THOMASTON, Conn. — Pieces of history have been damaged at the Railroad Museum of New England in Thomaston.
Police investigated after several of their rail cars were vandalized last week.
"It’s disheartening," said Naugatuck Railroad Passenger Operations Director Orion Newall.
Last Friday, volunteers of the museum were getting ready for a tour when they were suddenly notified their rail cars were vandalized.
"We discovered one of the windows on our snowplow was smashed and stuff was written on and we also discovered some graffiti on the back side of the equipment," added Newall.
One of their most historic pieces that was damaged was the snowplow.
Graffiti was spray painted all over and a rock was thrown repetitively at a window which shattered the glass.
"We’re looking now at a full sandblast and restoration job on the plow that might be moved up to priority list and a job like that is estimated at about $15,000," added Newall.
To make matters worse, this is the second time the rail cars have been vandalized.
It happened last year as well and that is when security cameras were installed.
Unfortunately, the most recent incident was not captured on surveillance footage, so their plan is to now rack up 2 thousand dollars to upgrade their cameras.
"We’re looking to add more security to the grounds but we also don’t want security to infringe on the historic value and take away operations of our rides," added Newall.
The cleanup will be done solely by the museum's volunteers.
"It's going to take us days to repair the damages," added Newall.
The building itself has been around since the 1800s and the roof was initially burnt off from an arson.
When the museum took over in 1995, it was fixed up and has been running trains in the Naugatuck River Valley ever since.
If you would like to donate to help the museum repair the damages, you may make a donation by clicking here.
If anyone has any information leading up to an arrest, the museum is offering a reward in the form of a gift card.
Carmen Chau is an anchor and reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at cchau@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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