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Does this bother anyone else ?

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Posted by schlimm on Monday, June 17, 2013 8:55 PM

Randy Stahl

Frankly I don't give a *** if this thread gets locked. I refuse to pander to anyone . I will not speak of the suffering and maiming of railroad men . I spoke my piece, I don't need to see the body's.

 

Randy

You've got my support, Randy.  The poster who doubts your veracity often has posted bizarre stuff in the past.  Apparently he only trusts his hobo [oops, i said a bad word] friends..  This is a serious, criminal issue that requires investigation.  Since it involves interstate commerce, the FBI should get jurisdiction.

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Posted by Ulrich on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 9:18 AM

Serious for sure, but there's no way to stop it so long as railroads remain easily accessible to anyone. Maybe a good start would be really stiff penalties for anyone caught  trespassing on railroad property.

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Posted by UPrailfan on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 9:26 AM

Randy same here I would rather have stuff like this exposed that it IS HAPPENING than in the shadows.  Sorry but the RR's I know near me have seen it also and are Sick of it.  When crew Members are getting maimed and Killed then it is time for maybe the Feds to get involved with Fingerprints off this stuff and seeing if they can find out who is doing this.  Sorry but I myself do not want to see anyone killed by this stuff happening.  What is next for these idiots and when will it stop. 

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Posted by schlimm on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 9:44 AM

I still say the best approach is to find these culprits using profiling, not to try to turn the rails into some fortress.  It's not like there is some massive outbreak of booby-trapping going on nationwide.

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 10:26 AM

I think it will just become institutionalized as a sort of graffiti with sharp edges.

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Posted by Ulrich on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 10:57 AM

Would be interesting to see some stats on arrests made in connection with railroad vandalism. Railroads sometimes employ their own police forces, so maybe some of those folks could shed some light on this.

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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 2:45 PM

schlimm

I still say the best approach is to find these culprits using profiling, not to try to turn the rails into some fortress.  It's not like there is some massive outbreak of booby-trapping going on nationwide.

Solving & combating the problem takes longer than a 60 minute crime drama that we see nightly on TV.

It takes protracted, dull, boring, hard police work.  Carrier police forces actively work on these cases - but they don't get solved as easily as TV makes it appear.  It is the real world and things take longer than 60 minutes.

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Posted by Bonas on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 3:00 PM

http://www.gwrr.com/operations/industrial_switching

Union  members could be upset over non union railroad plant switching?

see-

http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/1051706/contract-in-plant-switching-appeals-railroads-shippers

more on subject-

http://www.rlhssec.org/pdfs/SEL1306.pdf

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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 8:39 PM

Bonas

Please learn to make your links active!

The software of this forum requires you to bracket the link with 'url' and '/url' tags

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Posted by Ulrich on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 10:11 PM

About the only thing one could do is to be watchful and vigilant at all times. Wear  protective clothing, including gloves and safety glasses;  and watch where you place your hands and feet so that at least you minimize your risk of getting injured.  Yes, there are people out there who are trying to hurt you. The police and the FBI probably don't have the resources to address the problem to any meaningful extent.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 7:13 AM

Since I live in Jerusalem, I obviously can jump to a conclusion as to the type of people that may  be involved.  Indeed some, may have obtained railroad employment just for the "education."

And I consider tire slashers and graphitti on buildings used for prayer by any religious group as very very evil, but at least they don't cause bodily injury.   We have peace with our neighbors.  But potentially dangerous stones were thown recently, and the fact that the throwers were probably motivated by events elsewhere and by leaders elsewhere and the perpertators came from outside our neighborhood doesn't reduce the danger of the stones.

But I may be jumping to conclusions.   Our President (Obama) would probably say so.

Stones can break or render opaque a car windshield and cause the driver to loose control.   

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Posted by jeffhergert on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 8:24 AM

Bonas

more on subject-

http://www.rlhssec.org/pdfs/SEL1306.pdf

You realize this last one deals with the customer's employees, not railroad employees, being on strike.  Where railroad management relieves the regular railroad (unionized) crew to cross the picket line and switch the strikebound customer.

There could be some merit to the proliferation of contract switching companies.  I'm not thinking about displaced/disgruntled railroaders so much as possibly those who worked at the industry and previously did the switching inhouse.  Many companies outsource/contract for things that they formerly did themselves.  I could see a facility that had been using it's own people to do the switching at $15-20 hr, contracting out that function to someone paying $8 hr.  I could see someone, especially if let go completely, might be upset and have the knowledge to cause mayhem. 

I think though that the targets are general and not specific in nature.  By doing this, the perp knows they may harm someone, but really can't ensure that it's a specific person or group, such as at a specific yard/facility.

