http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b3_ ... 4821.story

Allentown, Pa. Morning Call newspaper:

Three railroad organizations fell victim over the weekend to a crime that one train hobbyist says is becoming increasingly common: train whistle thefts.

Air horns were stolen from three trains parked at a railroad siding near Brown Printing Co., 668 Gravel Pike, Upper Hanover Township, according to state police at Skippack.

Dale Woodland, a member of the Reading Company Technical and Historical Society, which owns one of the trains, said locomotive whistles have become a frequent target of thieves in recent years.

In some cases, thieves have been brazen enough to advertise stolen whistles on eBay.

''It's not all that unusual,'' said Woodland, who lives in Souderton and has written four books on the Reading Railroad. ''Most often, it's truckers who want bravado-sounding horns. They've been stolen from locomotives from throughout the country.''

A quick scan of eBay Monday showed 39 air horns listed on eBay for between $80 and $200.

The whistles aren't easy to steal. Woodland said the horns, typically mounted to the roof of a train engine and used to warn motorists and pedestrians of an oncoming locomotive at railroad crossings, are between 1 foot and 2 feet long. He said they could weigh roughly 50-60 pounds.

Woodland said there are usually about five or six trains parked at the siding where the thefts occurred.

East Penn Railroad of Kennett Square, Chester County, and the Philadelphia chapter of the National Railway Historical Society based in Springfield, Montgomery County, owned the other trains from which whistles were taken, police said.

Investigators said the thefts happened between 10 a.m. Friday and 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

Woodland, who was unsure how much the whistles cost, said his organization may have to pay for a new one.

He said two trains the organization kept in Upper Hanover were being stored there after October excursions offered in that area by the Upper Perkiomen Valley Chamber of Commerce.

He said the trains may soon be en route to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, Lancaster County.

Woodland said that after past thefts, other train organizations have been able to find the stolen whistles on eBay. He said his organization would be checking that Web site.

Anyone with information about the stolen train horns is asked to call Trooper Timothy J. McDonough at 610-410-3835.

Just confirmed: We're on the lookout for two Nathan M5 horn sets.

This might be a good time for you folks to go out and stamp/engrave your horns/whistles with "Stolen From [your name here}"......... and engrave it on the main manifold/bowl........

Any idea what color(s) they were painted?

Any known dents or chips that could help identify them?

Anyone record the serial number on the tags (not alway marked)?

I have contacts in the LEGAL Horn Collecting groups that are more then willing to keep their eyes & ears open for the missing horns. Events like this hit the LEGAL ownership community the hardest. Legal owners purchase their horns and whistles from each other, manufacturers, scrappers and some rebuild them for other members and some also do it professionally for the railroads.

From my observations they were probably taken by either a trucker or `hornblaster' that needs to compensate for undersized reproductive equipment. For those that don't know about the Hornblasters community these are the delinquents that stuff railroad (real and bad imitation) horns under their cars and purposely blast them behind people, just to amuse themselves. For examples of what I am talking about see the website of the same name, where they sell videos of them disturbing the peace.

Rich Cizik

When we restored the Roanoke Chapter NRHS's Alco T6 back in the early 90's, the plan was to have the back of the new replica builders plates marked "Stolen from Roanoke Chapter NRHS". Old age is setting in here, I can't remember if it was actually done. Regardless, it's a good idea to mark anything that might be stolen in an unobtrusive spot.

"From my observations they were probably taken by either a trucker or `hornblaster' that needs to compensate for undersized reproductive equipment. For those that don't know about the Hornblasters community these are the delinquents that stuff railroad (real and bad imitation) horns under their cars and purposely blast them behind people, just to amuse themselves. For examples of what I am talking about see the website of the same name, where they sell videos of them disturbing the peace."

We were photographing the WSOR Santa train being pulled by Soo Line 2-8-2 #1003 last Saturday. One of these dorks was sitting along the right-of-way blasting his "appendage enlarger" while the 1003 was whistling for a crossing on the outskirts of Horicon, WI. I'm sure glad I was shooting slide film instead of video........

Don C.

Sandy and all responders,

The two sets of horns are painted black and are actually Nathan K5LA's with all five bells facing forward. I believe the engine numbers 902 & 903 were written on the bottom of the round base plate with a black marker and may have been etched there as well.

We had removed the horns for the locomotives' initial move to Emmaus and Pennsburg but were not able to get a chance to remove them following the excursions. That will not be the case in the future to say the least. While etching the horns or any valuable locomotive hardware in the fashion described in these posts is a good idea, it only takes a few light applications of a Metabo or other grinding tool to remove any indication of the actual owner.

With all the publicity surrounding the Upper Perkiomen Valley excursions from Oct 6-7 and 13-14 we figure the perpetrator(s) were as Don C. described. The locomotives were temporarily spotted on an industrial siding adjacent to a receiving dock used for truck deliveries.

The horns were removed with a crowbar and hacksaw or cutter. Even having used two blind head bolts with inside locking nuts, the base of the horn "bridge" was simply pried up from the roof and the four attach bolts sawed through clean. I found the cut bolts bent and twisted sitting in their holes. Live and learn the hard way. So, we're in the market for a couple sets of K5LA's.

Thanks everyone for your info,
Dave McGuire

Phila. Chapter NRHS Equipment Chair
Reading Co. T&HS MP crew