Members of the Friends of the L&N Depot are facing more than $2,000 in repairs after six windows were broken in three railcars at the L&N Depot on Kentucky Street.

About a week and a half ago, Operation P.R.I.D.E. Executive Director Karen Hume discovered two broken windows – apparently smashed by rocks – on the Duncan Hines diner car. The rest of the windows on that side of the car had small chips in them, she said, leading her to believe every window was hit with a rock.

&#8220These aren’t just little rocks – they’re softball-sized,” she said. &#8220They literally stood at the tracks, picked up rocks, threw them over the fence and hit the train.”

On Thursday, Hume discovered more vandalism in the form of three broken windows on the Towering Pine sleeper car, and one on the 1911 Presidential car. Paint from the cars, restored by volunteer members of Friends of the L&N Depot, was also chipped and scratched by the rocks.

All the damage is on the track side of the cars, Hume said.

The cars – the diner, sleeper, Presidential car, and Chessie caboose – are part of a historic railpark slated to open after renovations to the historic depot are complete. Two more cars, a railway post office and a locomotive engine, are currently being restored before they’re added to the lineup.

When the cars first arrived on the tracks behind the historic depot nearly four years ago, there were a few incidences of similar vandalism, said Dorian Walker, chairman of the Historic Railpark, but since then there’s been no trouble.

Walker estimates the windows, most of which were original, will cost at least $350 each to replace.

&#8220Your grandparents or great-grandparents may have ridden that train and looked out those very same windows,” he said. &#8220It’s just an unbelievably tough thing for us.”

In high-crime areas, Walker has seen windows on displayed rail cars be covered by sheet metal to protect them, but &#8220we’re above that,” he said. The members of the Friends of the L&N Depot plan to replace the windows and carry on with plans to open the Historic Railpark, he said, but &#8220my stomach’s still rolling from it. You have to ask yourself, ‘Why?’ ”

&#8220It delays our progress for all the things that we have to do to make this a good exhibit to open it,” he said. &#8220This stops us in our tracks, literally and figuratively, because now we have to go back and fix something that didn’t need to be fixed.”

– Anyone with information about the vandalism is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 781-CLUE.