kamalktk
Antediluvian
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2011
- Messages
- 7,220
The middle of the night planned heist of model trains.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-great-model-train-robbery
In the heart of Gravesend, in Kent, England, a hedged lane runs alongside a retired Royal Air Force field, now occupied by the Cascades Leisure Centre, a recreation facility with a gym and a pool. Under a cloudy moon on Valentine’s Day 2019, a van rolled into a mini-roundabout near the Leisure Centre, stopping opposite a row of brick homes.
...
Inside one of the containers, they cut the padlock off a cupboard door, and there she was: an exquisite steam-powered model locomotive named Mayflower, her green boiler and brass engine bands glistening under the bandits’ flashlights. They chopped into another cupboard housing a second locomotive. Discovering a key for a third shipping container, they popped its doors open and spotted two more choo-choos for the taking. These model trains often require decades to build and are considered priceless by their owners. At market, they can fetch tens of thousands of pounds. And though they’re small, one-twelfth the scale of a normal train, they’re not that small. The locomotives—which burn model-train-size bricks of coal, carried in model-train-scale tenders and fed with tiny shovels—weigh hundreds of pounds each. They’re powerful enough to pull eight children, who ride, straddling passenger cars, around a special narrow-gauge track at 8 mph.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-great-model-train-robbery
In the heart of Gravesend, in Kent, England, a hedged lane runs alongside a retired Royal Air Force field, now occupied by the Cascades Leisure Centre, a recreation facility with a gym and a pool. Under a cloudy moon on Valentine’s Day 2019, a van rolled into a mini-roundabout near the Leisure Centre, stopping opposite a row of brick homes.
...
Inside one of the containers, they cut the padlock off a cupboard door, and there she was: an exquisite steam-powered model locomotive named Mayflower, her green boiler and brass engine bands glistening under the bandits’ flashlights. They chopped into another cupboard housing a second locomotive. Discovering a key for a third shipping container, they popped its doors open and spotted two more choo-choos for the taking. These model trains often require decades to build and are considered priceless by their owners. At market, they can fetch tens of thousands of pounds. And though they’re small, one-twelfth the scale of a normal train, they’re not that small. The locomotives—which burn model-train-size bricks of coal, carried in model-train-scale tenders and fed with tiny shovels—weigh hundreds of pounds each. They’re powerful enough to pull eight children, who ride, straddling passenger cars, around a special narrow-gauge track at 8 mph.