(The following story by Terry Britt appeared on the website on June 23.)
EDGEWOOD, Texas — An Amtrak official said Thursday it is very unusual for one of its trains to have a double engine failure like the one that occurred Monday afternoon in Edgewood.
More than 200 Amtrak passengers bound for Fort Worth and other cities had to make an unexpected exit in Edgewood after both locomotives suffered a power failure Monday afternoon.
Jesse Padilla, product line agent for Amtrak in Austin, said a determination for the power failure in the engines had not been determined as of Thursday.
“Normally, if there is a failure on one engine, we still have another one to power the train. That’s usually why we run two engines,” Padilla said.
The loss of power took the air conditioning in the coach cars with it, making it necessary for passengers to be evacuated to the Edgewood High School gymnasium because of the near-100 degree heat.
Amtrak and Union Pacific Railroad officials, along with Edgewood police officers and volunteer firefighters, assisted the passengers with their luggage and helped many of them down the rock grade. The train had stopped just east of the downtown Edgewood crossings.
Padilla said the engines lost power about 2:30 p.m. There were 14 cars behind the two locomotives, and six private cars bound for a National Historical Railroad Society event in Fort Worth.
He said it soon became apparent that other arrangements would need to be made for the passengers.
“I believe it was about 3 p.m. when the engineer got in touch with the mechanical department at the national operations center (in Wilmington, Del.), and after they went through all the checks, it was obvious they were not going to be able to restart the engines,” he said.
As for the passengers, many said they were puzzled about the situation.
“It was a little hazy,” said Sarah Sutton, a college student from Shreveport who was on the train. “I was listening to music and missed the announcement but I noticed it when the air conditioning went off.”
“They said the engines broke down. The part that runs the electric and the AC broke down,” Marvin Niebuhr, a passenger heading to Austin, said as he made his way to a waiting school bus.
Padilla said he was unable to find emergency contact information for the City of Edgewood on the Internet, so he contacted Mineola Police Chief Chuck Bittner through a local volunteer with the Amtrak Texas Eagle train line.
Amtrak agent Patrick Carlton said the passengers were taken by school buses and vans to the school, where they were reloaded onto coach buses a short time later.
“We had to bring in the buses to get them to the station in Dallas. The buses were brought in from Longview,” Carlton said.
Timothy Cooper, an assistant superintendent for operations for Amtrak, said the second of the two engines lost power, then the first engine shut down as the second engine was being checked.
“We normally don’t have that kind of problem occur,” Cooper said. “We got the engineer in touch with our national operations center.
“We dispatched a mechanical team out of Fort Worth, and they were able to get the second locomotive up and running,” he added.
Edgewood Police Chief Henry Askew said the assistance effort went very smoothly.
“Edgewood should be proud. The cooperation of the school district, the volunteer firefighters, Amtrak officials and other volunteers allowed us to focus on the most important things, which was the passengers’ transportation from the train and their well-being,” Askew said.
He said one person was treated for a minor toe injury suffered while walking from the tracks and another passenger was given attention for heat effects complicated by diabetes.
Askew said the train was originally thought to be closer to Mineola, and he thanked the volunteer efforts of First Baptist Church and First United Methodist Church in that city.
Both churches sent multiple vans to assist with passengers at the scene.
“At first, they thought the train was closer to Mineola…the police chief in Mineola called the churches and they already had shuttle vans en route,” Askew said.
James Boggs, one of the van drivers with First Baptist Church in Mineola, said they were “just happy to help” in making the 25-mile drive to Edgewood.
Askew also praised the Edgewood Volunteer Fire Department and its members, many of whom carried passenger luggage in their personal vehicles.
Once at the EHS gymnasium, the passengers got additional help in the form of water, Gatorade and snacks provided by American Red Cross volunteers.
“We’re ready to help whenever they call us,” Ruth Hall, an Edgewood resident who works with the American Red Cross’ Terrell office, said.
“We’re trying to make them as comfortable as we can, make sure they can cool down and not starve or get dehydrated,” she added.