Railroaders' Nostalgia > The Bug

Looking at another post,the information had
reference to impact recorders.That caused me
to remember about them.I won't go into detail
but there is a lot of information about them
and their use.
In my railroad career I had to install portable
recorders in cars that carried fragile or expensive
items.These were hidden from view so that no one
other than the person installing same knew.We called
them "bugs".Ergo, a forerunner of today's inside
and outside locomotive cameras.What goes around comes
around.

Uncle Joe
Seffner,Fl.

Around 10 years ago I was working at a federal warehousing installation. A warehouse received a truck trailer to unload, and upon opening the doors of the trailer, the unloading crew found an unmarked "black box" attached to the floor. Because of recent world-wide terrorist activities, all employees had taken mandatory classes on how to recognize potential bombs and other terrorist items. The unloading crew immediately jumped to the conclusion that the "black box" was a bomb, and called security. Security was unable to recognize what the "black box" was, concluded that it was a bomb, and had everybody within 300-yards evacuated to safer areas. About an hour-and-a-half after a few phone calls had been made, bomb squads from the city, county, state, and US Army were on scene, and our entire installation was on lockdown. The US Army bomb squad removed the "black box" from the trailer, took it out to a wide-open area, and exploded a demolition charge under it. There was no secondary explosion. Inspection found that the totally destroyed "black box" was, as you say, a "bug", a sophisticated unmarked electronic device "planted" in the trailer at the shipping point to determine how the trucking company was handling the government's precious cargo! The destroyed device was valued at $15,000. Thank God for the bomb squad!

lynnpowell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ... The destroyed device was valued at $15,000. Thank God for the bomb squad!


Now THAT is funny!!!

Used to be able to hear the tick-tick-tick of the clockwork mechanism when walking alongside a car with such a device. Carmen and switchmen hearing this would chalk a clock on the side of the car, which everyone knew meant to carefully switch such a car.

'course, shippers then figured out they didn't really need to pay for such a device - they simply chalked a clock on the side of the car, knowing they would then get special handling.

-LD

I recall during my tenure as General Superintendent on the TRRA a transformer interchanged from the BN to the TRRA at Bremen Avenue that got three or four impacts over 10 mph within four hours. When asked, all I could say was that we were trying to be careful.