Why do Railfans steal from the Railroads?
Allan.
Because they want memoribelia.
Alec
becouse they think that if its just laying around in the weeds…it means the railroad must not want it anymore…and it would look great in ther game or train room…
csx engineer
I don’t get it… STESLING IS BAD…But what do railfanns steal?
STESLING is a new word too me. What do railrans steal? I though about stealing a few rocks to crush for ballast on my model railroad.
I picked up two grungy old pins that had undoubtedly seen all their useful life.
Is that so terrible??
In the 1960s, the railways here in Britain were going through radical changes, there was a new corporate image brought in around the same time as the end of steam, instead of the six regional identities and many branch lines were being closed down. In this period many of the old style “totem” station namesigns were “acquired” by railfans, and while the morals of such action is up for debate, it means that alot of old memerobelia has survived and is valued (you’re looking at anything from £500 upwards (approx $800) for a “totem”), items which otherwise would have ended up being thrown away/melted down.
With the way that most railroads and a nasty minority of their employees show anger toward railfans this is NOT the time to try any dumb stunts!
I think we really need to clarify things here. First, if you pick up an old spike in the ballast, obviously rusted beyond any further use to the railroad, you are picking up trash. If you take a switch lantern off a switch that’s still being used, that’s theft, which has been clearly defined as a crime for at least 3000 years. People doing things like picking up spikes would probably be chased off the railroad by employees simply because they believe the next thing you’ll be taking is a lantern (to use the above example). And of course, for safety concerns.
I have picked up a few spikes(including some from the Pacific Electric in Long Beach) and a couple of discarded air hoses but that’s all.Taking anything the railroad is still using is theft and is simply WRONG[:(!]!
As to why railfans steal,sometimes, some moron will think he just HAS to have the builders plate off that brand new GEVO or SD70ACE[:(!].Then the same fan will wonder why he is chased off the property the next time he tresspasses to get that perfect photo!
right on, espeefoamer. I have a small collection of tieplates and spikes, but they were UNDOUBTEDLY used up. Cleaned up real nice, with about $5 of lime-a-way.
Stealing stuff that the railway is using is wrong, and I was once thinking about taking the numberboards off an SD40 that was standing and marked surplus, but I went to get a pencil and paper to write down the contact number. Next time I was there, they were gone. I missed my chance just because I didn’t want to steal…
Matthew
It should be quite simple.
Railroad or any property. If it has not been put specifically in the trash, it’s not there for the taking.
Even if it is in the trash, it may well be the property of the trash hauler.
Will this discussion change anything? No, those who want something that’s not
their’s will continue to take it.
My thoughts.
Dale
Sorry…I just thought it was forgotten…
I grabbed a bad-order tag sitting in the weeds beside of a parking lot where the tracks go nearly through. It had a date a month old, so I figured I was safe. And the box car it was for was nowhere in sight.
What number was it? Or if anything else, was it CN or CP?
Alec
Anyway, my thoughts on this. If it works, or is something that MAY move, dont take it. If its an old switch lock on an abondon line, or a switch key, it isnt gonna be a big deal. But if you take, hmm, an air hose, or a builders plate, or a reverser , thats wrong. Its one thing to take something small, but its another thing to take something that has a purpose. Some of you may say " well, its still there property ". Good for you, but for someone who wants a little memoribilia , its not a big deal. A bad order tag isnt anything to be scared about either, if its not on the car, it doesnt have a purpose anymore.
Alec
Is not stealing simply a matter of taking something that is not yours? How in the world can anyone justify keeping a “found” item located on someone elses property?
Amazing.
BK
I call it,Job stress! LOL!
Allan.
I think the idea is I wouldn’t care if somebody stole from my trash cans, I would thank them. You know the old saying, one mans junk is another mans railroad collection, or something like that. Yes, it still is leagly stealing, but if the railroads don’t care about you picking up their trash. Is it wrong? Not really. If in doubt, don’t take it.
I used to hang out on the New Haven Railroad shoreline route in the 60’s. The NH was not big on MOW (they weren’t big on much of anything) and if you wanted to, you could wander right out onto the westbound main, reach down and pull out a spike from the tie. I was 13 years old at the time. Some of the ties had date tacks labeled “36” on them.
You only had to watch the named express trains sway over the main line at a blistering 40 miles an hour to realize that maybe the main line was not up to par.
I shudder to think what kind of damage I might have done… and had I pulled enough “rusted, obviously past use spikes”… I might have killed someone. Like most kids, I didn’t know any better. Now I do.
Erik