Two Bellingham women suspected in terrorist attack against BNSF, endangering the publ

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Two Bellingham women were charged with a terrorist attack and violence against the BNSF Railway Company after they allegedly interfered with the railroad’s safety features last weekend by placing a shunt on the tracks near Bellingham.

“Since January there have been 41 incidents of shunts placed on the BNSF tracks in Whatcom and Skagit counties — causing crossing guards to malfunction, interfering with automatic breaking (sic) systems, and, in one case, causing the near-derailment of tanks of hazardous chemicals,” U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran said in the release. “These crimes endanger our community.”

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/new...ctionheadlines

I expect we will see more of this.

[just a scout]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Coal Dragger]

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/new...ctionheadlines

I expect we will see more of this.

Yeah with Positive Train Control (PTC) going up on more and more subdivisions on the big class 1 RR’s shunting a block is going to result in a lot more ass pain. PTC will detect the shunt and interpret it as the block being occupied, rail being broken, an electric lock switch box having opened etc, and will then apply the air brakes on the train or demand the engineer do so to stop. Now a couple of blocks ahead: no big deal, stop consistent with good train handling. Before PTC if a signal dropped in front of you and there was no obvious occupation or problem ahead you stopped as quickly as possible, consistent with good train handling, and proceed afterwards having reported the issue at restricted speed prepared to stop within 1/2 the distance of vision short of anything that might be on the track while looking out for evidence of a broken rail.

On the other hand a savvy saboteur will wait until the approaching train is in the block immediately next in order for the direction of travel and then shunt it when the train is close to the block signal that controls the block they intend to shunt. A knowledgeable saboteur will also make sure they are doing this at an absolute signal where there’s a control point. PTC will see this signal drop and initiate an emergency brake application if it’s an absolute signal and the train is close and going fast enough that a normal service application won’t stop in time. PTC gives zero fvcks about good train handling, and since the engineer didn’t initiate the emergency brake application they’re going to be behind the power curve in doing what they need to do to mitigate sever buff forces popping cars off the damn rails. The locomotives weigh about 210 tons each and have more axles and more braking power than the cars which are also not nearly as heavy. An emergency brake application automatically tells the independent brakes on the locomotives to make maximum brake cylinder pressure, and the dynamic brakes to automatically come on building up maximum dynamic braking. To mitigate the build up of extreme buff forces the engineer needs to bleed off independent brake cylinder pressure to prevent wheels sliding on the locomotive consist, and it needs to happen pretty quickly especially on a mixed freight train with a lot of cushioned draw bars, mixed empty and loaded cars, and lots and lots of slack to run in. Mismanagement of slack running in, or running out breaks lots of stuff every day on RR’s everywhere, fortunately most of the time everything stays on the rail and only draft equipment gets broken.

[Diamondback]

To give you guys a perspective about these people, Bellinghamsters make Seattleites look conservative by comparison.

Welcome to my world, brothers...

[SteyrAUG]

So to protect the environment, they tried to derail a train.

Brilliant.

[Averageman]

Among the charges should be attempted murder. You don't derail a train without killing someone.
The thought that a school Bus could have been t-boned at a crossing should infuriate everyone.

[Grand58742]

So to protect the environment, they tried to derail a train.

Brilliant.

You expect any less lunacy from the eco-terrorist crowd?

Remember, these are the same people that set car lots on fire and then cheer about it while releasing a metric shit-ton of harmful fumes as those plastics go up in flames.

[SeriousStudent]

I do believe that BNSF, like most railroads, have their own police force.

Coal Dragger, can you shed any light on that and their capabilities?

I sure hope no good folks are injured, this is so stupid and dangerous that it defies belief.

[Coal Dragger]

We do have our own police force, recruited from already trained law enforcement officers. Since RR’s pay a lot better than most PD’s I hear it isn’t too hard convincing guys to come over.

That said the RR police or special agents on most roads are pretty understaffed, and mostly deal with trespass issues and things of that nature. In large urban areas where many rail yards and main tracks are in a high crime area the RR police will be called out to assist crews in the yard to provide security, or drive along trains stopped on the main to discourage the local population from trying out their new bolt cutters.

Investigating incidents like the one in this article are well within the capacity of a RR cop particularly given how consistent these two’s MO and area of operation was. They hire trained experienced sworn LEO’s for a reason, and their jurisdiction is more than you might think since the Federal Government granted RR’s a lot of leeway back in the day.

[Honu]

put em on the track see if they can derail the engine justice and they get their wish to TRY to derail ? yeah idiots do not begin to describe many of todays folks