KI6WDX Wrote:
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> Sitting here typing out an email to a person
> scheduled for our amateur radio club meeting on
> Tuesday and listening the usual banter to & from
> the UP 262 and the crew onboard the
> Suisun-Roseville turn calling for a track warrant
> to move east. UP DS 262 gives the order, crew
> reads it back and no "toot, toot" like there
> should be when it's ready to leave town. Crew
> calls back to mention that horn isn't working on
> the UP 4772, DS asks "Is it the switch or the
> lever" as to why no horn? Crew reports to the DS
> that the reason why is that there is no horn on
> top of the engine. DS says it will be reported, UP
> Maintenance calls the crew and ask some questions
> to which the reply is the same: No horn on the
> engine!
>
> UP Maintenance man then asks "Why would someone
> steal the horn?"

"UP Maintenance?" Really? More likely, the crew was talking to UP Mechanical.

In any event, horn theft is nothing new. Different approaches have been made to prevent it, but none have been 100% successful, and it happens from time to time at locations where locomotives are left unattended for extended periods of time. On UP units, it now takes a special fitting to remove one of the bolts, or one can saw or cut off the mounting.