TLE&W Robbery

[TrainWatcher]

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?secti ... id=8148306

They stole a lot from what the story says, coach seats, locomotive engine parts... incredible.

[penn central]

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?secti ... id=8148306

They stole a lot from what the story says, coach seats, locomotive engine parts... incredible.

It's people like this that ruin it for the honest train watchers. What a shame.

[esprrfan]

Take a copy of the report with you and go to the scrap yards. Take pictures of what was stolen and that they should call the police if someone tries to sale them. Maybe offer a reward of like life time pass or free rides for a year.

[conrailfan]

I dont know much but we really cant get pictures of the seats because all of them have been stolen except the small seats in one of our coaches. Im pretty sure you need a special permitt to scrap any railroad stuff.

[sd70accsxt700]

I assume the train is still parked out by Grand Rapids, next to the shelter? How did they steal all the seats out of all three passenger cars with out some one seeing this? I mean there are what at least 40 seats a car, times three, that is 120 large two persons seats, and NO one seen it? I mean some one made a lot of trips with a pick up, or a large delivery van. Even in the middle of the night some one had to have heard something? That is a lot of hardware to remove from a railcar with out making a lot of noise. Something smells fishey. I might try the nebighors houses first.

[Mackinac Mac]

This really sucks! I am definately going to make a donation after taking in the facts on this one. Anyone else care to join? Would be kind of cool if we could pull together as railfans, I know money is tight, could even do it in memory of Seth. Something to consider anyways. Id like to know a little more about the viability of this museums future and the whole picture... but their line is some really awesome trackage.

[jimnorthwood]

Toledo Blade article seems to imply malicious intent, in order to keep the train sidelined for another year. TLE&W did have some issues with Waterville, as the village (city now, as of the 2010 census) and NS gave them the boot a few years ago for failure to keep the property cleaned up. That was the official story; perhaps small town politics, unknown to the rest of us, played a role, too. They later reached an agreement with both parties that allowed them to return to Waterville. I'd love to see the Bluebird get back on track, raise the funds to repair the washed out culvert, and restore service to Grand Rapids. I was privileged to get a cab ride in the Alco from Grand Rapids to Waterville a bunch of years ago, an experience I'll never forget. Best to you, TLE&W.

Link to Toledo Blade article: http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/ ... ble-2.html

[MDH]

Toledo Blade article seems to imply malicious intent, in order to keep the train sidelined for another year.

I'd go further than that. Those seats have virtually NO value outside of the Bluebird itself. Seriously, who would you sell them to? Or even try to? The locomotive parts have more value (for the metal or re-sale) but again, it looks a lot more like sabotage. And the fuel line on the speeder? Tell me that's not sabotage!

So who would do it and why? How 'bout the ousted former president of the organization who's already stolen repeatedly from the organization before & after he was booted. Or people loyal to him? They've got their share of internal organizational problems.

Or it could be someone from the local community. Lord knows there's been some "bad blood" over the years. Whatever the case, someone (or group of people which seems more likely given the scope of the theft) really hates the Bluebird group with enough passion to risk some serious jail time to do this.

As to donating money - I understand and agree with the charitable inclination, but I wouldn't have given to them when the ex-president was in office because they had virtually no financial internal controls and I suspected some serious internal fraud/theft problems. I'm not sure I'd give anything now because of these current sort of problems. Either way it's throwing money down a hole. I suspect whoever's doing this will continue to sabotage the group unless/until they're caught, prosecuted and put in jail. I hope for the group's sake they agressively pursue that course of action and the local police take this seriously and don't just blow it off.

It's a real shame because this line could have so much potential but the current littany of problems seems insurmountable right now.

[StupidFlee​t]

So who would do it and why? How 'bout the ousted former president of the organization who's already stolen repeatedly from the organization before & after he was booted. Or people loyal to him? They've got their share of internal organizational problems.

That was my first thought...

[conrailfan]

I honestly beleve this was nothing short of a sabotage attempt. Whoever did this knew what they were doing and stealing. I am not going to point fingers. The train is parked in the middle of nowhere so they would have had plenty of time to do what they want. As far as I know we have not talked to our neighbors. I do think we should.

[conrailfan]

One thing the news and the Blade forgot to mention was they unscrewed the fuel line on our motorcar. This would have leaked hot gas on anyone operating it!

Donations would be great! This would mostlikely go to buying engin parts.

[F40PH Fan]

One thing the news and the Blade forgot to mention was they unscrewed the fuel line on our motorcar. This would have leaked hot gas on anyone operating it!

Donations would be great! This would mostlikely go to buying engin parts.

The Blade did mention the fuel line incident but, not too much was said about it. Like conrailfan said Donations are needed to get the TLE&W up and running again. Forget 2011 and maybe 2012 though for operating thanks to the thugs who would do this to a non-profit Tourist railroad. It's just sick we almost done on some of these repairs on our Alco S4 and now parts have been stolen. I have posted a video on youtube about this it's nothing fancy it's just about what happened. Just search "Major Vandalism & Theft At The TLE&W Railway; Total $75,000 In Damages"

[Clay320]

One thing the news and the Blade forgot to mention was they unscrewed the fuel line on our motorcar. This would have leaked hot gas on anyone operating it!

Donations would be great! This would mostlikely go to buying engin parts.

What all engine parts were stolen?

[F40PH Fan]

I don't know yet. I will be returing to our train soon to find out what all was stolen from our Alco S4.

[conrailfan]

One thing the news and the Blade forgot to mention was they unscrewed the fuel line on our motorcar. This would have leaked hot gas on anyone operating it!

Donations would be great! This would mostlikely go to buying engin parts.

What all engine parts were stolen?

Here is an exact copy from 13 abc's website
They also took engine parts from the 1940's diesel locomotive, including a turbo charger, a water pump, and two massive 500 pound rerailers or devices needed in case the train derails.

Im pretty sure there is more