The speed through the projects would have been 25 mph, but the elevated portion of the Docks, from Waldo (or was it Nave?)to the Communipaw bridge (Johnston Ave.) was 10 mph. From Johnston Ave to Upper Bay was 30 mph. When dragging the train north, you would roll at 10 (although, it was really 15-20) with a minimum, to keep them stretched until the hind-end cleared. The cops would come on the radio, telling you to "go faster, they're coming". Some guys were dumb enough to say stuff like "I'm already going 20, I can't go any faster". Of course, they got popped, for speeding. The unwritten rule, was "it doesn't matter how fast you go, as long as you don't derail, rip them apart or get hit". These guys would roll tires off the hill, stack them in the gauge, run beside you and pull a pin, or even turn the air. Some guys were able to get onto plug doors, some just played decoy for the cops. It was definately an organized system, of stopping and robbing trains. If the score was big, you would see a line of people, passing items across the land, to the projects, like you would see people tossing sandbags to reinforce a levee!! All of this under the watchful eyes of the cops. They could do this with the cops watching, because no cop in his right mind was going to try to stop dozens of potentially armed jackers, by himself. There would be 2,3 or even 4 cop cars/trucks waiting for the trains. They would deploy, every 15-20 cars, from the engine, and drive at train speed, following it through the war zone. Guys would literally stand beside the ROW, wait for the cop to drive by, then jump onto the train. They mostly were there to provide armed escort to the unfortunate conductor, who had to go back, and put his train back together, if they got hit. This might take hours, as every joint made resulted in another pin pulled, when the slack came back in. Running the gauntlet was definately an interesting way to start your trip to Selkirk. Or a terrible way to end your trip back to Oak Island.........
BTW, the first link provided looks like a different group, that was hitting trains around the Terminal, apart from and seperate of the Projects Pirates. I remember a TV train getting looted on the fly, while heading north through CP-7/CP-10. There were guys throwing boxes off the train, on the east side, and later, there was found to be several cases of Beretta's in the loot found on the ROW. The other 2 links are the same, and they show the train a couple of miles north of the projects, running track speed as they head into the Weehawkin Tunnel at CP-1, after clearing the Docks. That cop wouldn't be standing and waving at the train, in the projects........
