Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Bomb Squad Called About Model Train


 










Yes, you heard that right--a bomb squad was called to investigate a "suspicious device" found on a road near Bechtelsville, PA on Oct. 30.
 
The story was published by the Reading Eagle, under the header "Device found on Bechtelsville street was model train,"
 
Here's the complete story:
 
"A state police bomb squad determined that a suspicious device found this morning on a street near Bechtelsville was a model train locomotive that apparently fell from a truck and was flattened by other vehicles.

"A Colebrookdale Township police officer spotted the device and some batteries about 9 a.m. in the middle of Mill Street between South Main Street and Route 100 in Washington Township, near the Colebrookdale line, said Trooper David C. Beohm, a state police spokesman.

"The officer called for state police, who cover Washington Township. Troopers called their bomb squad. A state police fire marshal and a agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also investigated.

"Mill Street has been reopened.

"Beohm said it appeared to be a larger size locomotive from a model train set. Troopers haven’t identified who it belonged to."
 
At first, I thought it was a joke. But a check of the paper's website and Facebook page show it was real.
 
The story prompted on person to write on the paper's Facebook page: "Clearly Al Qaeda is probing for weaknesses."
 
Part of me sympathizes with the trooper--all those wires and metal and, if it had a decoder, some computer-like looking stuff on top.
 
I know that I have taken extra precautions whenever I carried a locomotive with me while travelling by plane. 

Since I almost always only use carry-on luggage, I take the unit out of the suitcase before it goes through the X-ray machine. I have no interest in being taken to a small room and being strip searched because someone saw metal and wires and a computer chip on the scanner.
 
But what I'm thinking about the Reading Eagle story is this: Did it really fall off a truck, or did some model railroader have the misfortune of putting his locomotive on the roof of his (or her) car while he/she put other things away, then drove off forgetting all about it?

If that's the case, that modeler knows where it is now.

1 comment:

  1. F is for F-unit and F is for flat. A flat car? Well, it's flat now!
    Funny story, John.
    Eric

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