You gotta be pretty low-down to do something like this!
Is nothing sacred? [:(!]
Could be railfans with sticky fingers. Could be a trucker with sticky finger. Heck, there’s more than a few fire trucks running around with “Ebay-sourced” (read: stolen and sold on Ebay) horns.
When I was working, we had a industry location where it was convenient for the carrier to leave the engines at the facility while the train the engines had brought to the facility was being loaded. After the engines repeatedly had their horns stolen, we stopped leaving the engines at the location. That location is not that far from the state of New Jersey.
I guess the old saying ISN’T true. People WILL steal anything even if it IS bolted down! [:(!]
PS they probably assumed it was “abandoned”.
Well, as Colis Huntington is reputed to have said:
“Whatever isn’t nailed down is mine! And anything I can pry up isn’t nailed down!” [oX)]
What’s the world coming to? Fire trucks are supposed to go “WoooooOOOOOOoooo, ding-ding-ding-ding!” NOT “HONK!”
Allow me a brief demonstration:
Fans have a bad rep with the pros for being thieves. There’s an awful lot of number and builders plates that were acquired via the “five fingered discount”. Not to mention the occasional larger item. “Take only pictures and memories with you”.
I have argued for many years that these high-value items should be ‘microchipped’ and/or microetched in a way that is difficult for thieves to detect or defeat. Originals modified this way would have little change in ‘historic fabric’ value, and items sold without them could be as easily recognized as guns with the serial numbers filed off.
The Batten Kill Railroad had three different thefts in 2020-2021 (if I remember correctly). Builders plates, an E-unit nose door, and the horn off of 4116. Of course, after these occur, there’s a lot of finger pointing but nothing really happens besides increased security.
And as much as I would love to see a fire truck go by blasting a K5LA, the legality is questionable.
You’ve got that right Harrison, locomotive horns are certainly attention-getters but they ain’t street legal by any means.
Maybe it was a railfan that grabbed it, maybe it wasn’t, we just don’t know. But it’s a certainty that railroadiana collecting can be a mania for some people just as other types of collecting can be manias where common sense and morality goes right out the window:
"I’ve got it, it’s MINE, and no-one elses!"
I’ve said it before, those with collections of railroad equipment have got to find the funds for no-nonsense security. Lights, cameras, alarms, you name it.
And if nothing else, volunteer patrols armed with baseball bats.
Don’t bring a baseball bat to a gun fight.
https://www.wbaltv.com/article/shooting-light-conway-streets-downtown-baltimore/40548856
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IIRC, the E&LS had “fans” vandalizing the two Baldwin sharks that they own.
We had the horns stolen off our snowplow and Jordan spreader last year. Neither are operational so it’s not as big a deal as this M&E locomotive theft, but it’s still theft and the perps had to go to some considerable work to scout the place and then climb up the equipment.
We don’t have builder’s plates out on any of our equipment, they’re all in a safe, secure storage location. The numberplates on both our steam locomotives are painted aluminum replicas.
If that article’s to be believed the victim’s mistake was not leaving the scene after passing through the squeegee crowd. Don’t think with your glands folks, know when to walk away.
Is “squeegee worker” the current annoying euphemism for what we used to call ‘windshield’washing bums’ in New York a few decades ago? Threatening to smear your windshield with dirty water if you don’t pay them off quickly enough?
That’s not ‘work’ in any positive sense of the word. We used to have a word for it: extortion.
Engine 51, the Ward LaFrance rig, made a cameo appearance in the movie “The China Syndrome” and you can hear it’s siren and horn in this clip.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=965230510158088&id=143171525697328&_rdr
Yes, but think back to what happened years back at the Cumberland shop. It’s hard to prevent an inside job when everyone there is volunteer labor. And all it takes is getting a foot in the door to learn how an organization secures things.
Facebook and YouTube are cluttered with images, stories and even “run-by” videos of people who have Nathan chimes installed on their pickup trucks. Maybe they’re unaware of the history of the horns or just believed the seller’s stories about where they came from. But sadly the sellers may have just plain climbed a fence and stole them knowing there’s a market for these rather rare “collectibles”.
Oh yeah! That’s Engine 51 all right!
I wonder if Marco Lopez, Chet Kelly, Mike Stoker, and Captain Stanley are aboard?
Obviously Squad 51 is otherwise engaged. [;)]
A tour of the rig as she sat in the museum prepandemic, plus you can see glimpses of the squad and the original Crown engine 51 nearby. The WLF rig was pulled out during the pandemic closure for mechanical work.