Jeff

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 9:36 AM

Which just goes to show that there is no one source of this mayhem - A similar booby trap may be instigated in one place by a disgruntled employee, another by an unauthorized rider, and yet another by a local hoodlum.  And each can learn from the other by simple observation.

Vigilance, both in prevention of the booby traps being placed in the first place, and in the form of employee awareness and caution, is the answer.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 9:44 AM

unfortunately, the ability to use the internet, extends to problem creators as well as problem solvers.    one person can gain employment just to learn and then quit inform others of what that one person has learned

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 11:15 AM

Smile, Wink & Grin

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Posted by BarstowRick on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 11:26 AM

To answer the OP's original question.    NOPE!

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 11:37 AM

The thing about urban legends is that just because they are an urban legend, that does not mean that they never actually occur.  Every urban legend has some degree of truth to it.  It may have developed over an actual event, and it also may inspire copycat behavior.   But generally, an urban legend is something that is said to be happening far more often than it actually happens.

Razorblade booby traps are a staple of urban legends.  One variety is razorblades in Halloween candy.  Has it ever happened?  Sure.  Is it as widespread as the public has been led to believe?  No, not at all.  And yet at Halloween, everybody talks about it and worries about it.  That is an example of an urban legend.

If there were thousands of documented cases of finding railcar booby traps, and cases of injury, it would not be an urban legend.  But with the federal agencies issuing nationwide alerts, clearly the implication is that the incidents of these booby traps is very high and perhaps rising.  So that is why we need to know what incidents have actually occurred.  Because if it is only a handful, then this is indeed an urban legend because the hype is so much greater than the actual occurrence.

And if that is the case, they hype may be making the problem far more dangerous by publicizing and promoting it.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 12:01 PM

I posted that possibly because I live in Jerusalem, I might jump to an untrue conclusion about the nature of this problem.   But assuming a world-wide problem won't ever affect the railroad industry might also be a false conclusion.   If affected railroaders wish to be detectives, here is a possible program:

If the problem in a specific geographical area affects trucking as well as railroads, garages, filling stations,  etc.,, then there is the possiblity of the worldwide problem being the cause.

Then if there is a charismatic individual in the geogrphical area, who says he represents the Eternal on Earth and who preaches hate for people who have a different mental road to a moral life, I think the source of the problem is evident.

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Posted by carnej1 on Thursday, June 20, 2013 11:22 AM

daveklepper

I posted that possibly because I live in Jerusalem, I might jump to an untrue conclusion about the nature of this problem.   But assuming a world-wide problem won't ever affect the railroad industry might also be a false conclusion.   If affected railroaders wish to be detectives, here is a possible program:

If the problem in a specific geographical area affects trucking as well as railroads, garages, filling stations,  etc.,, then there is the possiblity of the worldwide problem being the cause.

Then if there is a charismatic individual in the geogrphical area, who says he represents the Eternal on Earth and who preaches hate for people who have a different mental road to a moral life, I think the source of the problem is evident.

There were some recent arrests of Jihadi would-be terrorists in Canada who were plotting to derail a VIA train, I gather that is the type of activity you are speculating about?

 The particular incidents mentioned in this thread, however, do not really strike me as the work of international terrorists. More likely digruntled and or deranged individuals...

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Posted by schlimm on Thursday, June 20, 2013 1:10 PM

BaltACD

schlimm

I still say the best approach is to find these culprits using profiling, not to try to turn the rails into some fortress.  It's not like there is some massive outbreak of booby-trapping going on nationwide.

Solving & combating the problem takes longer than a 60 minute crime drama that we see nightly on TV.

It takes protracted, dull, boring, hard police work.  Carrier police forces actively work on these cases - but they don't get solved as easily as TV makes it appear.  It is the real world and things take longer than 60 minutes.

Please don't put your words in another's mouth.  I never said it was a 60 minute, TV crime show case.  Of course it takes a lot of boring legwork and looking through data, especially employee personnel files. it might take several weeks, if lucky; it might take a year; or the case(s) may never be concluded.   I am merely saying it is a lot more efficient and cheaper to look for these perps, who appear to fit a fairly narrow profile, than to have 1000's of guards watching every yard or other area where these incidents might occur.

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, June 20, 2013 1:19 PM

I agree and have suggested a possible shortcut for the pollice work.   For example, was there an employee who quit after a short time and worked on the railroad for a short period just before or after a similar short period with a truck outfit, assuming trucking in the same area has similar problems?

Posibly the charismatic "clegyman" disguises his message of hatred but also preaches the replacement of the Consitution and a democratic form of government with a system used by a foreign country.

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