The Maple Leaf left New York Penn Station at 7:15 a.m. Friday en route to Toronto.
The train experienced a "mechanical failure" at about 9:30 a.m. south of Rhinecliff.
It possibly got stuck in the snow, with no lights or heat. "I can't tell you what happened. There was water in the locomotive. There was obviously two feet of snow on each side of the train, we were traveling up the Hudson we were the first train of the day to come up this route. all of a sudden we ground to a halt, slightly south of Rhinecliff. And we sat and we sat. and the conductor was apologetic, they were checking to see what was happening. There was a lot of snow, a lot of water. And for the next five hours we sat," said Barbara Graustark, a passenger.
Amtrak sent a "rescue locomotive" to link up with the stranded train and take it to Toronto.
The train finally started rolling again around 3 p.m.
