Thefts and Vandalism

its a sad reflection on life today, people steal parts of engines for their scrap value, which is a fraction of the cost of replacing that part, bent collectors pay to have items stolen to order, just so that they can own it, vandels destroy what people have spent years restoring just out of bordom? more like a total lack of respect for other people if you ask me
the courts could hand down stiffer penaties but choose not to bring back the birch and the stocks that would sort these low lives out, a saturday spent in their town centre being ridiqued and pelted with rotten tomatoes, what a just punishment
i can remember when city of wells had her axle boxes stolen from haworth a few weeks later myself and a couple of others were doing a stop over at ropley because we were on the footplate the next day, when we stopped a transit wanting to go up into the loco yard at 9 at night , if we had not been there might we had been next

 

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Middleton has also suffered the loss of most of its spare S1 chairs over the last couple of weeks - about 6 tons worth. Whoever took them carried each one about 50 yards and under a set of gates to the nearest road access point. That sounds harder than working for a living but, at about £300/ton, quite profitable, unfortunately.

 

Having been a member of the BTP for 32 years none of this comes as a surprise to me. Metal thefts from railway premises are as old as the railways themselves. When i first joined, it was copper telegraph wire and bronze wagon bearings. Later on, attention turned to anything cast (chairs etc) and multi-core signalling cable. Then they started nicking overhead catenery from electrification projects. The 'worst' case i ever experienced was tens of thousands of pounds worth of track being nicked! To do this the 'gang' hired a lorry with a crane on it, donned high viz vests and toured the country picking up 60' lenghs wherever they could find em ! Al four gang members ended up in prison. If you are a heritage railway and find identifiable stuff is being stolen; try to persuade your local constabulary to invest some time in having a look around scrapyards. They can enter and inspect such premises at any time and view the records of purchase. Thats how we used to catch the b*****ds* back in the day . A bit of old fashioned coppering wouldnt go amiss for many of these thefts.

 

A freudian slip methinks ?

 

LOL !! well I'm wearing 'L' plates, thats my excuse. But do please press your police force to search local scrapyards . It used to be second nature but I doubt they have the 'budget' for it now

 

More headlines today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7494044.stm

 

Never mind heritage railways; basically that's what happened on the Leamside line near Washington a couple of years ago - van in NR colours, high-viz jackets & a gas-axe.

About 1/4 mile of track chopped up, as I recall. Arrests were made, though I seem to remember hearing that the scrotes came from the Sheffield area?

 

'Scrotes' will travel any distance if they know they are gonna get a good return on their thieving. Of course, scrap metal merchants, being the fine upstanding honest citizens they are, would never DREAM of weighing in and paying out for metal that may come from a dubious source!

 

Well i certainly hpe the people get caught.

Disgusting.

 

I wonder if some of this will now stop since the price of scrap is on its arse again?

 

Over the last week Railworld in Peterborough has had 11 pallets of Bricks from the Bardney Station stolen, This of course means the likelyhood of rebuilding the station when the new exhibition building is built in the next 18 months is very unlikely.
Keep a look out everyone please.

 

Vandals target Swindon and Cricklade Railway

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news ... e_Railway/

 

Some good news at last.

http://www.keighleynews.co.uk/search/41 ... sentences/

 

I wonder what community service could follow...

 

potentially serious injury caused by tresspasser sorry if it has been posted elsewhere

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... with_stone

 

It's absolutly disgusting what happened on Sunday.

There was a bunch of lads hanging around on the track itself over that section around 8:30pm Sunday. They seemed very reluctant to move when approached by a train with whistle blowing. They soon shifted when the regulator was opened up.

Both crews were aware of what had transpired earlier in the day and were on the look out for objects being thrown.

 

Alt has locked the thread on the ELR forum - so i will post here

It is now well accepted that fotters can be an extra pair of eyes and ears when out and about along the line.

Could the RO have a mobile phone number for emergencies so that if kids are seen around the line with air rifles or stacking up rocks for an ambush, the train crews could be contacted and warned - if necessary to stop short - and let it be seen that they know the kiddies are about and the 999 has been dialed if they haven't also photted them for the record.

The one thing these little axxe hxxxs are afraid of is detection

 

Sad but true ](*,)

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/n ... ity_order/

 

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