How to (and how not to) stop a runaway train - Crazy Eight's Incident 

Sometimes I feel I've got to 👏👏 RUNAWAY

I can't imagine how anyone could ever think of stopping a train with a gun. Trains are really hard to stop even when they aren't armed.

The police forgot the most important rule when stopping a train "use a gun, and if that don't work, use more gun". they simply failed to use more gun.

If we want to preserve a piece of the Crazy 8's incident, we got 8392 (currently at NRE) or 6006 (the proposed locomotive that would've "pushed" the runaway back)

Love how this story is the basis for the movie 'Unstoppable'

CSX 8888, being an SD40-2 built sometime in the 60's/70's by GM's electro-motive division, wasn't exactly the best in terms of safety systems. Crew would often put worn out brake pedals on the dead man's switch, causing it to always be pressed down. Doing so may have also caused the CN Hinton collision, in 1986. Another accident i would like reviewed on this channel.

Missing context at 3:00 During this time 8888's throttle and dynamic brakes were combined and tye engineer had to switch a lever to either dynamics or power which was very confusing for him.

A couple of corrections, first, the Train "Air Brakes" and the independent brake are both air brakes which set the same set of brake shoes on the lead locomotive. The independent though, is just straight air and doesn't have anything to do with the train pipe pressure. The Train brakes, also known as automatic air brakes control the brake application of the whole train through differences in pressure in the train line relative to the reservoir air tank on each car. Also, 8888's engineer was actually fired after the incident.

The fact the sheriff use a shotgun to shoot the button that is truly a american move which does absolutely nothing You have the most detailed explanation of the accident as no one that ive seen mentioned stuff like the police accidentally shooting the red fuel cap and that the driver was never fired as most were lead to believe

Yeah, using another engine to chase a runaway is the right way to do it! When I first saw Unstoppable, I couldn't help thinking "Get Edward!"

In many UK locomotives it's not that you have to keep the dead man's handle pressed, it's that you have to periodically release and then re-press it when an alert goes off. That way if someone falls on the switch it will still eventually trigger the brakes.

"Stop the Runaway!" What an exciting story! Keep up the good work sir!

I can't stop laughing at the fact that police thought it was a good idea to shoot a moving locomotive with a shotgun

Cool to see you go over the Crazy Eights incident! I'm from Ohio and love talking about as trivia, especially the absurd plan of stopping the train by shooting the button. The disaster that could have occurred had the phenol tankers derailed down the line in Columbus would have been something. Great video as usual!

I was always interested in this story as a rail fan and is always cool when someone talks about it

Police be like "Solve every problem with a gun. Be a man." #beaman

The UK seems to have a history of (usually minor) runaway trains. If you include track maintenance vehicles we still get through one or two a year. This includes unpowered trolleys, rail grinding units, ballast tampers, Ro-Ro vehicles (rail/road) and the like. An example of this would be the runaway engineering train on the Northern line of the London tube from Highgate to Warren Street on 13th August 2010. An engineering train had failed and was being towed back to the depot. In order for it to be towed they had to disable its brakes. There is a long gradient through Highgate and, just after Highgate station, the coupling between the trains broke and the failed train rolled back down the line where it came from. The signalling staff had to frantically warn tube trains ahead of it to keep moving as the runaway headed into central London at speed. Fortunately, the track levels out after a while and the train came to a halt of its own accord at Warren Street. Apart from some points (US: a switch) at Mornington Crescent and some frayed nerves there was no damage done. The whole incident was over in 16 minutes. More unusual is air-braked locomotives and even trains where the pressure has bled off. An example of this (probably) is the accident in Edinburgh on 13th August 1994. Diesel locomotive 37 113 ran away (unmanned and unpowered) from Waverley Station downhill and crashed head-on into a passenger train. The passenger train was an HST and 59 people were taken to hospital including the driver. He was seriously injured in the collision but recovered. The HST power car 43 180 was repaired but the locomotive was scrapped. Two examples exactly 16 years apart showing the variety of runaways in the UK in modern times.

Great movie, saw it in the cinema backin the day and still watch it regularly on DVD

In Poland every engine and every railroad steering post are equipped with radio-stop. If it is activated, it triggers emergency braking in all trains in about 10-15 kilometers radius. It is an acoustic coded signal sent via radiotelephone. There is also a rule, that if anyone hears just an uncomplete part of this signal, has to press his own radio-stop button instantly, in case the system was activated, but the full signal was not sent before a crash.

in most cases the floor pedal triggers an emergency brake application, not just cutting engine power or in some cases not cutting power at all

"When the brakes are being applied, the dead man's switch is overridden, and I have no idea why." Because the last thing an engineer ever wants or needs, is their engine suddenly shutting down, when they're descending a hill with a fully loaded train. If the locomotive powers down, you lose all dynamic braking, bingo bongo - you've got a runaway. As the San Bernardino train disaster of '89 illustrates where the conductor saw the train was going too fast downhill so hit the emergency cut-off fuel switch, unintentionally disabling what little braking the train had left.

