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WAUSAUKEE, Wis. (WFRV) – Train horns were stolen from two historic locomotives in Wausaukee just off of U.S. Route 141 late last week, according to train enthusiasts. The horns are valued at about $2,000 per set, and one train is 70 years old while the other is 55.
'They took both train horns off both locomotives,' Jason Asselin, of the Jason Asselin YouTube channel, said. '[The crew] got on the train, they started it, got up to the crossing, and wouldn't you be surprised: the horns didn't work.'
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Asselin says the alleged crime occurred Thursday night or early Friday morning. He explained that the criminal would have needed to have a thorough knowledge of the train, be equipped with the right tools to cut the wires and remove the horns.
'These horns were vintage antiques,' he said. 'They had a special sound to them. You could be off the highway somewhere and know what locomotive was coming down the rail. And now it's probably not going to be the same.'
The horns have been replaced, as it is federal law that trains have working horns and that they blare them when crossing roadways.
'You don't see these trains unless they're in a museum,' Asselin, who has been documenting Wisconsin railways for years, said. 'They don't use them anymore. So the fact that this railroad still uses them, it's quite an attraction to many rail fans.'
The locomotives are engines 1221 and 400 of the Escanaba and Lake Superior Railroad, which runs from Channing, MI, in the Upper Peninsula to Green Bay. Much of the work they are used for is delivering shipments of siding from Louisiana Pacific out of Sagola, MI, according to Asselin, and they run five days a week.
This is not the first crime that has occurred on the northeastern Wisconsin-upper peninsula railway.
'1980, a theft occurred at Wells at their main depot where the building was. And rail fans were blamed for it,' Asselin said. 'So for a long time, [the railway] kind of had a hate toward rail fans, which, can you blame them?'
Now, Asselin is hoping for a different outcome. He has raised a reward of more than $700 for information resulting in the return of the horns, along with other rail fans, as he hopes their reputation will not only be spared but strengthened amid this crime.
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'I wanted to show the railroad that rail fans couldn't have done this. A rail fan enjoys hearing the horns, they love the vintage, they want to see it. Stealing a horn has no purpose, what would you do with it?' he said. 'I don't think it was a rail fan that did it. And maybe this small token of appreciation will show them that we do care.'
Anyone interested in pitching in to the reward can contact Jason through his YouTube and social media channels. If the horns are not found or returned, the money will still be donated to the railway.
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