Investigators back on the scene Friday
Rescue crews help get passengers off a train that derailed near utica Thursday night.
/ Photo: Betsy Hartnett
UTICA -- Today, investigators with the Federal Railroad Administration and the State Transportation Department were at the scene of a train derailment near Utica.
It happened shortly after 6:30 Thursday night in the area of Harbor Point Road, North Genesee Street, and Lee Street.
The Adirondack Scenic Railroad's "Polar Express" train was traveling from Utica to Holland Patent and had just left the Utica Station when it derailed, according to Utica Police.
The "Polar Express" takes children to a replica of the North Pole to meet Santa. It's inspired by the picture book of the same name, about a doubting boy who regains faith in the spirit of Christmas during a magical train trip to the North Pole.
Authorities say none of the nearly 370 people aboard the train were injured when three cars derailed, including about 100 children.
Conductor Al Heywood told CNY Central's Jim Kenyon, "We were doing 8 miles per hour and I heard my engineer saying I feel like I've got a drag on me. The protocol is stop." Heywood says the three passenger cars in the rear of the train slipped off the tracks.
Centro buses were called in to help bring passengers back to Union Station. Firefighters carried some of the smaller kids to the buses. During the wait, Heywood says "Santa Claus got the word that we had derailed. We were supposed to meet up at the North Pole (Holland Patent.) He came down, got on the train, chatted with the children, and gave out bells while we waited."
We talked with Betsy Harnett, who was on the train when it derailed. She said officials separated the front part of the train that remained on the tracks from the cars that slid off.
Here's how she describes what happened:
"We started off and we were only maybe 90 seconds into the trip, and the train just started going very bumpy, but it's a little train so we weren't quite sure if that was normal or not. The little elves, who were probably high school students, didn't seem upset. Then it got bumpier and they just stopped the train."
That's when passengers were told the train would not go any farther, according to Hartnett. While most people kept their cool, others had concerns.
"My friend said they held onto their kids very tightly when they thought the train was going to go over, " said Hartnett, "but it never went over...they were three cars back from where I was."
Conductor Heywood says the Adirondack Scenic Railroad has been in operation for 20 years and recently celebrated its one-millionth passenger. He says it's the first such incident in those 20 years.
CNY Central checked ten years of incident reports on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad which on file with the Federal Railroad Administration. Of 23 incidents, the worst involved a concussion suffered by a conductor.
(Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.)
