From a Russian newswire report that appeared on the Museum Security mailing list:Two vintage locomotives stolen from depot in northern Russia 18:44 | 02/ 08/ 2005 Krasnoyarsk, August 2 (RIA Novosti, Boris Ivanov) - Two Stalin-era locomotives have been stolen from a depot near Igarka, a town beyond the Arctic Circle. The director of a local museum said Tuesday that the vehicles weighed 40 metric tons each, and the thieves' apparent motive was to sell them for scrap metal. The locomotives were used to drive trains along the Salekhard-Igarka rail line dubbed "Stalin," after Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, who forced Gulag inmates to build it. Construction work stopped after his death in 1953, with only 700 kilometers commissioned out of the planned 1,200. Depots, bridges, and other logistical facilities were left unfinished. Given the locomotives' historical value, the Igarka authorities banned their removal in the 1990s. Russia's national rail monopoly, Russian Railways (RZhD), is now contemplating rebuilding and extending the Stalin railroad to provide easy access to the large number of operational oil and natural gas wells on both sides of the track.

HOW THE HELL CAN SOME ONE STEAL TWO FULL SIZE LOCOMOTIVES AND NOT BE NOTICED?????? I mean it wouldn't be that hard to see. Just look for the railway engines going down the road. I mean who wouldn't notice that some one was taking them. It would take a crane and a big 18 wheeler or two. WOW I cant believe that. Were they steam or diesel?That is very weird. They most have a VERY small police force!-Eric

They probably cut them up on site, just like the Daylight cars noted in this forum today.