An Aberdeen man on board a train that was forced to make an emergency stop due to an engine fire has spoken about the “strange” experience.
Scott Fraser was traveling on the Caledonian Sleeper when the train was forced to stop at Cupar station due to an engine fire at 5.45am.
Mr Fraser travels frequently for work and was on his way back home to Aberdeen from London on the overnight service when his journey was disrupted.
The 46-year-old claimed that the passengers had not been told about any fault on the train at the time.
He said: “It was nothing dangerous I believe, but we weren’t to know that at the time.
“Basically we came into Cupar station and there was three fire engines, an ambulance, two police cars and I was thinking what’s going on? Nobody really told us.
“There was a guy on the train who said there was a problem with a local person, and it was very vague.”
He has no idea where the information from the Caledonian worker came from and has said it was “very strange” that they were told it was a problem with a local person when it wasn’t.
Mr Fraser explained that when he saw all the emergency services at first he had thought there might have been a problem with the track.
He later discovered that there was an engine fire on the train he was on and according to Mr Fraser the passengers were not allowed to leave the train at first.
He said: “It was strange being kept on the train when you were seeing all the fire engines. I asked to go out, because I’m a smoker, but they said ‘no, no just stay in your seat, stay in your seat’.”
After an hour of waiting the train crew decided to organise a bus replacement service for the passengers.
Mr Fraser believes they had been hoping to get the engine going again but were unsuccessful.
Technical issue affects other services
The train fire affected other services due to depart from Aberdeen and had closed part of the Aberdeen to Edinburgh route.
A spokesman for Caledonian Sleeper said: “One of the locomotives pulling our Northbound Highlander service to Aberdeen suffered a technical issue this morning, resulting in damage to some underframe electrical cables and some smoke.
“All of our guests and staff were safely taken off the train at Cupar as a precaution, and they are currently completing their journeys by alternative transport. We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused our guests and other rail users.
“The passenger coaches were unaffected, and the defective locomotive has been removed from the train and returned to our maintenance facility. All of tonight’s Caledonian Sleeper services are due to run as scheduled.”
The railway line between Aberdeen and Edinburgh is now fully open again, but passengers have been warned to expect some delays.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.