TrainOrders thread on the topic:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/r ... sg-1194913

From the SP4449 website:

"Due to the lack of modern building security, the Brooklyn Roundhouse and rail equipment were broken into at least four times between June 25th and July 5th, 2006. The thieves smashed the vestibule doors with tie plates, and entered the Roundhouse by breaking windows and clipping through chain-link fence. During this period, over $35,000 worth of equipment and materials vanished. "

It's a sorry state of affairs, crime affecting even railway preservation.

Scares the heck out of me. How can you secure a facility as large and sprawled out as most museums and excursions are? We have had our share but fortunately it is only broken windows on the diesel so far. Vandals did pop out the plexiglass windows in our N5C but they went right back in easily enough. But with scrap being so high now It is only a matter of time before stuff starts to disappear.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Its really b***s*** that this happend these people are not stealing because they have a family to support, but rather to support they're METH. addiction.

These Crack heads need to be caught and made an example of, and I don't mean jail time or a re-habilitation group for them to meet at on Monday nights.

Brian Fleming

Talk about bottom feeders. How about the sick group that stole the trolley wire from Yakima several months ago. Copper prices are high right now and they stole the wire and feeder cables right off the support span wires and poles!

Shoot the bastards.

Perhaps not a bad idea for organizations to make friends with local scrap dealers ahead of time. Give them a pass, invite them over make them aware of your concern so that when something turns up missing you have a familiar person to contact.

Tom

Gentlemen,

I share your sentiments, but let's keep it a little more civil. OK?

It's kind of hard to remain quite civil about those blighters when 1) you literally have to carve holes in the nose and sides of an E8 with a saw or torches to shovel out the multitudes of needles and crack vials (well, we used the excuse that we were cutting out rusted sheet metal, but that was the REAL reason we cut those holes), 2) you discover just how %$(*&#@ difficult it is to re-install iron air brake piping in an E8 to replace the copper piping that was chopped out by the blighters (one of those little details that goes into the calculations of "it would be cheaper to build a new one from scratch"); 3) the entire cab is blackened with soot from their fires to burn the insulation off of random wires in hopes of finding something worth money, and 4) you find they took a power reciprocating saw to the windings of the main generators...........

Of course, I'm perfectly willing to also hold accountable the folks that stored said unit right in the midst of a known drug-user shantytown, less than a thousand feet from a major scrapyard.......... Which, in retrospect, is probably where the loco should have ended up in the first place.........

Come to think of it, I remember a private car owner who, when working on his equipment in another equally seedy but more secure environment, used to wear his (licensed) sidearm. I don't think he ever lost anything (I attribute that to what you had to get through to get to the equipment), but I have little doubt that this particular individual would have shot first and asked questions later.

I don't think anybody is arguing for the "rights" of the burglars here, but violence or the suggestion of it is not exactly the "civil" way to handle it. In the case of the theives who stole the trolley wires, for example, simply leaving the power on would be a much more elegant solution. ;-)

Richard Jenkins

Does anyone know if the SP&S steam gauge ( from #700) was ever recovered due to the last robbery?

Just curious and I hope that the people who did all this damage get caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Best wishes the folks at the roundhouse.

JD Johnson, Morehead and North Fork Railroad Historian

As far as I know, the steam gauge was never recovered, but I believe I read on the PRPA site that someone donated a like unit to the 700 group.