From a link provided by a colleague:

COPPER sheets worth between £50,000 and £70,000 have been stolen from the Severn Valley Railway’s Bridgnorth Boiler Works in an audacious night-time raid said to have been ‘pre-planned and highly professional’.

The gang broke into Bridgnorth boiler shop on Thursday January 20th through an air vent after first disabling a security alarm, and then hot-wired the 30-ton capacity overhead gantry crane, using it to lift eleven 5/8th and one-inch gauge copper sheets into a van or lorry which they had reversed into the building.

The copper sheets, of varying sizes up to 10ft x 6ft and weighing an estimated six tons in total, had been cut to size and designated as replacement sections for the fireboxes of several locomotives, including Fowler ‘Jinty’ No.47383 and Stanier 8F No.48773. The railway is offering a £5,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the stolen copper.

The thieves had made an earlier, unsuccessful attempt to break into the boiler shop just 24 hours before, as a result of which the SVR immediately brought in specialist advisors to take a hard look at existing site security

Undeterred by their failure however, the thieves returned later that same night, using two ladders - one propped on top of another - to smash the security alarm 16 feet up on the outside wall of the building, and broke down the reinforced air-vent grille to gain access to the works.

Not content with the ‘raw’ copper sheets, the gang also stole a made-up outside steam pipe from another locomotive - Hawksworth 0-6-0PT No.1501 - and even took the chains from the gantry crane. Scene of Crime officers from West Mercia Police have been studying scrapes on the wall of the Boiler Shop thought to have been caused by a vehicle, and footprints in the dust on the floor.

The theft, believed to have taken place some time after midnight, was discovered by SVR loco driver and permanent way man Bob Toy at around 7.30am last Friday morning. Following the raid, the SVR moved swiftly to install new security arrangements at Bridgnorth and at other sites on the railway, and a new, much-tightened regime of procedures has been put into effect.



Loss adjusters from the Severn Valley Railway’s insurers have been appointed, and it is likely that the railway will be compensated for the full cost of the stolen copper, but said SVR General Manager Nick Ralls: “It’s still sickening - a kick in the guts. This wasn’t an opportunist crime, it was well-planned. Just like everyone else in business though, we’re feeling the pinch of recession, and these are hard times for everyone. We didn’t need this.”

Because of a worldwide copper shortage and high demand for recycled copper, the firebox plates are most likely to be sold for scrap - shipped, possibly, to China or America, thinks Bridgnorth Boiler Contracts Manager Duncan Ballard.

“Copper prices are at, or near to, a record high, and heritage railways are being seen as easy targets by scrap metal thieves” he says. “We’re only the latest in a long line of railways and railway workshops to be hit. The thieves will be back for sure – but next time we will be ready for them.”

Work flow at the SVR’s Boiler Shop has not been interrupted, however because the locomotives involved were not currently being worked upon.
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Kind Regards,

Malcolm

That just sucks - if they'd been down south, they would have encountered a couple of folks exercising their 2nd Amendment rights while laying in wait for a possible return. Good thing their insurance coverage includes this kind of theft.

Man, that either takes cajones the size of churchbells or morbid stupidity.
I hope they get caught and pay the full penalty.
I guess nothing is safe any more.

Obviously anything but stupid....and with intelligence and good planning, cojones of average size are just fine. The perps weren't thinking of this as a crime, it was just another business venture from their POV, and one that was apprently better planned and executed than the security scheme referred to in the article.

The stupidity is the use of the expression "preplanned." The word "plan" is all you need and not redundant - it isn't redundant either.

I think "safe" is a matter of perception rather than reality, moreso lately than 50 years ago for most of us reading this list.

dave

I do not know how the laws are there, But all they would get here in the USA would be a slap on the wrist. The thiefs have more rights then the people they steal from.

A friend had some items stolen from his business. One item was a backhoe bucket. The thieves took all the stolen items to a scrap yard, where the scrap yard was smart enough to realize that they could resale the backhoe bucket, so it was set to the side. When he went looking, he told the yard operators that the bucket belonged to him, they gave it back. The yard had the names of the 2 men who stole and sold the items to them, as well as their address and their photos. The police were called and went and had a "talk" with these men and gave them a warning.

They returned to my friends place 2 weeks later and stole again. Sold the new stolen items at the same scrap yard. Same thing again, a warning. They need to make an example of these people, that is the only way this will stop.

I have a case before a prosecutor now, involving the thieft of 2 semi loads of material. The police sat on this case for 4 months, before finally turning it over to the proscutor.

The man has spent all the money from the material. His home and everything he owns is in someone elses' name. So what will I get in the end?

The best thing I could see, would be this man in jail!!!!!!!!

Wow, that's not the work of the average meth-head scrap stealer. It would lead me to consider an "inside" job.

Hope they catch the @#$^$&@*.

Copper firebox sheets??
I’m no boiler guy ... where in a fire box do you use copper sheet?

In Europe..........

To build the firebox itself. Many UK and Euro locomotives have copper fireboxes. I don't know about the barrel part of the boiler. Yes, it seems incredible that this was practice right up to the end of steam since most of us think of copper as a rather soft, weak metal but thems the facts. Others will supply greater detail I am sure.

Steve