Stolen Goods

[dknelson]

Check out the newswire post on the thefts from the Strasburg Railroad -- unforunately it sounds like knowledgable railfans (if that is the right word -- who wants to share a title with these jerks?) were involved as they chose items with unerring instincts for value and rarity.
The number plate for #90 is so darn familiar to fans though -- how can they hope to sell this? Sure hope they don't panic and dump the stuff in a river never to be found again. Sooner or later stolen stuff has a way of being found.
Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

Yea Dave, kind of reminds me of the theft that happened in the U.P. of Michigan about ten years ago. E.&L.S had their roundhouse broken into, and builders plates and manuals were stolen. Understandably, a once hospitable shortline developed a rather "cold" reception for ALL railfans after that. Too bad, that was home to some of the last Baldwins. They had the "Sharks" at that time, I don't know what became of them..
I did see the sharks once when they were on the Michigan Northern, but at the time, they were shut down and cold.

[dknelson]

one of the most blatant examples of rainfan theft I ever encountered: at Galesburg (IL) Railroad Days there is a display of prototype trains at the downtown depot and then a big swap meet north of town at Carl Sandburg College. I cannot recall if it was GE or EMD that send a new locomotive to be displayed and someone stole the first aid kit in the nose. An hour later it was for sale at the swap meet -- obviously not an old or rare collectible but emblematic of a mind-set some of our "colleagues" seem to have about private property.
David Nelson

[Anonymous]

One of my co-workers used to work for Conrail back in the late 70's early 80's. They were up dateing the signal equipment. As soon as the rail fans seen the new equipment being installed they would go through great risk's to pilpher the old equipment. They would lock up the old equipment in a fenced in area at night. Conrail had intended to donate the old equipment to various rail museum's. When the Conrail officials seen what risk's some of the fans were going through to get this equipment they orderd all the old stuff taken to the nearest river bridge and thrown in the river. They did not want to risk a fan getting hurt and filing a Law Suit. A lot of museum piece's that were still in working order were destroyed because of one or two bad rail fans.
TIM A

[csxns]

Throwing things that big in rivers is against the law.

[douginut]

OK, chuck the THIEVES into the river. a cold dunking at least and if not swimmers no great loss to society.

[csxns]

Dont forget the concrete shoes.

[edblysard]

Hi Tim,
This ought to make you chuckle some. At the PTRA, our tower faces a old SP girder bridge, make by Chicago Bridge and Iron company, around 1900. This this is huge plates of steel, riveted together with hot rivets. Last week, a "fan" decided he wanted the old SP round emblem off the side of the bridge. Around 3 in the morning, he walks out on the bridge, which crosses over a street, and stops in the middle, looking around to see if anyone has noticed him. We are all in the tower, having coffee and goofing off, third shift starts in a few minutes, so no one is working in the yard yet, and its real quite. This guy leans over the edge, and trys to see if he can touch the sign. Thats when we started watching for real. He cant reach it, so he ducks down out of sight, the reappears and sits on the edge of the bridge, then turns around and starts to lower himself down. Now we are really curious, so we get out binoculars, and this clown has hooked himself to a automotive come-along, the ratched type with a 1/4" cable, and is ratching himself down to the sign. He has what looks like a pair of vicegrips and a can of wd40, and starts to work on the sign. Guess 100 years of rust beat the wd40, because he works on those things for about 10 minutes, with no luck. Cars are steady going by underneath him, and no one notices this guy hanging from a cable overhead. Now it 3 in the morning, but still...
Anyway, he gives up on the vicegrips, ratchets himself back up, dissapears again, then, back over the side, this time with a small sledge hammer and a chisel. First wack on the bolts, and that bridge rang like a old broken church bell, justa hugh BONG!!!. This guy looks around some more, I guess to see if anyone has noticed him yet, and then goes to town on the bolts. Got a prety steady rythym going, bong, bong, bong..
he gets two of the three bolts off, and then the light comes on, one hand to hold the chisel, one hand to swing the hammer, so hows he going to catch the sign?. Up top again, (I guess he forgot his batman utility belt) and then down once more, with a piece of string or twine, he treads it through the top bolt hole, ties it to his belt loop and bangs off the last bolt, the sign drops a few feet, and batman is up top again. Reaches over, grabs his twine, starts to pull up his loot, and the twine breaks. The sign falls straight down into the street. The fan looks so shocked, then takes off running, we next see him scrambling down the embankment under the bridge, out into the road and picking up "his" sign. Thats when the PTRA cops, the Port of Houston Cops and HPD all light him up with their spotlights. Mr Batman was so intent on getting the sign, he never noticed that the PTRA Police building is about 10 feet from one end of the bridge. The first bong from the hammer and chisel kinda tipped them off, and they sat there looking out their window, with the lights off, watching this guy, getting the rest of his heist on video. All of that work, to get a sign he could have bought at a swap meet, or a hobby shop for about 25 bucks. This guy took a chance of killing himself, or anyone the sign may have fallen on, plus he was stealing private property. His excuse, well, he claims SP is no more, so the sign was abandoned. The PTRA cop explained that no, the sign belongs to UP, even though Sp is gone, and even so, it surly didnt belong to Batman. HPD charged him with tresspassing, (both ends of the bridge have no tresspassing signs), vandalism, and theft of private property. So, not only did we get to sit on our butts drinking coffee and eating twinkies, we got a show thrown in free!
Aint life good!!
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[edblysard]

