Officials from Union Pacific Railroad and the Miller County Sheriff's Department said 25 to 30 generatorshave been stolen, most of them since the Christmas ice storm.

Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said the
generators operate signals that tell trains which track to use, when to stop and when to slow down. They also activate the crossing arms and signals for motorists.
``Our railroad signal system as well as any warning devices are all driven by commercial power,'' Davis said this
week. ``When that power fails we do have batteries that work for a while. But when the outage is prolonged
like this one, we use generators.''

The generators are worth about $1,500 each, Miller County officials said. Two were reported stolen as recently as Wednesday.