was either a transfer containing mostly EL or C&O freight.

The other side of the main line was another place where they'd get us.  Trains from the north, heading into our old 40th Street Yard would have to make a mandatory stop at the interlocking at Cragin (crossing with the MILW west line).  If you stopped there and couldn't get your train started again, something nefarious was probably going on, and an anglecock would have been turned somewhere.  It was the boxcars that were getting broken into at that point.