If they're this brazen, will your line's supposedly "abandoned" bridge or rail equipment be next?

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake ... ba09b.html

A former Monon steel truss drawbridge was discovered in pieces in the Little Calumet River, the apparent victim of illegal scrapping.

For those keeping tabs, this was an abandoned Monon bridge sandwiched between the State Line Tower and Hohman Avenue Tower, two of the last manual interlockings in the Chicago area. The adjacent NKP bridge/route remains in use.

That's pretty Brazen, all right!

As a general rule, scrappers have to be paid to take down a steel bridge over water due to costs being more than the value of the steel as salvage. The economics for a bootlegger, who isn't burdened by the cost of removing the timber portions (the article said creosoted timbers were left floating), nor worried about lead poisoning his employees by using cutting torches on lead based paint on steel may make it marginally profitable. I wonder if this bridge was only partially dismantled when the cutter discovered his costs exceeded his revenue.
Alex Huff

keep us updated, thats in my neck of the woods, I looked at the monon historical society board someone posted



someone at some scrapper should be alert on this material, how do you walk in with a bridge...hmm eh?

Scrappers all over the world are becoming more brazen.....I saw an article last week that talked about how scrappers in Indonesia are going around salvaging WW 2 warship wrecks in the java sea.....seems the wrecks are in pretty shallow water, so they go out and use a crane with a claw to rip off pieces. They don't care that these are war graves for hundreds of people.....of course, our govt doesn't seem to care either......
I'm only surprised that we haven't seen more of this. Interestingly, it seems that scrapping is quite popular with illegal immigrants.....So, museums should watch their storage areas closely. Eventually, these scrappers will find stored equipment, that's not being regularly checked, to be easy prey for their activities......

Hi,

Until the economy gets to be more like it was in the 1990's, the need to get cash by hook or crook will stay high. There will always someone who will steal but the sluggish economy and the high unemployment rate pushes does not help in pushing people into becoming thieves.

Not the only reason but one of many.

Doug vV

In Guatemala not that long ago, several hundred miles of railroad basically went away for the same reason. This included everything from the rails and ties to bridges and rail cars. Other industries such as the electric industry and building contractors will show up on a Monday to find entire buildings or projects gone. Many railroad museums and tourist railroads are seeing the same thing happen.

I wish I could find the news reports, but several years ago, we saw a lot of police cars on the Ohio Route 7 bridge. (Google Earth, roughly 39.9°N 80.81°W.)

It turned out that a pickup truck piled full of tie plates had caught the attention of the numerous passers-by. One truckload had already arrived at a local junkyard, but the cops got to the bridge in time to stop the thieves, who had gone back, in broad daylight, for another load. They protested that "trains don't use them tracks no more" but the court didn't see it that way.

The junkyard returned the tie plates and after considerable work, the coal-hauling Captina branch was back in business.

Every now and then, a non-ferrous metal thief tries to steal electric wires or equipment that's still energized. Ohm's law is much more rigidly enforced than the state penal code.

Amen Bob, they instantly develop that "high voltage grin".

LIKE! Bob Davis' comment about Ohm's law and it's enforcement. For years, as I understand it, SEPTA had been keeping trolley wire hot on it's unused routes, just to prevent copper theft. I personally like the idea of electrified fences around stored equipment. The PRR GG-1s ran great on 11kV. Kind of hard to isolate a bridge from ground, though.

If your museum or shortline does not have a fence around it's yard/shop you someone will come steal your metal sooner or later. You should put together a plan to fence the whole place in or your organization will regret it. Bear in mind the fence will only keep our the folks who drive around grabbing the easy stuff. If someone is really serious they will get in now matter what. Drug attics in Wilmington have chiseled a hole in the back of a local plumbing warehouse to steal copper. The building is block faced with red brick, this was a serious effort done overnight with nothing but hand tools.

Working on steel buildings makes me realize the most vulnerable part isn't the door, it's the wall. Anyone can take the skin off the building with a Philips screwdriver. I'm starting to think the outer wall of a steel building is best used as a mold for concrete the first 8 feet up the wall. It would certainly help with tram problems around doors.

Concrete can be made extremely difficult to cut through. Steel reinforcing mutually reinforces the concrete because the steel absorbs chipping attacks while the concrete dulls any metallic blade capable of cutting the steel. Abrasive discs can attack both, but they are fouled by certain types of plastic fiber added to the concrete.

Years ago Dennis D. and J. David bought a hefty size lathe cheap at an auction at one of the steel mills in Hammond. From what I'm told, all the other bidders chuckled because they just KNEW the rigging to get it out would cost more than the machine was worth, as it was deep in the machine shop, up against the wall.

Ten minutes with the 'hot knife' and our guys took it out through the wall...

Abandoned bridge in Birmingham area was in the process of being scrapped when someone noticed the activity. Police caught them in the act, both are in jail. To late for the bridge.

Robert Yuill