zugmann
I have found a total of ONE torpedo. Long forgotten in the box on a foreign line locomotive. [snip]
[snip]
As a former disaster control responder, I was told to isolate any unidentified or known explosive device, clear the area of personnel and wait for a qualified EOD team to deal with it. I also got to re-calculate the safety zone around each parking spot where a bomb-loaded F-4 might be parked (it was big, and got bigger.) If, on the other hand, I recognized it as reasonably harmless (grenade with the pin still in, or a pipe nipple without an explosive charge) I could simply remove it and turn it over to EOD when they arrived if potentially explosive, or to recycling if it was simply scrap.
So maybe the conductor saw something he didn't recognize that was actually not an immediate hazard, recognized as such by the responders. Sounds to me as if everyone involved did what they were supposed to do.
Chuck {MSgt(ret) USAF]