Western Railroad Discussion > Horn stolen from Santa Maria Valley Railroad yard

Between late Saturday afternoon and early Monday morning the horn off of the BUGX 1322 was stolen. The 1322 was parked on the west end of Osburn Yard. That part of the yard is visible from West Stowell and the person would have to cross a field to get to that portion of the yard and typically the gates to the farm roads are locked during the weekend. Anyone who have seen any suspicious activity during those times please contact the Santa Maria Valley Railroad at 805-922-7941.

Here's a picture of the horn.

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Probably some dumb-ass railfan or trucker stole the horn. Speculation of course. Just my $0.02. Too bad. Some people don't get it. Makes it look bad for the railfan community

SantaFeRuss

I personally think it was some dumb ass Railroad employee that wanted a horn to go with his retirement watch! However, just like SantaFeRuss who can’t prove a railfan or trucker stole it, any more than I can prove a Railroad employee stole it. I will say there is a big market for Locomotive horns at flea markets and on Craig’s list. The average thief’ will steal anything to sell on the black market. That would be my guess!

Valleyman

They were having a problem with the same thing in the Central Valley and resorted to putting a grill around the horns.

Do some railroads weld the horn into place?

Posted from Android

Do horns have serial numbers?
...Lorenzo

Damn - I'm so sorry. People are jerks.

Meth heads and crack hounds are rampant around anything of value.

The horns were targeted, welded to the locomotive. It took some effort to remove the horns. There are easier things to steal, it was someone who specifically wanted the horns.

Thanks for the info.

Sad.

Posted from Android

Sometimes its not truckers or railfans. There are these yahoos that mount them on their pickups so they can video themselves scaring the socks off of people. Youtube is full of such videos. High level stupidity. Horns can fetch decent cash on ebay, so there are lots of possibilities that are less obvious.

At one time back a few years was told by a trucker you had to have proof that it was bought and not stolen. As for who stole it, just a jerk who is a thief nothing more nothing less and sells stuff on line or craigs list.