HONESDALE -- Just as an excursion train in Wayne County was gearing up for the fall foliage season, vandals hit leaving a mess to clean up before the first ride.
It was all aboard the Stourbridge Line in Honesdale for its first fall foliage excursion of the season, but over the weekend the train had some unwelcome guests.
Some shattered glass on the tracks is all that's left from a vandalism spree that left the train operators cleaning up a mess. A seat on a caboose was slashed, a door broken, and contents of a closet strewn all over the car.
"It was very upsetting for the company and all of us," said Tim Wright, The Stourbridge Line. "We've put so much time and effort into taking the time to restore our passenger cars and bring it up to a beautiful condition."
Wright is the excursion manager for the recently revived railroad. Sunday morning, cleaning crews found someone had boarded the rail cars and caused thousands of dollars in damage.
"A little bump, a little divot as we roll along here. It hasn't stopped us at all fixed the train up and it's ready to go," Wright added.
After this weekend's vandalism, crews wanted to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again, so they padlocked the doors to make sure anyone who wants to come aboard these railcars or cabooses to do damage will think twice.
Some families planned to take in the scenic ride along the Lackawaxen River and were sorry to hear the train was a target for vandals.
"It's not kosher, I suppose we'd say. You take something that's an amenity to this area and brings in tourists that they would come along and start pure boredom, disappointed to hear that," said Sheila Phelan from Long Island, New York.
Police in Honesdale ask if anyone has information that could help catch the vandals to contact them.
