By Kathie O. Warco

Staff writer

kwarco@observer-reporter.com

Two men and a teenager from Bethel Park were charged Thursday by North Strabane Township police with the theft of more than $18,000 in rails, angle bars and tie plates from an Allegheny Valley Railroad bed last month.

Adam J. Farabaugh, 18, of 54 Barr Road, Nottingham Township, Daniel K. Guild, 27, of 461 Valleyview Drive, Eighty Four, and a 17-year-old were charged with theft and criminal conspiracy.

On April 10, a witness on an Allegheny Valley train saw two vehicles parked along the tracks between Gilkeson and Thomas-Eighty Four roads. Three people were cutting up steel. The three got into two trucks - a red Ford Ranger and a white Dodge - and fled, but the train crew was able to get license plate numbers.

Township police Lt. Dan Levi said the train had to stop because one of the trucks was partially on the tracks.

Police were able to trace one of the vehicles to the teenager. He admitted his involvement in the theft, police said.

He told police that they loaded Guild's pickup truck with four-foot sections of steel rails and took them to Canon Mac Metals in Houston for cash. He knew the third culprit only as Adam.

Police checked with the recycler and were given a copy of a receipt for $140 to Farabaugh for the rails.

Guild told police that they had gone to the location eight or nine times. They were in the process of cutting the rails when the train stopped.

"These were not working rails on the main line but rather rails to replace deficient rails as part of the maintenance program," Levi said Thursday. "They are not scrap."

Levi said they purchased a torch and rented acetylene tanks to burn the 39-foot section of rails into three or four sections. When cut apart into 3- or 4-foot lengths, the sections weighed about 130 pounds each.

"The bars were so hot, they would have to come back and get them the next day after cutting them apart," Levi said.

The angle bars are used to connect the rail to the ties while the tie plates connect two rails together.

The charges against Farabaugh and Guild will be sent by summons from the office of District Judge Jay Weller. The boy was charged in a juvenile allegation.

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