Last night, thieves forcibly broke in at the Strasburg Rail RoadÂ’s engine house, and took the following items:

The number plates from engines #31, #90, #475.
Classification lights from engines #31, and #89.
1 new classification light.
6 rear end marker lamps, 4 kerosene, and 2 converted to battery operation.
1 photograph of engine #89 on the Green Mountain. Side view with specifications.
1 Strasburg Rail Road rule book. Red loose leaf format.
1 Small (about ½ normal size) locomotive brass bell and yoke.
1 ICC steam locomotive defect chart.

They also forced open (and destroyed in the process) a steel door to the back shop, but we havenÂ’t spotted anything missing from in there yet.

It appears that there were two perpetrators in that they left many footprints and tire tracks in the snow. Pennsylvania State Police are investigating.

They seemed to have a specific “shopping list” in that they took only railfan collectibles, and only specific ones at that.

We at the Strasburg Rail Road ask for the help of the community to return our property to us, and to bring these criminals to justice. If anyone has any information, please call the Strasburg Rail Road at 717-687-8421.


Strasburg Rail Road
kelly@strasburgrailroad.com

By the way, anyone know of a source for reproduction number plates? Seems like there was someone in Virginia, but I don't know for sure.

Strasburg Rail Road
kelly@strasburgrailroad.com

This makes me sick. Knowing these guys had to be supposed railfans....AAAGGGHHHHH. Everbody keep their eyes out on ebay, too. I can guarantee you these guys will try and sell via the web if they can. The only other question I have is this? How else (besides keeping our eyes open) can we help?

TJ Gaffney

Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

> By the way, anyone know of a source for
> reproduction number plates? Seems like there
> was someone in Virginia, but I don't know
> for sure.

*Are you telling us that the thieves secured the ORIGINALS, or are you looking to have the locked-away originals reproduced?

And they didn't make off with the whistles, did they? Several of the Strasburg's whistles are among the most coveted whistles in the nation, such as 90's Reading passenger six-chime......

lner4472@bcpl.net

> *Are you telling us that the thieves secured
> the ORIGINALS, or are you looking to have
> the locked-away originals reproduced?

Yes, the originals are gone, we have to start from scratch.

Strasburg Rail Road
kelly@strasburgrailroad.com

This is horrible. Does the Strasburg have any type of Security System on sight, or a night crew person who patrols? My house was robbed two weeks before X-mas and they stole a set of brass candlesticks off of a Southern 4-6-2 that my grandfather gave me. What is wrong with people?

jeff@CompuComIS.net

> This makes me sick. Knowing these guys had
> to be supposed railfans....AAAGGGHHHHH.
> Everbody keep their eyes out on ebay, too. I
> can guarantee you these guys will try and
> sell via the web if they can. The only other
> question I have is this? How else (besides
> keeping our eyes open) can we help?

> TJ Gaffney

That's all you really can do, is to keep your eyes and ears open. These clowns spent considerable time and effort to steal this stuff, so they must be very proud of themselves. Maybe they will try to show their "trophies" to someone.

rick@strasburgrailroad.com

> By the way, anyone know of a source for
> reproduction number plates? Seems like there
> was someone in Virginia, but I don't know
> for sure.

I seem to recall George Lavacot(4449 bunch), made some reproduction builders plates for engine 483(Cumbres and Toltec), for a fund raiser not long ago. You might try George.

Greg Scholl


sales@gregschollvideo.com

If you get repros, you might want to sell some extras (marked as repros of course) to diminish the value of the stolen originals.

Electric City Trolley Museum Association

Luckily an outfit called Walter E. Lee, Inc., of Ivyland, Pa., years ago made eaglestone copies of No. 90's number plate and builder's plate. They may still sell it in their catalog. See below website link for ordering info.

> By the way, anyone know of a source for
> reproduction number plates? Seems like there
> was someone in Virginia, but I don't know
> for sure.


http://www.waltlee.com/

Kelly,

For your info, I have passed along the info supplied by you to my fellow trustees of one of two railroadiana collecting societies to make them aware of the recent disturbing events at the Strasburg and to have them keep their eyes open for your stolen items.

Just trying to spread the word since it truly disturbes me that people see a need to do such things.

Until later,
Chris
Rochester, NY

Key, Lock & Lantern
crhauf@frontiernet.net

This makes me so mad. If I posted exactly what I'm thinking, Eric would have to delete my post..

Any ideas where we could look to find these? I doubt the perps would be stupid enough to actually SELL these could they?

