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Massive copper theft shuts down New York subway line
Dont high tension wires use aluminum? Use that!
Aluminum requires a larger conductor size to achieve the same power loss for the same amount of current due to a higher resistance, and is also valuable for scrap thieves. Can’t believe that they didn’t electrocute themselves…
It’s a bit more complicated to use aluminum on a DC line due to potential corrosion problems. Can be done, BART uses steel third rails with aluminum bonded to the rails for improved conductivity.
Perhaps the best way to correct this problem is to prosecute the people who are paying the thieves for the scap metal.
Maybe they should make them harder to steal by, say, passing a really high voltage through it so that… I’ll get my coat.
there should be a simple continuity wire strung with the high voltage wire and if the circuit is broken it can be located quickly and the vandals caught, sort of like a fire detection location system. . Have someone monitor the circuit in off times. Aluminum wiring is not practical.
There was vandalism on a catenary to a suburban line near Melbourne, Australia for copper, circa 2010.
How’d they do it without killing themselves?
Pity they weren’t electrocuted.
The thieves may have been well aware of what they were working with, and knew what precautions to take.
Heh, heh, just assume it was an inside job and the fence set up prior.
Have there been no such problems in the past, over in the US?
Cable theft is a pest in Europe. Happens evrey day here.
MTA’s problem with wire theft has been bad enough that now when MTA orders wire for projects they specify that the wire be imprinted with logo’s and lot numbers. NY state changed the law that scrappers can be held financially liable if they are caught with scrap marked with the logo’s.
At $4.25 @ lb for scrap copper this has not deterred thieves nor has the fact that over the years several thieves have been electricuted. Nor the scrappers who also face prison for possesion of stolen scrap.
NYCTA can not use aluminium on the Rockaway line across Broad Channel were the theft occured due to corrosion issues(the line crosses Jamaica Bay).
I guess welcome to Fun City, to quote Mayor John Lindsay(mayor 1966-1973)
The problem is with the “dealers.” They use these dare-devil drug addicts to steal anything and everything. I am surprised the Statue of Liberty hasn’t yet disappeared in the night. The scrap yard owners should be criminally liable for the thefts…
It’s a pity that there isn’t some way to set these cable up to electrocute those that don’t know how to properly deal with them. That would simultaneously solve the theft and recidivism problems.
Great idea!
In the UK scrap dealers are liable if found with stolen metal like this, they are supposed to check. These sorts of thefts occurred all the time in Britain, so we treat cables with smart water to make them traceable. Hasn’t completely stopped it, but it has reduced it a lot. Can’t this be done in the US?
In Norway there has been quite a few cable thefts through the years. Aluminum cables are used as replacements and new installations for signal cables. On a low-traffic line, the thieves cut down the wooden poles supporting the overhead 15 kV line to get the copper wire. The line is in a remote area so the thieves had ample time to do the “job”