Any railroaders know that that means?
Does it mean they burned out the electric motors?
I’m not that familiar with the specifics, but if you restrict the engine air inlet enough with snow, the engine will stall.
“paralyzed the engines”
I’m guessing the author is referring to “engines” as engine cars on the train. Only way I can make sense of it.
“Engines” here doesn’t mean the internal engines of the locomotives. It’s a general reference to the locomotives themselves. The protestation that the sentence is somehow bad journalism isn’t justified, it simply requires some abstract thinking while reading.