Fire in Engine while in Penn Station

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AlanB

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So far I can find nothing in print on the net, however the local NBC affiliate from NY is reporting the following on their 11:00pm news.

There was a fire in an Amtrak engine on a train arriving from Chicago. This forced the evacuation of Penn Station and the cancellation of all train for several hours this evening. This included all Amtrak service, Long Island RR service, and New Jersey Transit service. No word on whether this was the Lake Shore or the Three Rivers.
 
It was mentioned on 1010-WINS radio in New York tonight. Their report said there was no evacuation; although the fire was quite smoky, it vented out of the tunnel at the ends of the station so there was no smoke danger for passengers in the concourses.

They also said that no LIRR trains were delayed (LIRR uses tracks on the other end of the station). Amtrak and NJ Transit were delayed substantially into and out of New York City. NJT monthly pass holders were allowed to use their passes on any NJT bus or PATH trains to get home for the duration of the emergency.

The report said that the engine involved was a diesel. At first I thought this was an error since New York Penn has only electric service. Then I remembered that P-32 engines are dual-mode, so I concurred this must be a train that was going to or from the Empire Corridor. WCBS radio said the incident happened on Track 7, which confirmed it was probably an Empire Corridor train since those trains only use Tracks 5-6-7-8.

Everything has since been cleared, and trains are back running on or close to schedule.

With the latest information that it was a train from Chicago, we can then deduce that this was in fact the Lake Shore Limited.
 
A fire in a parked Amtrak train caused delays of up to two hours for hundreds of commuters at Penn Station last evening, fire and Amtrak officials said.
The engine compartment in an empty Amtrak train that had arrived from Chicago caught fire about 6:50 p.m., forcing firefighters to shut off power on tracks 4 through 10.

The full story from the NY Daily News.
 
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