Just found this while surfing. They should be able to shoot people like this on the spot.
Unbelievable !
Just when you think that you have seen, heard and read it all.
Rich
I would like to know how they picked it up. I tried to pick up a 4’ section once that was in a scrap pile beside the tracks. I couldn’t budge it and I’m a big dude.
Thats nothing! In my city the thieves are stealing manhole covers and sewer grates from the streets for scrap sale. This is causing hefty repairs for car owners. Not to mention how dangerous to drivers and bicycle riders. Another good one to mention.Last Christmas the shipping company I work for had about 30 brand new leased semi trailers parked in a remote lot for the extra christmas shipping. The thieves came in at night and stripped every inch of copper wire from each trailer. Also in my area they steal the wire and copper pipes from the job sites. Most new homes are all PVC piping now. Sure is shame what this world is comming too.
Another down side it makes it rough on railfans.
I agree, I can tolerate a lot of different charcteristics in people, but a theif is a chicken #@^% peice of trash that needs to be disposed of.
Once you have something taken from you that you worked hard for, you would problably feel the same way too.
Just my anger at this moment, Truck.
What is truly unbelievable is the theft of bronze plaques from cemeteries. Those people should be shot! Around here there are quite a few houses with outdoor showers. Thieves have been ripping off the copper pipe for the showers while the homeowners are in the house. A car dealer last year had 35 catalytic converters stolen out of new cars on the lot. The thievery is getting way out of control.
Pete
Thats nothing , thieves here stole the 600 volt cable from the engines parked on a siding. The engines were on auto start because of the cold weather, could you see those guys if the engine would have fired up. There were three dash nines that they took the cable from. Its about 6 inches thick and about 50 feet long, couldn’t imagine trying to carry that let alone try to haul it and find some scrap yard to buy it. Most scrap yards here take your pic and copy your license and your plate numbers. Jim.
This is a job for Isaac Bell and the Van Dorn Detective Agency…(for you Clive Cussler fans.)
I’ve seen people come home from work to find flooding in their basements because the copper plumbing was stolen. And someone actually stole 2 bridge support sections out of a scrapyard. How do you walk off with 10 tons of steel? lol That one sounded like an insurance scam to me.
Nope, it doesn’t make it any easier on regular Railfanners when SHTUFF like this happens.
Here in my area there are a few scrap and recycle dealers. I don’t know if it is local law or NY State law, but recyclers and scrap dealers now have to record WHERE the scrap came from, WHEN they aquired it, HOW they came to its possession, AND FINGERPRINT AND Drivers LIcense copy anyone turning in SCRAP NOW. IF it IS odd stuff…like 600 volt cables, manhole covers etc, too much copper plumbing or wiring for non-contractors, they have to notify police as such stuff does nto come by just anyone easily!!! Then the police get involved before any payout or scrap is takem, OTHERWISE the dealer can be heavily fined and put out of business!!!
Hope this law spreads like wild fire everywhere!!!
Unfortunately, thieves ain’t exactly the brightest stars in the sky. Otherwise they wouldn’t be thieves. While I’m sure there are unscrupulous scrap dealers out there who would gladly break the law, it’s better than even money that either the thieves had some means of melting it down themselves, or they got their half-ton prize to a scrap yard, only to find they couldn’t dispose of it.
Laws like this only work as a deterrent if people know about them.
Ah, but the dealers have been informed and follow the law {at least in most cases} {at leat around here anyways}. At least the RESPECTABLE scrappers and recyclers do.
If someone shows up with something like manhole covers or RR rails or such, they will surely caught attention. Especially if manhole covers turn up missing in the roads the dealers travel on!
This whole business is why I’m somewhat skeptical about the idea of massive electrification of rail lines running through the approximate heart of nowhere…
Some years ago the live steam model railroad in Hagen Park, Rancho Cordova, CA, had some hundreds of feet of rail stolen. Imagine showing up for a live steam meet just to discover that there was no rail on the right-of-way.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I hope that this act was indeed nothing more than theft and not a deliberate act of terrorism. If you remember upon the death of Bin Laden, the CIA discovered plans in his possesion depicting acts of terrorism against potential railroad targets. I hope this wasn’t a “dry run” to see what it would take to cause a derailment so that it could be put into action on a busy commuter line.
It was thought that the first bombing attempt at the Twin Towers back in 1993 in the lower parking garage was a test to see what it would take to bring down the tower. We all know what happened 8 years later.
On a different note, the person from CSX stated that at least 2 people were required to pick up the 900 lb rail segment. If thats the case I would not want to get on those two guys bad side. I remember having to install a 600lb flitch plate in a house we were building years ago. It took 9 of us to safely carry and install the thing. There is no way 2 people alone picked up this piece of rail unless they had some type of mechanical help.
Stealing railroad steel is not a new thing. My dad told a story about when Santa Fe was replacing the tracks that came trough town thirty years ago, that someone stole around 10 TONS of rail spikes and spike plates. It turns out that some scrap dealer in another town was looking for a big bargain and decided to help himself. When the Santa Fe company investigated his scrap yard, they found everything that belonged to them was on his property along with some stolen rail from a siding that belonged to Missouri Pacific.
At our local rail museum we had 2 39’ track panels stolen from us 2 years ago. We know who did it but can’t prove it and there is a political situation here that will most likely prevent us from doing anything about it. This guy has been busy ripping up the local RR infrastructure mostly legally, but he saw our panels on our property and decided to help himself. Supposedly, he did remove some rail from an active Rr in the area, and is facing charges for that. We have our rolling stock fenced in and that’s probably the only reason we still have all of the brass bearings on the trucks!
Evidently here in Omaha, someone was stealing the piping off the UP Big Boy they have on display. The original piping has been replaced with something less valuable.
Ricky
Musta gotten the idea from October Sky - remember when the rocket boys were looking for ways to find their rocket building, they ripped out a rail, 4 of them exhusted just rollign one section of rail out, then they hear the train coming, and look at one another, and the one guy says “I thought you said this line was abandoned?” then they struggle to try and get the rail in place and finally give up and run down the tracks hoping to stop the train, only to have it go off on a siding through a spiked turnout with the engineer (O Winston Link) waving at them.
No way just 2 peopel carried off the rail. But thieves and mischief makers get smarter all the time - I used to belong to a model railroad club located right along the tracks, very poor condition but still in use, so any trains ran VERY slowly. Some vandals pulled the pin about 6 cars from the end (what they thought they would then do with the 6 empty flat cars I have no idea) which of course put the train in emergency. But by the time the conductor got about to the middle of the train, the engineer caleed over the radio that air was comign back - so the vandals managed to close the angle cock on the last car, otherwise no way would the pressure come back up. Back a little furhter they found the seperation. Other than a delay I don’t knwo what they hoped to accomplish - maybe they thought the last few cars would roll back the way they came and cause some havoc, but it wasn;t downhill all the way so they likely would never have made it to occupied track.
–Randy
I knew someone would bring up the “T” word. The reason that terrorism works so well against America is that Americans are so easily frightened.
The bomb in the parking garage at the World Trade Center was not a test for anything, it was a failed attempt. The reason the buildings fell down in the fire on 9/11 was that they were very poorly designed. You give way to much credit to a loosely formed band of primitive criminals.