Amtrak officials tell The Record of Woodland Park that the Oct. 4 signal problems that delayed more than 100 trains during the evening commute was caused by a squirrel that came into contact with a circuit-breaker.
Nearly 100 NJ Transit trains and 30 Amtrak trains were affected. Some were canceled, and others were delayed.
The damaged breaker caused electrical transformers to trip and a signal that guides locomotive engineers to go dark.
Train experts say animals rarely cause widespread train delays but that this squirrel wasn't the first.
A Metro-North Railroad spokeswoman tells the newspaper a 45-minute delay in May occurred when a squirrel caused a transformer to short.
___
---
ONLINE: njtransit.com
---
