probes thefts of rail hardware

Over the past two months, Paducah and Louisville Railroad officials report they are missing an estimated 20 to 25 tons of the steel angle bars and tie plates they had cached at points in Grayson County.

Robbie Buchanan, chief engineer, said the thefts have occurred in Caneyville, Leitchfield and Big Clifty. He explained the angle bars are used at the ends of two rails to splice the rails together. The tie plates are used to hold rails to the ties. The rail rests in a groove, and the plate has holes for the spikes driven into the ties.

"They're not taking these things up from the tracks," he said, "at least, not yet!"

He said the bars and plates are cached at points along the tracks to be accessible for repair crews, "but we think the people who are taking them are selling them to scrap dealers, but they're only getting about $5 a pair for the angle bars."

He said P&L pays $35 for a pair of splicing bars. All the steel stolen so far, he continued, has "gotten somebody, probably more than one thief, a total of about $4,000."

He said the thieves "know what they're taking, and they aren't feeble folks; those angle bars weigh about 80 pounds a pair, and the plates (just over a foot long) weigh about 18 pounds."

"We've reported the thefts to the Grayson County Sheriff's Office, and city police officers have been alerted in Leitchfield and Caneyville," he said. "They know what to look for -- a pickup, probably, that's sagging in the back."

He called the replacement costs for the bars and plates "a drain on the engineering budget at P&L, and we're definitely ready to press charges as soon as the thieves can be identified," he said.

He said a check of scrap dealers in the county had turned up zip.