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Disgruntled employee steals, crashes coal train
Can we say Micheal Douglass in “Falling Down”. I read this with shock and amazement. I thought how could a person just steal a train and do all this. This takes “sticking it to the man” to a whole other level. Wow! He’ll have a good story to tell in the joint anyway.
I hate to jump to conclusions without all the facts, and I realize I am being judgmental here, but my initial reaction is that Derek Skyler Brux is an utter imbecile.
Ha ha…sheeez what a moron
When guilford took over the maine central they got rid of there union and some one crashed 8 gp7’s and 1 u18b on a curve and ended up in a river it took 8 months to retrieve and fix them.
What an IDIOT! He’ll have plenty of time to brag about it during his lengthy “marriage” to Bubba or Thor while he’s in prison!!
Sounds like fun to me 
(PTC would prevent this, right?)
I know its a pain, but how about locking these engines down when not in use?
Video games have ruined America’s young men.
How about retina scanning for engineers prior to a locomotive being enabled so something like this never happens again? Lucky no one was killed…imagine if he passed some non-gated crossings without sounding the horns…frightening thought.
How did he get his hands on the ignition keys?? Right.
This guy is an absolute MORON. A nice fifty year stint in the slammer would be appropriate.
In Europe they have activation keys for locomotives. Only the operator may possess one and even he must collect that key at the beginning of the work day from the proper authorities (and sign for it) and must return that key to the proper authority at the end of his run (and sign it back and obtain a receipt for it in as well). The locomotive will not operate and cannot be moved without the key. Even diesels have them and the controls are very tight. Might be time to look at similar controls in North America. Even in operations where subcontractors are operating a railroad’s locomotives in order to spot cars or laod a unit train these controls are necessary. Talk about having a bad day! I guess!
I’ll tell you what boys, the LAST thing I want to hear from anyone is “this is a sick individual and this is his cry for help!” Nonsense! He’s not a sick individual, he’s an irresponsible bum. It’s only by the grace of God he didn’t kill anyone.
Send him away for a long time, or even better, give him a pick and shovel to clean up the mess he made.
It’s all about him. HE was having a bad day, so what ? HE didn’t give a damn about the consequences to his family, friends or fellow employees.“Dittos” that nobody was injured or killed. Very selfish, self-centered individual and deserves nothing less than a HUGE fine and LONG prison sentence.
Yes, PTC would prevent someone from moving a locomotive or train without authorization. First, the operator would have to enter his employee code before the controls would be activated for use. Furthermore, if it was not being operated within the parameters of safe operations, PTC will stop the movement automatically.
Where does PTC have to be installed? This line carries no passengers and I don’t know if it carries hazardous materials. Does traffic volume alone require PTC?
Man, we’ve all had some bad days at work and felt like acting out somehow, but taking a train for a joyride? Wow, that beats just about anything I could have come up with! But in spite of doing something really dumb, at least he did call dispatch; that may have saved lives.
It is not clear from the story, but some of the mines in the area have their own crews that move the trains during coal loading, freeing the BNSF and UP crews to go get their HOS rest. RailLink is a company owned by Genesee & Wyoming that provides this service. While I don’t know the details at this mine, I see North Antelope Rochelle Mine (NARM - Peabody) listed as one of their Contract Coal Loading operations. This means that the person involved probably was working on one of these crews and thus had full access to the trains and locomotives, just as any railroad train crew employee would.
Very good question Landon! I have been wondering about that myself. Still searching for an answer though.