Vandals devastate museum and volunteers

Willimantic (WTNH) - Police say a vandal, or vandals, targeted historic trains at a museum, run by volunteers, in Willimantic.

"I saw one of our members who is in his 70's and works very hard here, he was in tears," said Adrian Atkins, a volunteer for the Connecticut Train Museum.

Working train engines, frozen in time at the Connecticut Train Museum, were loving rebuilt by volunteers.

Now, a 1934 steam engine rests on the tracks, damaged and covered in swasticas.

"We are lucky to get some of the things we have got here. We got a steam engine; there are only two of them that are made like this one," said Atkins.

Wednesday morning, volunteers found their round house were in shambles; window-after-window was blown out with bricks, rocks and fire extinguishers. The gift shop at the non-profit is smashed and destroyed. And, antique trains were torn apart and marked with paint.

"We are trying to restore history here and this is going to put us back quite a bit," said volunteer Jean Lambert.

One of the destroyed engines is more than 60-years-old. And glass like that can't be found very easily if at all.

One of the problems they have is that it is all volunteer; they put there heart and soul into it and when they come in and find there place wrecked, it's devestating.

"I'm a little bit of everything. I'm going to cry for everyone that has been here and I'm sure everyone else is going to have the same emotions that I have right now," said volunteer Jean Lambert.

Investigators say several people broke into the museum sometime over night Tuesday and right now they have recovered evidence and have leads in the case which could lead to felony arrests because of the extent of the damage.

Now volunteers will have to rebuild the museum almost from the ground up just like they did nearly two decades ago when they brought life back into the old engines.

"We have put all of the railroad tracks back in here that were here in 1892 when the building was first built [and] the roundhouse was rebuilt," Lambert said.
 
Now for more information on how to help this museum, click here .