The State - News from May 1, 1989

A group of boys apparently tampered with a railroad switch that could have sent an oncoming Amtrak passenger train crashing into boxcars. But a Southern Pacific dispatcher alerted the Amtrak engineer to the potential danger after finding he was unable to align the tracks for the Union Station-bound train as it approached a Northridge switching area, Amtrak spokesman John Jacobsen said. A short time later, Southern Pacific security officers took a 7-year-old boy, who had returned to the area, into custody. The Coast Starlight train, carrying 400 passengers from Seattle, was delayed 55 minutes before it was allowed to continue on to its destination, Jacobsen said.