In the past I have heard of Class 1’s sending in Railroad Police to confiscate railroad artifacts believed to be stolen without proper papers. is this true, does this still continue to happen at shows, and has there been any legal action taken with collectors?

The Canadian Pacific Railway Police do confiscate #103 and #104 'High Security' switch keys when they come across them at train shows and antique stores. That is the only item I'm aware of that the railways actively 'police'.

On the flip - here in Saskatoon, the CPR bisects the city with multiple grade level crossings. Life happens and once in a blue moon a train will go into emergency and basically jam up all the major cross town roads. Several years back, after an emergency application, the crew couldn't get their air back. After walking the train, the CNDR found the problem.....while the train was stopped, some enterprising soul STOLE THE SBU right off the tail end knuckle. It turned up a few weeks later at a garage sale 'on the other side of the tracks' for $25..The seller claimed they 'had found it in a dumpster and thought it might be worth something'.

73,
RWC

An acquaintance once listed a set of locomotive cab chairs on ebay that he obtained legally from a scrapper, and within a day or two railroad police were at his door, having somehow obtained his home address from ebay. They were satisfied with his evidence and left, but there are many "modern" items that the railroad police and detectives are constantly watching out for online and at shows.

I have only seen one example of anything like this, not confiscation, but an overly zealous lawyer for a major railroad contacting eBay to try to get auctions taken down when they offered historic paper (diagram books, manuals, etc.) and promotional items that displayed the railroad's logo/trademarks. I suspect the activity had more to do with advancing her on the management team, than protecting any property rights. It may have actually benefited sellers, since it was possible at the time for prospective buyers to contact them directly if they had taken down the auction.

On the other hand, I have seen several instances of the Department of Revenue of a state having agents at a train show looking for sellers that were not properly registered with the state.

PC

Don't know about then, but these days all the SBUs are tracked with GPS. Makes them pretty easy to find as long as the battery isn't completely dead.

Wasn't there a "collector" in the northeast U.S. who got caught this way a few years ago? I think I recall reading that his backyard was chock full of various railroad stuff.

[/quote]

Don't know about then, but these days all the SBUs are tracked with GPS. Makes them pretty easy to find as long as the battery isn't completely dead.

[/quote]

This was in the early 2000s, way before GPS. The only other item the CPR Police actively pursue aside from high security keys is radios as you mentioned. This one time we were heading to Hardisty with #103 and in the middle of nowhwere we get a pull-by over the radio from what sounded like a nervous 12 year old - " Um...CP train...heading..uh..West...uh..all your axles look good....no hotboxes...OUT'. We called back to find out who it was but didn't get a reply. We reported it to the RTC and that was the end of it until everal weeks later I signed a bulletin that filled in the backstory - Turns out a young teenage rail-fan had gotten his hands on an old CP lunchpail/shoulder strap style radio and was listening in on the radio chatter. He had made a recording of an automated hotbox detector and tried to memorize the dialogue so he could 'sound official when talking to the trains'. The CPR Police absolutely confiscated that one.

I'd bet we all have something that would raise an eyebrow or two. I volunteer at a tourist RR, so I have a couple of items that were donated to the line that I lawfully have in my house right now. I'd love to see a RR cop try to take my switch keys or lantern away.
I also have a green board sitting in my garage that I actually did find in a ditch once, and I have no clue where that came from, maybe bounced out of the back of a pickup truck? If BNSF or UP wants that back really badly, they can have it, I guess.
A hobby shop owner told me that a while back, a RR cop came in and saw his large collection of RR stuff in the window and started picking out every modern piece he had and left with it all. He said he didn't fight the man on it as it appeared to me that most of it was donated to him by customers.
I have heard of people claiming to be CID or JAG personnel going to military collector shows and claiming items were 'stolen' and trying to walk off with them. A pal of mine had that happen, some guy claimed to be a Air Force OSI agent and tried to walk off with several original (and insanely valuable) WW2-era A2 leather flight jackets. he stepped in front of the guy, put him in a hold and held him until the event security people arrived and the cps soon showed up. They confirmed he wasn't any type of law enforcement agent. That guy is looking at serious time, now and my friend has heard that the guy apparently had done it before then.
But the bottom line with all of this, the real people with the badges assume theft and guilt first. The problem there is we all buy stuff from legit sources and who ever gets receipts? Heck, I've bene given a bunch of stuff by RR employees over the years. Nothing special or valuable that a RR would really want back (really, who the heck would want a SBU?), but none of it I could prove I have through legit sources.
How the heck did they find the kid?

