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Thieves steal more than $100,000 of equipment from stored reefers
Why were the Refrigerator Cars not in service?
What customers were using the Refrigerator Cars?
DANIEL CARLETON from FLORIDA said:
When are we going to start investing in surveillance drones?
This will not solve the problem of greed.
When are we going to start investing in surveillance drones?
A whole $1,000 reward??? Whoop de frickin’ doo.
David Streeter says it very well. Uncle Pete shows his lack of interest with the tiny reward.
There were a few miles of stored box cars on the San Ramon branch. The rest of the story about when they were put there I don’t know, but we tied on and I “bridged” the S-6’s brake valve to give the brakemen some air to carry back when they walked back to the cut. On my side, the brakeman turned around at the third car, came back and cut off the engine.
Journal bearings, the “solid” configuration were brass then and it seems that an automobile jack could lift the 1/8th of the mty cars weight off any journal bearing.
How many days pay for security would equal the cost of buying and replacing hundreds of brasses.
And then there are the car shortages the brass-less cars could ameliorate.
The thieves are likely card-carrying members of the Drug Establishment. Their duties are to steal anything of a scrap value, usually untraceable, and sell it to anyone with cash, that can be quickly converted into illegal drugs for personal use, or sale to others. Until we secure these “resources,” we’ll have RR cars bumping along the tracks without wheels. And I’m assuming there will still be tracks!!
Sorry…'tis me again. When the Oregon Short Line (now U.P.) built the mainline through Southern Idaho, the line was built waaaay south of Boise, avoiding the town altogether.
Eventually to serve the passenger depot, the OSL built a loop that left the mainline out in the desert and looped into Boise and rejoined the mainline back in Nampa, Idaho.
After passenger service was terminated, U.P. started using the loop for storing unneeded rolling stock. The track is deep in the desert, with only rabbits and snakes for company.
The only people to see the cars would be farmers, and the occasional escapee from the state prison.
Easy and safe pickin’s, and a railroad that possibly didn’t care?
@Timothy Barham: The scrap yard where I take my recylcables has a sign explictly saying the won’t take “railroad iron.” Of course, most of what was stolen here would probably be hard to immediately identify as having come from rail equipment.
DANIEL CARLETON from FLORIDA said:
When are we going to start investing in surveillance drones?
Obama already did. Haven’t been keeping up with the news? Spying on innocent Americans is the new entertainment activity in Washington. But don’t worry. Criminals, like terrorists, will be exempted. If they do get caught by a drone, the evidence won’t be allowed in court.
No surprise here…every one of these cars are covered in graffiti which conveys a total lack of security. Now, thieves have taken a lead from the graffiti vandal. When will the terrorist?
How about $1,000.00 reward for anyone finding one of these refers free of graffiti?!
The UP yard in Fresno CA has started working with the Homeland Security Department on catching criminals, vandals, and trespassers and using the updated federal Patriot Act laws to prosecute them, this is a little known program that Homeland Security and railroads are looking to expand nationwide with the green light from the current administration.
Wow. some real good security, UP.
Reefers will now need their mechanical components built within the carbodies.
Where were the UP police? Ooh - they were there to write up the reports and take pics after all the damage had occured.
Absolutely amazing. Three hunderd rail cars ( All Reefers?) stored some place and the owner so completely disinterested in them. There was apparently, not even a casual daily security effort. With those reefers slung on the random ends of the cars, you could imagine that the thieves woul have had at the very least, Ladders, cutting torch rigs, possibly, (at the very least) a truck equipped with an A frame style lifting winch. They apparently, were able to pick and choose their items to steal at their leisure.
You could also bet that they did not siphon the diesel out of those cars with a small gas can and a siphon hose. Sounds to me, like some crooks with some pretty good inside information??? Around here the Salvage Yards, not only record Driver’s Licenses, but many take a photo of the person selling the questionable items…
The only way this will stop is when the authorities start giving the scape yards huge fines for taking stolen RR property.
I’ve been to that siding in the past. It is out of the way and out in the middle of “no where,” It is not easy to get to and the dirt road (if you can call it that) is not good. You would need a big 4X4 to get that stuff out of there.
This is no different that the guys that hook on to freeway utility cables with a truck and take off, pulling hundreds of feet of cable out and causing a deadly situation for everybody. These people are pigs and idiots and could give a rip about any damage they cause…