Sound sorta like they were filling out a order for someone, themselves or a serious collector. Your everyday garden variety thief wouldnt think of taking those things, they would have stolen easily sold or pawned things, like power tools or supplies.
Scum, nothing but scum...hope the museum keeps the heat on the cops to keep after them.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

A first-aid kit? Man, that's REALLY sad....
What's next? Stealing brake shoes???
Todd C.

[Soo2610]

Ed, Don't know if you made Tim chuckle but you sure gave me a good laugh. I think we can all use a good laugh after reading some of your recent posts on trespassing. Seems to me they are either going a little overboard on the security issue or there is a heck of a lot they aren't telling us.
regards,
Len

[dknelson]

Nobody ever turned to a life of crime because they were just too smart to be brain surgeons ...

Dave Nelson

[edblysard]

Len, Dont know if they arnt tell, or just dont really know themselves. What I do know is some of the chemicals we haul here have, in my opinion, no business going anywhere without a guard. Do you know what hydrocyanatic acid is?
Its used to scavanage, or recover precious metals, gold,silver from liquids. Is a liquid under pressure, and gas at atmosphere. Say you want to recover the gold from a dipping vat, you place the dip solution in a pressure vessel, introduce the cyanide under pressure, and the gold will stick to the hydrocyanactic acid and preciptate to the bottom. Release the pressure, draw off the cyanide, which turns to a gas at atmosphere, and your gold will be speprated in the bottom of the tank, ready for you to recycle. This stuff is exactly what it sounds like, liquid cyanide, and it sits there, in a tank car on a siding, with no one keeping a eye on it. Our time table has a note on the plant that make it, telling us that, if we suddenly smell almonds, or fresh cut hay, to move away and get up wind. I asked one of the plant workers about that, and she laughed. She said if you can smell it, its too late to worry about moving. They take great precautions at the plant. lots of security and stuff, then park the stuff in a unguarded siding. We pull the cars to north yard, they go to a defense plant in upstate Texas. Next time you see a white tank car with a red stripe around the center, length ways, read whats inside.
Stay Frosty
Ed

[Anonymous]

Vandals tick me off!! I used to sell car stereos at Best Buy a few years ago and the storys Ive heard (and had happen to personaly)! These people work harder on ways to bypass alarms and people then if the got off there A** and got a real job. I had people tell me they found there car missing with the alarm sitting where the car was......

As for this Strausburg thing what a pitty! History is not like a car stereo. You canot find another simuar replacement at the local store. These are one of a kind relics. What kind of a dolt would steal this stuff? Its only going to be safe if you never show it or tell anyone about it. Most thevies cannot shut their mouths or cover their tracks that well. I hope these jerkoffs get busted!!
Icemanmike2
PO'd in Milwaukee

[Anonymous]

This is getting to be an epidemic. I saw today the not only Strasburg but the B& O Museum and a private collector were just hit with the same MO.
Whoever is behind this is a person of no redeeming value. We who appreciate the value in the context of their history should all be keeping eyes and ears open to any hint of where this material should show up at any time in the future and report it.

[Soo2610]

You can add the Union Railway museum outside of Chicago to the list also. Just a couple of weeks ago some idiots broke in and spray painted graffiti all over some newly restored CTA "EL" cars. This is the second time in a couple of years that these cars were hit. Brings us back to a previous forum discussion on respect for private property.

[Anonymous]

Igg to think that these people can justify distructon of countless hours of volunteer work and $ to priceless artifacts........I get so angry! I saw some rolling stock that was honnoring the armed forces vandalized on the Wisconsin Southeren lines but WHY??? To be cool.....Pathetic