Horns stolen from Adirondack Scenic -2014

The Adirondack Scenic Railroad recently discovered that sometime in the past two months someone removed the horns from four locomotives parked at Utica, NY.

There may be video that will allow a narrowing of period when the horns disappeared, or possibly even some indication of the culprit(s) responsible. It is known that they were in place as late as February 1.

By all appearances, the thief or thieves knew what they were looking for. The bolts were left lying next to the horn mounts as well.

The locomotives were RS18u's 1835 and 1845 (recently acquired), F10 1502, and GP9 6076 (which is the locomotive that was vandalized in Lake Placid last fall).

When I have the specific horn models, I'll post them.

It's not a stretch to think that someone with an interest in locomotive horns is responsible.

If you know of someone who "acquired" several horns over the winter, you might want to steer clear, and consider notifying ASRR.

When mounting new horns use 4 different type of bolts, it will make it harder, Allan type, Torx type , inverted Torx type, inverted hex type.
It prevents average A**hole with an crescent wrench to steal them.

people suck

I'm sympathetic, but come on - we all know how attractive horns are, both to railfans and to truck drivers etc. Usually it's just 4 bolts, and a simple task to remove the horn from any loco which is going to be sitting unused for any length of time. It's too bad that the thieves have to dictate the actions of honest people but the smart move is to remove anything that can grow legs before the crooks have the chance to do it.

IMHO in this day and age you need to have a pro welder come in and weld the nuts in place in a couple spots if you don't want the horn to dissapear. The average horn thief doesnt' carry a demo saw or a torch to try to cut them off with.

Or, at the end of the season remove them yourself and lock them up.

wow... S/he or they got balls to do that... on the former air force base... and right NEAR EADS... Maybe ASR want to talk to EADS to see if one of their security camera might have view of ASR's shed and locomotives... Fat chance but never hurt to ask...

security camera's only hold maybe 6 or 7 days of information on Hard disk , think OP said it happened sometime between Febr 1st and now ????

sd80mac wrote:... on the former air force base...

Nope - at Utica now. The railroad moved out of Rome (long story - even we haven't figured it out).

There are cameras, belonging to Amtrak (Utica Union Station). Don't know what's been done with them yet.

Two of the horns are KL3A's. One is a KL5A. Gotta check on the other one yet.

Here are some pics of the horns in question (photos not all mine):

I have a photo from February 9th that shows the horn still on 1835 at least, but in another photo of mine from March 16, it's gone. And that only shows 1835 and not the others but I would assume they did them all at the same time. You never know, though.

I know it's not much of a help but it narrows it down a little bit.

If need be I can send the pics.

Alek S

I have tried the three bolts and one padlock method. That worked for us.

It is disgusting that some people need to collect horns (and other items) by stealing them, and others feel it necessary to do their artwork on cars and locomotives (not to mention buildings etc).

tree68 wrote:

sd80mac wrote:... on the former air force base...

Nope - at Utica now. The railroad moved out of Rome (long story - even we haven't figured it out).

There are cameras, belonging to Amtrak (Utica Union Station). Don't know what's been done with them yet.

Two of the horns are KL3A's. One is a KL5A. Gotta check on the other one yet.

my bad- I missed "utica, ny" in first posting... I read it too fast LOL...

oh well...

I bet they'll turn up on EBay in a few months.

and unless you got serial numbers its gone be hard to prove their stolen once.

It's not a bad idea to stamp or engrave some sort of ID at a few places on a horn. I'd suggest NOT using railroad initials or loco number as that would make it even more attractive to thieves.