Railroad Stymied by Wire Scavengers

Nighttime scavengers have been crossing Southern Pacific’s signals for more than a year in Ventura County.

Stripping copper wire from railroad utility poles, scavengers have repeatedly disrupted the railroad’s signal system, causing more than $100,000 in damage, repairs and train delays.

“It really kills us,” said Bob Flaherty, who supervises operation of Southern Pacific railroad signals on its coastal route between Burbank and San Luis Obispo.

In the latest incident earlier this month, thieves removed 3,000 feet of wire valued at $1,000 from utility poles near Las Posas Road and 5th Street. The theft was the third in the Camarillo area in the past year, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Keith Lazz said.

“The signal was out, the trains were stopped and it was a mess,” Lazz said.

Lazz said the thieves apparently sell the wire to metal recyclers, but none has shown up at local companies recently.

When the wire is cut, the signals that are normally dark when no train is approaching turn to either red or green, depending on the location of the missing wire.

“It slows the trains up,” said Bennie Brandon, who maintains Southern Pacific signals in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. “The train has to ‘flag’ that red signal, which means they have to stop and proceed with caution. It’s just like a flashing red light at a traffic intersection.”

For safety reasons, Southern Pacific crews usually wait until daylight to begin replacing the lines, with disruptions often lasting half a day.

The thefts have occurred so regularly in Seacliff and the east county that Southern Pacific has begun installing an expensive system called Electro Code that uses the rails themselves to transmit information, Flaherty said.

He said the railroad has also replaced some of the copper wire--actually cable made from 10 strands of 8-gauge wire--with less valuable cable that has an iron core and copper cladding. The iron-core cable is also very stiff and cannot be easily bent, further discouraging theft.

Because of the losses to scavengers, the railroad will eventually replace all of the copper wiring, Flaherty said.

Until then, Lazz hopes that someone will spot one of the nighttime scavengers at work and furnish authorities with a license plate number.

“We need help,” Lazz said.