Hoosac Valley Train Car Catches Fire
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| There was no visible damage to the interior but the exterior suffered damage including three cracked windows. |
ADAMS, Mass. — A malfunctioning heating pad is the suspected cause for a fire at one of the Hoosac Valley Service's train cars.
The fire broke out about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, and posts to Facebook show heavy flames and smokes on the side of the historic Budd Car 41.
"We got dispatched to a train on fire, and when we got here, that's exactly what it was. It was a train on fire," said Fire Chief David Lennon. "We did have flames showing. We did have information from dispatch that there were no people on board. It was locked."
The incident is still under investigation but he said the best guess was the heating pad to keep the lines warm malfunctioned and the drip pads underneath ignited.
Melanie Seiden, executive director of the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum, said the weekend rides had been completed for the day and only some staff were still at the Adams Station.
The rides are approximately an hour and the last one is usually completed around 4 p.m. The last two weekends have been fall foliage rides and a Halloween one is scheduled for next weekend.
Seiden said car will be taken out of service and that scheduled rides will go on.
"For tomorrow [Sunday] we're simply going to move passengers from the coach car that you see the damage on to the other car," she said. "But we have closed ticket sales so that we don't oversell. But we will be able to accommodate everybody who has already booked and paid."
The nonprofit purchased its first 1950s Budd car a decade ago to begin scenic passenger service between Adams and North Adams. The cars can operate bidirectionally, thus eliminating the need to turn around. The service has proved popular with special seasonal trains including the Tinseliner with Santa Claus.
Car 41 will need work to get back on the rails. The major damage was to the exterior; firefighters got inside the coach but didn't find any flames. They concentrated on cooling the area underneath the train.
Damage was largely to the exterior, with the high heat discoloring car's metal siding and cracking three windows.
"We will still be operational, but until we know more, we won't know a timeline as to when this one will be restored," Seiden said. "However, a shameless plug: if people want to throw donations, because clearly we're going to need money now to do this, and I don't know, obviously insurance, but I don't know how that will all work, unfortunately."
Tags: scenic rail, train,
