OUT-OF-SERVICE EMPLOYEE STEALS TRAIN

Yesterday afternoon in Speonk. Out-of-service employee got on a train and tried to steal it. Other employees stopped the train, wrestled him to the ground and threw him off the train kicking and screaming where he was arrested by the local police. I edited this to correct mistakes pointed out by EngineerBob.

Get you story straight...thats not even close. There is no need to go into the details of what really happended here on a public forumn.

well, i hope no harm done, whatever the case.

seriously, if you stole a train, what can you do? It's not like the guy has a train storage space in his backyard.

If he could manage to get it to Florida, he could disguise it as a single-wide trailer park!

Right, FECChris?

Dave Keller

Well, I know it's not like stealing a car where you can freely drive it off somewhere "off the map". But, if someone does steal a train they can cause a lot of damage with it and harm a lot of people. Say he actually does get behind the controls and gets the train moving, he could run through signals, cause danger at grade crossings, endanger maintainance of way crews and track gangs, and he could crash into another train either parked, or active.

Good thing he didn't try to takw it to Cuba.

RPM2Night wrote:Well, I know it's not like stealing a car where you can freely drive it off somewhere "off the map". But, if someone does steal a train they can cause a lot of damage with it and harm a lot of people. Say he actually does get behind the controls and gets the train moving, he could run through signals, cause danger at grade crossings, endanger maintainance of way crews and track gangs, and he could crash into another train either parked, or active.

IAWTP, But if you run a signal, won't you're train automatically stop or an Emergency Brake tripper will pop up?

not out in speonk, maybe in queens.

thank god for those other employees, had he gotten a train free and gotten it up to full speed he could have killed quite a few people on another train!

Master Conductor wrote:Yesterday afternoon in Speonk. Out-of-service employee got on a train and tried to steal it. Other employees stopped the train, wrestled him to the ground and threw him off the train kicking and screaming where he was arrested by the local police. I edited this to correct mistakes pointed out by EngineerBob.

why was he out of service?
maybe he failed one of his qualifying exams and was disgruntled.

Paul - he could have taken it to Jamacia though!

One thing on this:

The very first post is very wrong. I was there. But like the other post stated, this is not the place to discuss a private matter that concerns no one but the indiviual in question and the LIRR

Just a quick question:

Would the operator at PD see the train moving on the board? If so, Is there a way to send some sort of electronic message throught the rails to the on-board ASC and stop the train?

correct me if I'm wrong, but if the person was trying to cause harm to people or property, couldn't they cut the lock off the ASC and turn it off? wouldn't that allow free movement even in territory equiped with ASC and track signals?

As in virtually any skilled craft, there is little to stop a trained individual bent on doing the wrong thing.

Almost all safety devices assume their users want their protection.

This is one reason why trains have crews -- their cargo is simply too valuable to be entrusted to one individual. And this is why the Railroad constantly reinforces the need for crew members' awareness of things around them.

Clem