Theft of EM gauge models

[simond]

I have just read that the home of the owner of Lime Street was broken into last night and a large collection of EM gauge locos has been stolen.

if/when further info (eg stock lists, crime number, police contact details) is posted, I’ll put it up here.

more info is available on RMW at

Lime Street Station

www.rmweb.co.uk

 

[Mike W]

Oh dear. The statement that "they even lifted out one of the roof sections to get at the locos and carefully put it down next to the roof box." suggests to me somebody who cares about models - a proper enthusiast rather than a common burglar. Which is worrying.

 

[bogusman]

Terrible to see. Will keep my eye's open on Ebay. The only good bit of news is the coaches were left and the layout is intact

Pete

 

[Brocp]

Oh dear. The statement that "they even lifted out one of the roof sections to get at the locos and carefully put it down next to the roof box." suggests to me somebody who cares about models - a proper enthusiast rather than a common burglar. Which is worrying.

It sounds like by that description that it may have been someone who has seen the layout to know how to do that?

 

[AJC]

It sounds like by that description that it may have been someone who has seen the layout to know how to do that?

That wouldn’t necessarily narrow it down very much as the layout has been widely exhibited. It must be a fairly devastating loss, however, though not, alas, without precedent. I really hope that the models are safely recovered and the perpetrators caught.

Adam

 

[Brocp]

That wouldn’t necessarily narrow it down very much as the layout has been widely exhibited. It must be a fairly devastating loss, however, though not, alas, without precedent. I really hope that the models are safely recovered and the perpetrators caught.

Adam

I'm not saying that it someone that has necessarily seen it at an exhibition, I mean someone that knows enough about the model as a whole to be able to carefully take the roof section off to get access to the locos underneath.

 

[AJC]

I'm not saying that it someone that has necessarily seen it at an exhibition, I mean someone that knows enough about the model as a whole to be able to carefully take the roof section off to get access to the locos underneath.

I know what you mean: the point I was trying to make is that you don’t need to be hugely intimate with the layout or it’s construction to know how that bit of roof comes off. That can be seen online, could have been seen at shows, or by a personal (invited) visit to the layout’s home.

Adam

 

[simond]

I’m not sure speculation is helpful in any case.

 

[Stephen Freeman]

Unfortunately I think that many EM Gauge locos etc are generally easy to convert to 00 as many will probably have started off as 16.5mm. The difficult ones will be the kit-built jobs. I have only seen the layout online, so don't know the specifics, hopefully once the perpetrators realise the gauge issue, they will either return them, or get caught trying to sell them. Worst case is they dump them and hopefully they are recovered. Something to be said for modelling minority scales/gauges.

 

[Phil O]

Sorry to hear about the awful theft of the locos, I do hope that they're recovered intact and the book thrown at the perpetrator(s).

 

[Eastsidepilot]

It will/would be interesting to find out, if they're caught, who they are as the EM community in the world wide scheme of things is tiny in comparison.
A similar situation occurred in the S7 group some years ago where a loco wet missing and never recovered, it's sitting on some ones mantlepiece !

 

[chigley]

b-stards

 

[Mick LNER]

List here

https://www.scalefour.org/forum/download/file.php?id=31380

 

[simond]

Thanks Mick, it was on my list to do but you beat me to it!

I also note that there were some 7mm items taken, and some "miscellaneous".

 

[Mike W]

Unfortunately its probably like a friend's 5in Gauge LNWR 19in goods which was stolen from a shop in London's West End one night many years ago. The Police suspect that when the thieves realised they couldn't sell it they probably dumped it in the canal. But lets's hope not.

Mike

 

[Allen M]

Hi All
The best I heard, must be going on 30 years ago now from the late Barry Jones of Modellers World Coventry.
Along these lines. A couple of people went into his shop with what was obvious to him stolen models. He explained that it was not what he dealt with but suggested a second shop who could advise. Second shop advised a 3rd who specialized and sent them on, even phoning first.
However other phone calls where also made and when they arrived at the 3rd shop plain clothe police met them.

Whether there are enough police or interest in 'toys' now is another matter.

Regards
Allen

 

[simond]

Fingers crossed, some possible positive news reported on the RMWeb thread.

 

[oldravendale]

Would you tell us some more please Simon. We're not all on RMWeb.

Brian

 

[simond]

Thanks Brian, fair point!

to quote Les’ post, I trust he won’t mind.

“…
The power of social media never fails to amaze me at times. Details of the theft of all the locomotives on Liverpool Lime Street model railway was put on Facebook and here on RMWeb. The posts had 500 shares and reached over 14000 people. Some comments received gave us information that may help retrieve the models. This information has been passed on to the police who are actively looking into the case. In addition one of the persons we reached sent us a surplus EM gauge model of a Black 5 loco to replace one of the stolen locos. Such generosity amongst the model railway fraternity shows how we come together in the face of adversity.
….”

We hope for good news.
atb
Simon

 

[Jordan]

Would you tell us some more please Simon. We're not all on RMWeb.

Brian

Or even if we are, it's a very big place!!