2 Vandals Crash Rail Locomotive
Two men invaded the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad yard, vandalized an office and took a 112-ton locomotive on a 50-m.p.h. joy ride before crashing and tearing up the tracks, railroad authorities said Sunday.
An alert rail yard tower operator spotted the speeding engine and switched it off the main tracks seconds before it overturned, officials said.
The two vandals climbed from the overturned engine and ran away late Saturday, said C&NW; spokesman Fred Bloedorn. They remained at large Sunday.
“They knew how to operate a locomotive engine but they didn’t know how to operate it on a railroad track,” and were lucky to survive, Bloedorn said.
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