Western Railroad Discussion > Black Mesa and Lake Powell Railroad

Apparently the theft of the railroads cantenary wire started happening shortly after the railroad shut down the railroad
Link to article

wow is all I can say after reading there reason for taking it.

Tim
Hanesworth
 

Wow. Who could have seen this coming?

crews started removing it as soon as operations folded

Meth heads in action. How could any scrap company in the area not know where this wire is coming from based on the cross section? So much for the ethics of salvage companies. BM&LP was 80 miles long and 60 miles of line were stolen in a short time so the thieves had access to the needed equipment right away.

About the only recourse Salt River Project has is to try to recover the monies paid to the salvage company but I am sure that has already been sent away to 3rd and 4th parties. Other than the brother and sister perhaps no one is going to jail for a hundred thousand dollars of theft.

As noted above, I believe authorized persons began removing the catenary soon after operations stopped.  The Navajos want to keep the railroad, but ahd no need for the overhead wire, so it was removed.

fbe Wrote:
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> Meth heads in action. How could any scrap company
> in the area not know where this wire is coming
> from based on the cross section? So much for the
> ethics of salvage companies. BM&LP was 80 miles
> long and 60 miles of line were stolen in a short
> time so the thieves had access to the needed
> equipment right away.
>
> About the only recourse Salt River Project has is
> to try to recover the monies paid to the salvage
> company but I am sure that has already been sent
> away to 3rd and 4th parties. Other than the
> brother and sister perhaps no one is going to jail
> for a hundred thousand dollars of theft.

Scrap metal companies have no morals, all they see is profit. 

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How could any scrap company
> in the area not know where this wire is coming
> from based on the cross section?


So much for the
> ethics of salvage companies.

PHall Wrote:
----------------------------------
>
> Scrap metal companies have no morals, all they see
> is profit.

The scrap dealer in question is in St. George, Utah, over 150 miles from BMLP. While closure of the power plant made local news in AZ, and probably in southern Utah, I don't recall any of those articles mentioning that there was an electric railroad being shut down with it. Unless the scrap dealer was a foamer there is no reason they would have known about it.

The two of you might have also noted, if you bothered reading the linked article, that the scrap dealer in question provided their sales records to the investigators, AND contacted the police when the Slowtalkers came to sell more of the wire, which is how they were identified and arrested.

But don't let facts or rational thought stand in the way of leaping to your prejudiced conclusions.

Nomad Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> fbe Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > How could any scrap company
> > in the area not know where this wire is coming
> > from based on the cross section?
>
>
> So much for the
> > ethics of salvage companies.
>
> PHall Wrote:
> ----------------------------------
> >
> > Scrap metal companies have no morals, all they
> see
> > is profit.
>
> The scrap dealer in question is in St. George,
> Utah, over 150 miles from BMLP. While closure of
> the power plant made local news in AZ, and
> probably in southern Utah, I don't recall any of
> those articles mentioning that there was an
> electric railroad being shut down with it. Unless
> the scrap dealer was a foamer there is no reason
> they would have known about it.
>
> The two of you might have also noted, if you
> bothered reading the linked article, that the
> scrap dealer in question provided their sales
> records to the investigators, AND contacted the
> police when the Slowtalkers came to sell more of
> the wire, which is how they were identified and
> arrested.
>
> But don't let facts or rational thought stand in
> the way of leaping to your prejudiced conclusions.

Yeah, they all of a sudden decided become honest after they had been contacted by the police after the thieves had been there three times. And yes I did read the article.
Of course I may be just a bit prejudiced, I've only replaced thousands of feet of stolen telephone cable and repaired the damage caused while it was being stolen while I was working at AT&T.

wonder if those two hit the Raton line too?

Given the amount the article says they were paid, these two didn't turn in all 100,000 pounds of the missing wire. Possibly there is something to their comments that there are quite a few people on the Navajo reservation each taking a portion.

"if you bothered reading the linked article,"

As a matter of fact two or three times.

What a cheap shot.

Very sad.

Posted from Android

That should of left the wire...."energized"  It would be like a Bug Zapper..for thieves  

Trainman41 Wrote:
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> That should of left the wire...."energized"  It
> would be like a Bug Zapper..for thieves  

That is exactly what the old Milwaukee Road did, when the quit that part of their railroad. It didn't take long for the copper thieves to figure out that simply throwing a long chain/cable over the energized wire to contact the ground, quickly tripped the line breaker. Then then could take a few miles of wire.

From the article, I gathered the wire had been taken down by the contractors and was waiting transport. Sitting in a yard somewhere.

Posted from Android

dan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wonder if those two hit the Raton line too?

Why Raton? Has there been theft of in-service copper wire signal lines as has occurred on out-of-service Tennessee Pass?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/20 10:38 by Cumbresfan.

No different than Wall Street!!!!!!!!!!!
> Scrap metal companies have no morals, all they see
> is profit.