From Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad social media 9/15/23:
This isn’t a post we like to make here at OCSR. We love sharing our successes and progress with all of you, and love being positive about what the railroad is doing. Unfortunately, we have some bad news that has been happening in just the last two weeks and we would like to reach out to our community for help.
First, someone broke into our beloved historic diesel engine and fired off an extinguisher inside while also opening and tampering with the electrical cabinets. This caused major delays in our day and could have been catastrophic if any damage had been done to the engine. That engine is over 70 years old, and is delicate despite its appearance.
Second, we have had a large amount of ties being stolen from work sites along the rails. Someone first stole 41 ties from us on Monday/Tuesday of September 3/4 damaging the ties plates and rail as they pulled the ties out. We suspect these were then sold on Facebook Marketplace very shortly after they were taken. IF YOU SEE TIES FOR SALE IN THIS AREA, ALWAYS QUESTION WHERE THEY CAME FROM AS THEY WERE PROBABLY TAKEN FROM US WITHOUT PERMISSION. The sheriff knows of the theft.
Third, last night (9/14/23) MORE ties were stolen from right outside the Old Mill Event Center on our Garibaldi site. Thankfully, this area is monitored by camera, so we will have an image of who took them.
It breaks our hearts that people will just take things and leave us to fix the damage they have caused. We are not a multi-million dollar operation like some may believe, we are on a limited budget that relies on tourism, just like many others in this community.
We love this community, and we have faith that people will do the right thing, but when this much damage has happened to us in such a short amount of time, we need to bring attention to it and reach out to our community for help and awareness. If you have any information regarding this damage or the thefts, please contact the sheriff’s department (503) or OCSR at info@oregoncoastscenic.org. If you have any of our ties, please return them. Thank you for taking the time to read this message, we hope it helps.
You can find out more aobut Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad here – www.oregoncoastscenic.org – scroll to the bottom of the page to donate to help with these losses. Railroad ties are $75 a piece – this is over $4,000.
If you see something, say something.
