The Great Model Train Robbery
bloomberg.com
The Great Model Train Robbery
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Re: The Great Model Train Robbery
#2In related news, a model railway (we are talking HO/OO gauge) was trashed a few weeks before this incident. Rod Stewart - himself into trains - decided to donate extremely generously to make things better:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/20/rod-stewart-...
Regarding the actual story - where they could have done with Rod Stewart donating - those trains really do take five to ten years to build. You can get castings of some parts such as wheels but then you need to put them into the lathe and do many other processes to get the finished article. Even with an 0-6-0 train that is a lot to get right.
Getting a boiler built and tested is a major landmark in the whole process. There is as much to put together as on a full size 'prototype' train as on the model version, some parts are actually harder to make in miniature.
Incidentally 'prototype' is the railway modelling term for a full size train. This could definitely be used in software engineering, e.g. if making a MAME video game cabinet the original from the 1980's could be the 'prototype'. If getting things like the buttons right happens then they could be commended as 'prototypical'.
Re: The Great Model Train Robbery
#3Hey y'all, this is the story's author here -- thanks for upvoting our magazine feature. I hope you enjoy the story, and would also direct you to a video version of the piece, which gives a wonderful sense of the passion these folks have for their locos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWCUXoNZYio&t=
This may be a good instance where additional online sleuthing could help solve the crime. If you have any thoughts/tips, please just let me know! Happy also to answer any questions you might have about the story. Thanks for reading!
Best, Austin
Re: The Great Model Train Robbery
#4In related news, a model railway (we are talking HO/OO gauge) was trashed a few weeks before this incident. Rod Stewart - himself into trains - decided to donate extremely generously to make things better: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/20/rod-stewart-... Regarding the actual story - where they could have done with Rod Stewart donating - those trains really do take five to ten years to build. You can ge…
Totally agree -- I was immensely impressed by the engineering work that went into each loco. Indeed, one of the trains stolen took ~25 years to build/refine.
Re: The Great Model Train Robbery
#5Happened in Seattle a few months ago https://komonews.com/news/local/thieves-caught-on-video-stea...
Re: The Great Model Train Robbery
#6One moral to this story, local police are usually useless when it comes to investigating a crime. The two recent incidents I reported to the police, which included a home robbery the police refused to investigate They cycled through excuses for why they didn’t have to do anything. Pretty disappointing.
Re: The Great Model Train Robbery
#7One moral to this story, local police are usually useless when it comes to investigating a crime. The two recent incidents I reported to the police, which included a home robbery the police refused to investigate They cycled through excuses for why they didn’t have to do anything. Pretty disappointing.
Agreed. I had a break-in in my apartment last decade and the cop who came in just said "it happens all the time in terrace level apartments". A week later the investigating detective sent a form for me to fill and that was that. They giving me a police report to be used to file claims with insurance was the only useful thing they did.
In a town hall meeting later that year the local police chief said they don't investigate burglaries unless it was a home invasion (they coming in while you are present).
Re: The Great Model Train Robbery
#8One moral to this story, local police are usually useless when it comes to investigating a crime. The two recent incidents I reported to the police, which included a home robbery the police refused to investigate They cycled through excuses for why they didn’t have to do anything. Pretty disappointing.
Agreed. I had a break-in in my apartment last decade and the cop who came in just said "it happens all the time in terrace level apartments". A week later the investigating detective sent a form for me to fill and that was that. They giving me a police report to be used to file claims with insurance was the only useful thing they did. In a town hall meeting later that year the local police chief said they don't inves…
Despite our multiple inquiries with the Kent/Hertfordshire police in the UK, it's still unclear whether they fully investigated arguably the most significant lead in the theft: a suspicious man named "Jamie" who attempted to sell similar-looking model locomotives to a train shop ~62 miles away, just hours after the robbery was discovered...Jamie took off in a rush after the shop's owner asked for paperwork on the trains. The Kent police say they passed the lead onto Hertfordshire; the Hertfordshire police told me they have no record of the incident.
Re: The Great Model Train Robbery
#9Sad to hear it... especially here, where I'd like to remind everyone, that (albeit probably universally inherent from curiosity and not tied to any locality) modern, western hacker culture has its roots in model railroads[1] at the MIT club in the 60s.
I hope those stolen Locos find their way back to their rightful owners, and wish all those pursuing that goal all the luck they can receive.
[1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/09/07/where-did-hack...
Re: The Great Model Train Robbery
#10Hey y'all, this is the story's author here -- thanks for upvoting our magazine feature. I hope you enjoy the story, and would also direct you to a video version of the piece, which gives a wonderful sense of the passion these folks have for their locos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWCUXoNZYio&t= This may be a good instance where additional online sleuthing could help solve the crime. If you have any thoughts/tips…
As a Brit I found your article's tone and this video a little patronizing Austin given the gravity of the situation. It's really worrying how people just care about financial value of things to steal with apparently no thought about what has been created and what it means to people. I'd quite like to see the people that stole these found injured 'in a ditch somewhere' as well as the trains https://youtu.be/MWCUXoNZYio?t=306