It’s a crime that has railroad crews puzzled and concerned.
Police are investigating a train derailment Saturday night that happened when an unknown person climbed into an unlocked BNSF Railway Company locomotive near downtown Lawrence, Kansas and started the engine moving. It got up to 14 miles per hour and traveled about 200 yards before hitting a derailing lock and going off the tracks.
According to an event recorder in the engine, someone began tinkering with controls inside the engine at 21:59. By 22:04, the engine was moving.
“We’re surprised somebody could figure out how to do all that and get it going,” conductor Ira Breece said.
BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg said it’s not unusual for engines to be left idling, especially during cold weather. Engines also are left unlocked and running at times, he said, but in those cases crews normally remove a piece of equipment from the engine that will keep it from running properly.
“Had procedures been followed fully, ideally this should not have been able to happen,” he said. “That’s part of the investigation. We’ll see where that leads us.”
The railroad company is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to the person responsible. Anyone with information is asked to call (800) 832-5432 and refer to complaint case No. 179.
Forsberg said about $1,000 damage was done to the engine, which was lifted back onto the tracks with a crane and taken to Topeka for repairs. - Eric Weslander, The Lawrence Journal-World, courtesy Larry W. Grant
What has bin laden got to do with someone (and we can guess who) that takes a train for a ride, goes 200 yards at 14 mph, and this would NOT be classified as a “hijacking” but someone will get a slight talking to for leaving the loco unattended. relax, just relax.
Im sure many of us could get a locomotive moving. That doesn’t make it a good idea. Thankfully it hit the derail. I am guessing whoever did it got away.
According to the article, it took the culprit 5 seconds to get the engine moving…this person must have been up in a locomotive cab before to figure it all out that quick…either a vandal, or perhaps someone disgruntled that has some basic knowledge of a locomotive…
It is not at all ard to move a locomotive, even on our tourist line we ALWAYS REMOVE THE REVERSER BEFORE LEAVING A LOCOMOTIVE UN OCCUPIED, why can a little 23 mile museam operation remember somthing that I thought was a manditory safety procedure?
and the bin laden garbage is all propaganda. bush with all his low approval ratings and other assorted bad press…hmm, lets throw a video out there about bin laden keep people ‘scared’…“we’re gonna get him!”
No, probably about 2% of the non railroad employees could get moving and operate a tied down train. Yes, btw, I know how. It is a long process involving non msts stuff.
dwil
one minor point, according to the post it took the perpetrator 5 minutes, not 5 seconds to get the locomotive moving after they started trying the controls. So I would say it wasn’t someone with experience, as it took some experimentation. If the reverser was removed, and the person was trying to jimmy the control stand, then I would start looking closer to the railroad.
As a fellow railroad employee, I fully agree that there is simply no excuse for not taking the reverser out of the locomotive (or at least out of plain view). It’s very unlikely that a suspect like that would happen to have a reverser on him / her.
A shame that railfans will be scrutinzed even more.
Farmer93,…of course terrorists wouldn’t be dumb enough to pull a stunt like this off. However, don’t dismiss the Bin Ladin threats as propaganda.
Even the “anti-Bush” journalists in Europe are warning us that the threats are credible and not to overlook them as we did back before 9/11/01 when the French warned us.
This must have been extensively planned out and researched, and/or he must have been a railorad employee, because as I said above, normal people, even railfans, can not get tied down trains rolling!