Two teenage boys took a locomotive for a joy ride at 1:15am in Nelsonville, Ohio on Tuesday. Eric Burks, 16, and Zachary Walden, 13, ran away from a home for nonviolent delinquents and eventually hopped aboard the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway locomotive, shut down for the night. They went for about a dozen miles before voluntarily stopping the train and surrendering to police. From the Columbus Dispatch:
The 16-year-old, Eric Burks, told authorities that he comes from a family of railroaders and had worked with relatives in the rail yards in Lawrence County…
Patrolman John Meeks, of the Nelsonville Police Department, said the boys used a pipe to pry open a door, opened an overhead door and fired up the 1950s-vintage diesel engine.
They tried to head toward Athens, but the tracks dead-end nearby. They backed up, only to find the tracks to Logan blocked at the depot by passenger cars and a caboose.
The boys coupled the cars to the engine and, breaking locks off rail switches, maneuvered the cars onto a side rail and then headed out.
