Well this is distressing news. The 6721 is a little gem, and on my occasional trips on the Lake Shore Limited I've always enjoyed seeing her outside the window as we pass through Utica. I hope the damage isn't as bad as it looks from the photos. (Please tell me the smokebox door and number plate aren't broken!)

-Philip Marshall

Google street view clearly shows that there was a bumper in place in front of the engine. https://www.google.com/maps/@43.105069, ... 6656?hl=en

It might be the angle, but in the second photo, it looks like the engine and tender are too close together. Did the drawbars get bent or broken?

WWRRD? (What Would Ross Rowland Do?) Swap it for an extant Mohawk and restore it to service, of course!

Rather distressing event, but hopefully a first class repair restoration is coming.

A derail would have been helpful. There's no way a bumper could/would stop something with that much momentum.

In the late 80s runaway GP18 1802 was also damaged. I have many photos of the aftermath of that incident.

In both cases they are very lucky no one was killed. No automobiles were hit on Schuyler Street in the 80s, but apparently yesterday a car was damaged. In yesterday's incident it was also very lucky that passengers weren't on the platform waiting for an Amtrak train.

In a lot of cases it is bemoaned that certain display locomotives aren't connected to live rail. In this case it wasn't helpful.

.

I know it's bad that the engine has been damaged.....but, perhaps we should be a bit more objective here....
In the pictures you can see that the locomotive has been pushed back at least the length of the tender, before hitting the wall......if it had not been there, the car would have probably gone completely thru the building and into the area behind it....someone could have been killed had that happened.

Here is my short YouTube video from this morning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJmQS5ZsiJA

And some add'l pics:

Also, this drone video, taken a few weeks ago, offers insight into the layout of the NYS&W Utica yard, through which the runaway hopper passed and shows a bit of the Schuyler St street trackage the hopper lumbered down:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ySWNYH4to

Another drone video, of an Adirondack Railroad Thomas special, points out the ex-DL&W passenger lead into Union Station:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUMXrthsW5I

Looks like the tender frame is bent

That's for sure. Without the locomotive's mass to slow the runaway, we would be looking at a much larger scene of devastation. If the runaway happened to go down a different track in the yard, something else would have been pulverized.

I tend to doubt it. I recognize the aerial photos... wasn't this the place that was trying to get rid of its railroad equipment? Then in the midst of that, issues with misappropriation of funds by management surfaced... Or at least that's what I recall.

Is it amazing to anyone else they are worried only about the structural integrity of the building, but they aren't at all worried about damage inflicted upon the equally historic steam locomotive?

You're thinking the Children's Center with the RSC that's right next door. I can't recall who owned that 0-6-0 though... But I don't think it was the Children's Center.