Police recover property stolen from a train

Guys, you have no idea how difficult it is to just put this story out there without further comment or discussion. But I'll try.

http://www.react365.com/589a7455b1540/e ... ildos.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BR&P wrote:Guys, you have no idea how difficult it is to just put this story out there without further comment or discussion. But I'll try.

http://www.react365.com/589a7455b1540/e ... ildos.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are sooooo many wisecracks possible in this one, but I'll just say it didn't end well for
this thief from Endwell.

Charlie

Well... I don't know, but a story about purloined fake male "equipment" liberated from a train published on a website that also found great white sharks swimming in the Mississippi River might just be fake news.

Everybody knows we don't make anything in the USA anymore, certainly not the item in question.

This one pegged my BS meter at +15 (on a scale of 1-10).

Any other credible reports available ?

Cheers, Kevin.

Who's to say these aren't jobs that have returned to America to rebuild our once great manufacturing base? They probably had to erect a whole new factory for this.

I have to admit I did not check it out further since on the car forum I got it from, a member who lives in that area claims to have briefly employed the alleged perp as a golf course maintenance worker some time ago. But upon checking the source indicated, they DO appear to have some rather far-out claims like those sharks. A search of southern tier news sites did not turn up the guy's name in any of them. I just figured that since it's on the internet, it MUST be true!

I will also admit that while I am not an expert on such merchandise, I was surprised that it allegedly was made in the USA rather than imported. Should have gotten out the BS meter and taken a reading on it.

Oh well - enjoy the laugh anyway, guys!

Semper, I see what you did there.... Erect.... hahaha

Just look at the latest issue of Trains. Railroads are searching for traffic to replace coal.

I hope they ship the batteries separately - otherwise one rough coupling, and the whole car will be buzzing!

Speaking of buzzz, I recall a day when I was loading baggage onto a United Airlines 727. Another ground handler suddenly stopped loading. The bag he picked up off the cart was vibrating. I verified it. He went to get the passenger to find out what was in it. A dildo of course. How embarrassing that must have been. They ID"d it and the bag eventually made it back onto the plane.

Way back in BC (Before Computers) everything was handled with written paperwork and books. Boxcar lengths, station numbers on all railroads, routes, you name it, there were books or tariffs to cover it.

At that time, we used to have a thick book of STCC numbers - Standard Transportation Commodity Code. I believe, but not sure, they still have that or a variation thereof. But ANYTHING which could possibly be shipped had a 7-digit code number to identify what it was. I don't remember specifics, but 20-334-10 might be fruit, preserved, in cans. 20-334-20 might have been fruit, preserved, in glass bottles. The slightest difference often carried a different number (and sometimes, a different freight rate).

There was a STCC number for fly swatters, for broom handles, for soap, powdered, in buckets, whiskey, in wooden barrels, rockets, coffins, you name it, and it had a number.

I don't have one of those tariffs, but would bet money that somewhere in there, you could find a number assigned to the small appliances being discussed - probably 2 different numbers, powered and manual.

NYCRRson wrote:Semper, I see what you did there.... Erect.... hahaha

The woodworker's union was the real winner here.

BR&P wrote:Guys, you have no idea how difficult it is to just put this story out there without further comment or discussion. But I'll try.

http://www.react365.com/589a7455b1540/e ... ildos.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Of course , this is fake. But it's really funny.

BR&P wrote:Way back in BC (Before Computers) everything was handled with written paperwork and books. Boxcar lengths, station numbers on all railroads, routes, you name it, there were books or tariffs to cover it.

At that time, we used to have a thick book of STCC numbers - Standard Transportation Commodity Code. I believe, but not sure, they still have that or a variation thereof. But ANYTHING which could possibly be shipped had a 7-digit code number to identify what it was. I don't remember specifics, but 20-334-10 might be fruit, preserved, in cans. 20-334-20 might have been fruit, preserved, in glass bottles. The slightest difference often carried a different number (and sometimes, a different freight rate).

There was a STCC number for fly swatters, for broom handles, for soap, powdered, in buckets, whiskey, in wooden barrels, rockets, coffins, you name it, and it had a number.

I don't have one of those tariffs, but would bet money that somewhere in there, you could find a number assigned to the small appliances being discussed - probably 2 different numbers, powered and manual.

You might have to try a number of entries, but there would undoubtedly be something ending with "not otherwise indexed by name." (This was necessitated by the legal requirement that there had to be something in the tariff to cover anything that might be offered for transportation, even if it hadn't been invented yet. Not only did it have to have a number if you could name it, as BR&P notes, it had to have one even if nobody had named it at the time the tariff was published.)
As to the need to get the numbers right, one of our marketing guys was running a check on utilization of gondolas and accordingly searched on that car type, broken down by commodity as shown by the STCC (pronounced stick) number, and owing to a transposition of numerals by whoever entered the information, the printout showed one instance of bees in hives, in gondola cars (a picturesque sight, presumably marked "shipper's load and count"). We put it down as an error.
However, the STCC system finally made it possible to compile systematic information about movement of various categories of freight; if you're tracking the volume of machinery moving, and you're looking at a waybill showing "farm tractors," are farm tractors vehicles, motor, or machinery, agricultural? The STCC committees settled questions like that by assigning a specific number, which you could then sort on.

exCon90 wrote:there would undoubtedly be something ending with "not otherwise indexed by name."

Ah yes, the ubiquitous "NOIBN", or sometime just "NOI".

Another nuance of all that which might be interesting to those here is that by regulation, the shipper was legally entitled to the lowest applicable rate which was published. So you might have a shipment which could be described as "Applesauce, canned" which was listed at $2.40 per hundredweight. BUT - the shipper might point out another STCC which was "Fruit, fruit products, processed, in cans" for $2.05 a hundredweight. If there were no limitations or retrictions specified, the shipper could use the cheaper price.

There is no easy way to describe to someone how complex ratemaking used to be. There were whole libraries of tariffs, showing routes, interchange points, product descriptions, station numbers, zones, and so forth. All this was published under the regulatory eyes of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and that body had checker-uppers who would visit various stations on the railroads at random and ensure that they had the proper books on hand and that all paperwork was up to snuff. By the way, did I mention that those big thick tariff books were constantly being updated with supplement after supplement, which cancelled previous supplements?

The Staggers Act, which came along in 1981, made things SO much easier, and untied the carriers hands. Finally, the railroads could just get together and decide a rate based on what amount each line wanted, rather than what the ICC said they HAD to charge.

BR&P, you make a good point, it the gubermint could not figure out what the correct cost of shipping applesauce in a railroad car should be how the heck does anybody expect them to lower the cost of an aspirin.....

The scariest words in the English language; "I'm from the gubermint, and I'm here to help".......

Cheers, Kevin