Excerpts from the journal-topics.com:

Firefighters fought a blaze Monday night (Dec. 3) aboard the locomotive of a Milwaukee District North Metra commuter train. Railroad officials said the crew of the train heard a loud noise coming from the engine compartment, they shut down the engine, and found smoke and fire.

Firefighters were dispatched shortly after 8 p.m. and on arrival found one of the locomotive’s diesel engines on fire with passengers being safely evacuated from the train by Morton Grove police. The fire did not extend into the passenger cars and no one was injured. The cause of the fire remains undetermined.

Metra officials said there were about 100 passengers aboard the train and all but 20 made alternative arrangements to reach their destinations. About 20 passengers waited until 10 p.m. for the next train. Train traffic was moving by about 9:15 p.m., but the affected train, stopped at the station and sitting across Lincoln Avenue with gates down, kept Lincoln blocked until about 11 p.m.

Firefighters from Niles, Morton Grove, and Skokie were able to bring the fire under control within about 15 minutes, but it took an additional 15 to 20 minutes to contain lingering hot spots and to ensure the fire was fully extinguished, because of unique void spaces built into the steel of the engine compartment of the locomotive. Firefighters used saws to cut into the engine compartment to extinguish pockets of fire.

Tags: fire aboard a Metro train locomotive, Morton Grove Fire Department