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Smoke billows off the locomotive of the Kingston/Plymouth Commuter rail train at Hanson Station forcing the passengers to evacuate the train. Photo by Dan Dufrense/Twitter

Hundreds of passengers aboard the MBTA Commuter Rail's 6:19 a.m. train from Kingston to Boston were waylaid this morning when black smoke began billowing from the engine and they were told to evacuate.

Their scheduled 7:17 a.m. arrival at South Station was stretched to just shy of 9:15 a.m. after they waited at the Hanson depot for a rescue train to pick up Kingston Train 034's stranded riders.

"It wasn't even the normal train that I usually take. I usually take a 7:47, but I got on at Halifax at 6:29. It took us one stop over. I was on my tablet so I didn't even realize anything was going on at first, but we were stopped at that station for a little while," passenger Brian Durant told the Herald.

"Finally they said, 'Oh, we have a mechanical issue.' Then, about 15 minutes later, they said, 'Oh, actually, the engine's on fire. Everyone should get out of the car.' So, we're at the Hanson lot at the time so we actually just evacuated to the lot itself. I stood back a far enough distance, but I could see the train smoking. I couldn't actually see the fire, but I could see the smoke," said Durant, 36. "Firefighters were on the scene pretty quickly. Everyone was calm. MBTA workers, police, firefighters — everyone was great."

The incident comes two days after the Commuter Rail's inbound Fitchburg Line became backed up during the morning rush because the 404 express train snapped an axle and derailed near Waverley Station in Belmont.

Durant estimated there were 300 riders on the 034 train this morning.

"There's certainly a lot of people who were inconvenienced," said Durant, who was willing to shrug it off with a smile. "Things happen. Everyone responded well. I'm here in one piece, so …

"I don't think anyone considered it a major occurrence until you actually got off the train and saw the smoke and said, 'Wow, OK, this is a bigger deal than our typical delays.'  I know there's a lot of complaints, but in general, I'm happy. I know things are going to happen that are outside your control. So long as you deal with them as they come up, so be it."

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