Wayne's Worlds

No one was injured as a result of the incident, which observers on scene said ranks as the most audacious example of metal theft in recent memory.

“It stopped a little too late and derailed — it just dropped down on both sides,” CSX trainmaster Mark Smith said of the four-axle GP40 engine that was pulling two cars and a rear engine.

The engine’s front wheels landed astride the tracks, but neither it nor the other engine and two cars, tipped over. The rear engine, with the two cars in tow, by late Wednesday managed to pull away, leaving the front engine mired in the dirt among shards of shattered railroad ties.

Smith, 52, said the slow-moving train derailed at 1:30 p.m. as the two-man crew was delivering goods to Agar Supply, a foodservice distributor located at 225 John Hancock Road.

Three hours after the derailment, Smith said it would be sometime in the evening before the engine could be lifted back onto the tracks.

He also estimated it would take two to four days for the gap in the rail to be filled and for a damaged section of bent rail to be repaired.

Smith and others who responded and assessed the damage were uniformly incredulous that anyone would even consider such a foolhardy act.

“Idiots,” Smith, 52, said of whoever used a welding torch to cut away the steel rail. “They have no regard for anyone’s safety. Imagine if it punctured a fuel tank or if it was hazmat (hazardous material),” he said.

Evidence suggests the thieves — railroad personnel said it would have taken two or more people to lift each 900-pound segment — were cutting away another portion when they decided to flee.

A section of rail directly behind the front engine had been cut through. And although the thieves managed to get away with one piece of steel, they left a second piece on the ground some 200 feet from where it had been filched.

Smith said he had never come across a similar incident during his 18 years as a railroad professional.

Mark Achorn, who identified himself as CSX “wreck master,” said much the same. Achorn, 59, said he has worked in the railroad industry for 37 years and that he’s accustomed to the occasional call about weather-related rail damage, but never one due to outright theft.

“Who in their right mind would actually do something like that?” he said.

Achorn said it would require an outside contractor with specialized equipment to lift the engine back onto the existing rail.

Taunton Police Chief Edward Walsh said he has a good idea as to the thieves’ motivation.

“I’m not really surprised. It just shows you people do desperate things to get drug money,” Walsh said, reiterating statements he made to the Taunton Daily Gazette last week during an interview about the rising tide of copper and metal theft throughout the Silver City. Walsh acknowledged that Taunton detectives were investigating the incident but was not able to confirm if any other law enforcement agency was involved.

By late afternoon, however, at least one CSX Transportation railroad police officer had shown up. The officer, armed with a sidearm, took photos of the scene but declined to comment.

Walsh said due to the unwieldy nature of the steel rails, he suspects the thieves probably did not intend bringing it directly to a scrap yard, but instead likely have the means to melt it down themselves.

The stretch of rail on which the ill-fated engine was traveling is owned by the Taunton Development Corporation, the nonprofit that develops and markets what is considered one of the Bay State’s premier industrial parks.

TDC director Dick Shafer said he expects Agar Supply and the TDC will be having a “heart to heart” discussion to decide how much each party is liable for paying to repair the damage to the rail line.

Shafer also said it’s reasonable to assume security measures will have to be improved in the park.

“I think it’s a sign of the times,” Shafer said. “People are desperate, and theft of metal is big right now.”

The rail line where the engine derailed also is adjacent to land the city has bought in anticipation of building a trash-to-energy facility that would replace the municipal landfill.

Joe De Angelis, owner of De Angelis Railroad Contractors, the Worcester company hired by Agar to perform general maintenance of the rail line, reacted emotionally when he first caught sight of the damage.

“I can not (expletive) believe it,” he kept repeating. “This is ridiculous.”

De Angelis, 56, said what turned out to be an extreme inconvenience in other circumstances could have been “a major disaster.”

He noted that an engine becoming derailed can hit telephone poles and power lines. He also said he dreads to imagine the repercussions a similar act of sabotage could have on a “main line” rail service, such as Amtrak or the MBTA.

De Angelis also noted that a piece of rail, more than 100 feet away, had buckled and torn away from its moorings because of the intense pressure released when the thieves cut through the steel.

“When they cut through they must have got the shock of their lives,” he said.

Joe Enos, owner of Enos Metals on Dana Street in Taunton, said his scarp yard doesn’t pay for steel, but yards that do are paying only 12 to 15 cents per pound.

Enos, 77, said his late father years ago taught him a reputable scrap metal yard never buys railroad iron.

“That’s always a no-no,” because of the likelihood of it being stolen, Enos said. “I don’t know who would buy it.”

He called this week’s rail theft “horrendous” and said he dreaded to consider the consequences of a slightly different scenario.

“What if it was a train going 100 miles per hour? You could have a lot of people killed,” Enos said.<<

This all reminds me of the sequence from the film, The Great Train Robbery: