I watch the news often and didn’t even see anything like this mentioned. Has this become so routine that the national media doesn’t consider worth reporting?
This really made my blood boil! The criminals that did this had zero regard for the lives of the people they were endangering. I can only imagine the anguish and rage that the family and friends of the locomotive crew felt after this occurred. As a railfan, I understand now more than ever why many of today’s train crews and management personnel become nervous when they see people near the tracks.
Sad and disheartening.
Have these vandals (should say potential murderers) been caught yet?
It’s a long shot, but I wonder if the railroad offered a reward, $1,000 perhaps, if the chances of these punks being turned in would increase considerably.
…Wow…I certainly hope they are caught and prosecuted and sentenced to jail, with plenty of time to review what they did and how they will decide to never think of doing something similar again…Ever…!
I hate to say it, but it is rare when the perps in an isolated case of vandalism are apprehended and punished. When the perps try to reprise the acts, their potential to be apprehended increases.
I see people are attacking my generation again. Where in the police report where they caught these vandals, did it say they were kids? Oh wait, THEY HAVENT BEEN CAUGHT! With some of the adults ive seen, It would not surprise me in the least if an “adult” had done this.
Coburn - they are playing the odds that this was someone between 9 and 25. No direct reflection on your generation - just that the odds are good it was someone younger than say Mudchicken…
In my experience, just because someone is old enough to be an “adult” doesn’t mean they know how to act. Back when I was working for the police department, we had some vandalism, or at least an attempt at it along the BNSF, just outside of Clyde. One of the idiots apprehended was a 27 year old, and supposedly, it was his idea to go and do what they did…
Moving a tree stump big enough to cause a derailment needed at least 2 probably as many as 4 people to move it…
I work at plant that builds tracks and supplies track material and there are several guys in ther 40s and 50s that have talked about doing damage to equipment when they are disgruntled or having a bad day. SO it not really a fair assumption that it is always youngsters that do that type of stuff. Fortunately none of them has acted on their claims. Id probably get arrested for kicking their behind.
Although I agree that some older people could have done this (there are a few people on the Forum who were surprisingly old for the way they’ve acted), the “time-on-their-hands” factor would probably drag the likely age downward.
Coborn, we were all young once–it’s not inaccurate to say that wisdom comes with age, and I sincerely hope that however wise you are now (and I’d give you personally very high marks) you will be considerably wiser in another generation or so. Some younger people have no idea of the consequences of their actions (I’m willing to bet that the perpetrators here hung around and watched events unfold), the costs involved in their damage of private property, or the possible consequences if the train were carrying anything but benign commodities. Maybe their seeing the consequences of their action was part of their education, but class isn’t over yet–and won’t be until they feel the consequences as well. Here’s hoping that happens ASAP!
Adults or “kids” it’s equally possible. In 1939 twenty four people were killed when the City of San Francisco derailed in Nevada as a result of someone removing a number of spikes and dislodging a rail. Despite the offer of a big reward and intensive investigation by the FBI and state and local authorities the perp was never apprehended. The prevailing theory was that it was done by a disgruntled employee or former employee of the railroad and not by any “kids”.
How did a stump large enough to derail a train get on the tracks? It could have been carried there by several people, teenagers or adults, but that’s a lot of work. I think it more likely that it was chained up and pulled onto the tracks by an ATV in which case it could be the work of just one person regardless of their age. Unless the perp is foolish enough to “brag” about how he wrecked a train it’s unlikely he’ll be caught and punished.
When I lived in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan I was sickened how many times I found pieces of lumber, large rocks and other similar things placed right on the rails. One day I saw some youngsters place lumber right on the tracks. I caught them red handed. All they said “they didn’t do it” I lectured them on how a derailment could kill the train crew involved and made them take the lumber off. I wonder if they learnt a lesson.
Its all fun and games placing pennies on the track…till this happens.
Seriously, no mercy for the guilty, if these idiots had derailed something going faster and hauling some nasty like chlorine, these idiots could have found themselves in a deathcloud of there own making, along with alot of other innocent people, tar’n feather’em!
WOW!! I didn’t hear about this one, and I am not too far away. Thanks for posting the info Antonio.
As noted before, that must have been one heck of a stump!!! It is amazing what folks will do. I was on the Mule heading back to St Louis a few years back and the train ran over a shopping cart wile I was looking out the window of the back door. That was a heck of a light show. I didn’t feel much especially since they were running Superliners on it at the time for whatever reason.
Thank goodness for statute of limitations, huh… Mr. Roy Spellman of Elmwood Park, New Jersey? [:-^]
Sorry, but I cannot imagine posting something that amounts to an admission of guilt to a crime so condemned, hereabouts especially, and not expect to recieve a lil’ grief about it. No doubt, what you did was wrong, [V] but at the same time I can’t help but get a chuckle thinking about it. [(-D]
Well, nobody got hurt and no significant (or any) damage to railroad property so… no harm, no foul, I suppose. [X-)]
In an honest attempt to empathise… I’ll bet you experienced an adrenaline rush the moment you realized what you had done and that it was too late to undo your work. I’m sure your heart started racing and fear overcame you in a big way. [:O] Did the thought of sharing a prison cell with someone else who did something worse than you cross your mind? I’ll bet it did. It would’ve me.
Yes… I believe that and the subsequent guilt was punishment enough. []
If I remember correctly, some teens were spotted putting debris on the tracks earlier in the day. The police were summoned but the kids were gone by the time they arrived, so the police removed the debris. However, some time later the stuff was obviously placed back on the tracks unobserved and the train struck and derailed. I think that was the scoop posted on this forum back when it happened. Jamie
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