> Last night, thieves forcibly broke in at the
> Strasburg Rail RoadÂ’s engine house, and took
> the following items:

> The number plates from engines #31, #90,
> #475.
> Classification lights from engines #31, and
> #89.
> 1 new classification light.
> 6 rear end marker lamps, 4 kerosene, and 2
> converted to battery operation.
> 1 photograph of engine #89 on the Green
> Mountain. Side view with specifications.
> 1 Strasburg Rail Road rule book. Red loose
> leaf format.
> 1 Small (about ½ normal size) locomotive
> brass bell and yoke.
> 1 ICC steam locomotive defect chart.

> They also forced open (and destroyed in the
> process) a steel door to the back shop, but
> we havenÂ’t spotted anything missing from in
> there yet.

> It appears that there were two perpetrators
> in that they left many footprints and tire
> tracks in the snow. Pennsylvania State
> Police are investigating.

> They seemed to have a specific “shopping
> list” in that they took only railfan
> collectibles, and only specific ones at
> that.

> We at the Strasburg Rail Road ask for the
> help of the community to return our property
> to us, and to bring these criminals to
> justice. If anyone has any information,
> please call the Strasburg Rail Road at
> 717-687-8421.


Caboose on eBay
acp19809@yahoo.com

I certainly hope that the items are recovered and the perpetrators caught. However, there's not much we can do about that particular incident now other than let the police do their work and see if the perpetrators reveal themselves in one way or another. I hate to see another fine rail preservation facility victimized in this manner. However, as a criminal justice professional having a B.S. (soon to be a M.S.) in this field, this is one more example of a rail preservation group not having placed enough emphasis on security, but through no fault of their own. Overall, it seems that the needed changes in this and many other fields is reactive when it would be more effective to be proactive.

There are a number of things that can be done to help fight this problem. First is to do a complete security survey of your property and facilities. Ideally this should be done by a criminal justice professional such as a law enforcement officer who is trained to do that type of evaluation, but it can also be done internally. Look for areas that might give intruders easy access. Come up with a plan to either eliminate that potential access point
or reduce its appeal to the potential intruder. Closed Circuit Television is a great way to tackle that problem. If you can afford to have a contract security firm send a roving patrol to check you property at night, do it.

If you want to see a good example of effective loss prevention, look at the department stores. It's impossible to catch every shoplifter and they don't always catch a particular shoplifter on their first attempt. However, the presence of both overt and covert surveylance and the active prosecution of those shoplifters caught does have some positive affect. A-they catch a criminal, B-they do not lose the items involved in that particular theft and C-the active prosecution of the offender not only punishes that person but sends a message out to other potential criminals that they will be caught if they attempt to victimize that store. The same could be said to be true of any other type of organization with a well thought out security monitoring arrangement.

One example of this is the railroad that I am involved with. We have had some thefts in the past, most notably the loss of the builder's plate of 4501 (not the original) and the superheater plate off of USATC 610. More recently we have had some problems with vandalism to a display car and other incidents. We decided to enhance the security of our site and among other things, undertook to install a number of closed circuit television cameras and a monitoring system. Some of the cameras are overt (plainly visable) and others are covert (hidden or disguised). The monitoring system is in a secure location with extremely limited access to vital equipment. Access to that area of the building is on a needs only basis. Furthermore, some of the overt cameras in the retail area of the building also have a feed to a monitor located behind the cashier's station, plainly visable to the public. A high visability monitor like the one in the retail area and use of signs indicating that the area is monitored by CCTV is an asset in that it will deter all but the professional thief. Even in that case, it may cause them to reconsider and victimize a softer target due to the significantly increased risk of being caught.


awalker2002@comcast.net

If you have not already, I would suggest that you provide this information to other railfan web sites. I would also consider asking that TRAINS and RAILFAN include this in their web news sections.


bnorden49@earthlink.net

The following was e-mailed by the PRRTHS. Could it be related?

<Fellow Members in Early January an ex PRR employee had his collection of PRR
items stolen During a Burglary at his home . Here are the following items
stolen : 1 milepost # 289 . 1 oval "Watch out For Locomotive" Sign . And the
following Oval Locomotive number Plates : 5201, 650, 7347, 8220, 1071, 1126,
2945, 3723, 4471, 4305 , 4237, 4245, Any Member who comes across or sees for
sale at swap meet or on ebay please report it stolen . Or Contact me at
717-292-0350 . The family of the gentleman are very upset and hope all items
can be found.

As members of the PRRT&HS lets help them out !

Thanks ,

Frank
Kuhn PRRT&HS Media Director


v-scarpitti@att.net