How the heck did they find the kid?[/quote]

I don't know for certain, but he was already on the radar of the CP Police and the Canadian CRTC for illegal radio chatter, so they were camped out in his area waiting for him. I understand what finally got him was when he tried to flag a train.

73
RWC

Don't know about then, but these days all the SBUs are tracked with GPS. Makes them pretty easy to find as long as the battery isn't completely dead.

[/quote]

- Turns out a young teenage rail-fan had gotten his hands on an old CP lunchpail/shoulder strap style radio and was listening in on the radio chatter. He had made a recording of an automated hotbox detector and tried to memorize the dialogue so he could 'sound official when talking to the trains'. The CPR Police absolutely confiscated that one.[/quote]


that'll be a good story to tell your kids or even your grandkids. Reminds me of a group that was known as The Conrail Boyz who were modern day Great Train Robbers that had stolen a cab radio from a locomotive in order to manipulate the dispatchers voice to learn what trains were carrying what and at what time of day. They would then cut holes in an electric fence around the yard, sneak in, and camp out until the train started moving. One of the guys would drive the hotwired Conrail Van which they had also stolen to one of or multiple sites and the guys would throw thousands of dollars worth of designer clothes or expensive goods out the boxcars which they had to break the lock on while standing on the wedge to open the boxcars while moving at 40+ Mph the van would collect these and later down the line the guys would jump off and sell the clothes to other shady guys while not looking suspicious in a marked railroad van.

- Turns out a young teenage rail-fan had gotten his hands on an old CP lunchpail/shoulder strap style radio and was listening in on the radio chatter. He had made a recording of an automated hotbox detector and tried to memorize the dialogue so he could 'sound official when talking to the trains'. The CPR Police absolutely confiscated that one.[/quote]


that'll be a good story to tell your kids or even your grandkids. Reminds me of a group that was known as The Conrail Boyz who were modern day Great Train Robbers that had stolen a cab radio from a locomotive in order to manipulate the dispatchers voice to learn what trains were carrying what and at what time of day. They would then cut holes in an electric fence around the yard, sneak in, and camp out until the train started moving. One of the guys would drive the hotwired Conrail Van which they had also stolen to one of or multiple sites and the guys would throw thousands of dollars worth of designer clothes or expensive goods out the boxcars which they had to break the lock on while standing on the wedge to open the boxcars while moving at 40+ Mph the van would collect these and later down the line the guys would jump off and sell the clothes to other shady guys while not looking suspicious in a marked railroad van.[/quote]
Good old Eddie mongon, he got another 8 years in prison for it in 2016...

Leonard Edwards is another, b&o cops in Baltimore have locked him up countless times for robbing trains

You are exactly right, for example, a friend and I had a deal to buy locomotive numberboards from a major carrier back in the mid 1980s. We would take turns paying for them, usually he got the receipt. He still has most of them. But we finally quit when we were up to about 100 different units. So if the police show up and decide to confiscate, by the time I get a copy of the receipt, they can be long gone, and never be seen again.

Sure, we all have stuff that we legitimately acquired, or at least think we did, but what happens when someone wants to make a name for themselves. Now I don't have a signal in the back yard or anything to show but some cast iron signs. But what can stop someone from coming in and claiming all that stuff is stolen?

Ken Miller

Back in the '80s when I was young and foolish, I "liberated" about half a dozen "Watch Your Step" signs from what appeared to be a trashed, abandoned ex-UP modernized heavyweight coach that was in the woods not far from my house. After hanging onto them for a number of years I decided they really weren't mine to keep, so I anonymously donated them back to the local NRHS chapter (who I'd determined in the meantime probably owned the car I had taken them from.) That group installed them on a restored ex-C&O dome car they owned at the time and to my knowledge they are still on the car to this day, which I'm glad for.

The car I took them from was burned by vandals a few years later and scrapped. I suspect the signs would have gone with it.