I'm a retired locomotive engineer and had 37 years of service operating trains. I was involved in two runaways, the first occurred on mountain grades and was caused by a bent air pipe on a car about 10 cars behind the locomotives. An alert crew on the caboose was able to apply the emergency air brake when I told them that I had no control of the air brakes. We had gotten up to about 65mph on track that was rated at 45mph. The second runaway was caused by a transient riding on the second car of the train. For some inexplicable reason he closed the angle cock (valve) on the car so I had no control of the train brakes. Cabooses (cabeese?) had recently been eliminated from our trains and there were no failsafe systems to apply the brakes if something like this happened. We were approaching a 10mph siding at 60mph. My assistant was running and running when he applied the air brakes nothing happened, then he put the brakes into emergency and still nothing happened. At the time when you put the air brakes into emergency the dynamic brakes would be disabled. I never understood the reasoning for that. We got the train slowed down from 60 to about 45mph and went in and out of the siding at that speed. We were able to recover the dynamic brakes by then and that slowed the train down to about 10 but couldn't bring it to a stop. I bailed off and started tieing handbrakes on the train until it stopped. I ended up testifying to the state legislature and a congressional committee to put radio controlled rear end devices on freight trains

4:19 as an american that is literally the most american thing ever. THE FACT THAT THEY SHOT AT THE FILLER CAP 3 TIMES INSTEAD OF THE CUT OFF BUTTON TOO IS HILARIOUS

I feel bad for the driver because he *tried* to do the right thing that would result in the least amount of damage possible. It was probably the time sensitivity of the situation which led to him not setting the brakes properly

I'm glad that they kept the engineer's name anonymous. I'm confident that he was held accountable for his mistake, and he doesn't need to be vilified by the public. That being said, I hope that this serves as a warning call to all engineers and railroad employees.

another runaway train story you might be interested in is the 2003 melbourne runaway train. that one was caused by the driver not setting all the brakes when he went to the toilet at a station. they didn't manage to stop it, and it crashed into another train at the end of the line (no fatalities, thank goodness)

Correction: The unnamed driver worked for CSX for many years but he was not familiar with the new changes CSX made by combining the power and dynamic brake switches hence the confusion. Unfortunately for the driver after the "Crazy 7" incident, he was fired for negligence.

CSX already has bad publicity, they have derailed at least *THREE TIMES* in my area in the last 20 years. They really should put it in a museum.

Crazy 8's is probably the most famous rail accident of all time. And the movie "unstoppable" puts that perfectly

For a video, can you do a video about how some British diesel locomotives used to have steam heating boilers and whistles?

Thanks to you I bought the movie 'Unstoppable'. And I loved it.

Omg, it's the triple 7 incident. Wow, such upload!!!

Nice and informative Video! I enjoyed it very much! I also wanted to say that here in Germany we also have such a system which is intended to prevent runaways. It's called "Sicherheitsfahrschalung" or "Sifa" for short. The only difference with our system is that every 30 seconds you have to release the foot pedal once and then press it again. If this doesn't happen, the emergency brakes apply. I think this is a much safer approach to preventing a runaway.

Love how you used Train Rush from A Hat in Time. Very fitting.

Just to clarify something i know little about, dynamos, think car alternator, only provide resistance to spinning if a load is applied which in a diesel electric locomotive is usually a resistor on the roof much like an electric heater you plug in that gets hot from resistance. One horsepower is equal to 746 watts all things being equal.

Stopping a train with a gun? now THATS American!

I think this story is hilarious, especially considering that no one got seriously injured. It makes sense to me what the engineer did because, if he had set everything correctly, he no doubt would have been able to jump back on the train no problem. It's very easy to jump onto a slow train but you don't want to get on or off when the train really gets going and it's amazing how fast even some of the really long and heavy trains can get going from a complete stop! There is a walking trail that goes along next to the tracks near my house and I see even trains with engines at the front, middle, and end get going definitely too fast to jump on in probably a minute or less. I've only jumped on a train once in my life and only stayed on for maybe a few thousand feet, so I don't know all that much about jumping on or off when one is in motion but I know when I see a train going how fast I'd be willing to try if that was ever my intent again (which I don't imagine will ever be the case again since I just did it that one time to see if I could).

“Doing an Ozzy Ozbourne” that is the most metal thing I have ever heard when it comes to trains BY FAR 😂

👍 love this channel. IMO, you cater to a sort of niche audience, I for one would like to see longer videos, no rushing and don't hold back on the technical details.

As soon as they mentioned the driver getting off the train to move a switch only for the train to fly by due to a brake error I was like "hmm where have I heard that before" 💀

This incident involved 2 EMD SD40-2s, and an EMD GP40. The GP40 numbered 6008 was going to stop the train from the front but 8392 had already stopped the train

I’ve heard this story before on thunderbolt 1000 siren productions channel this is one of my favorite stories

What a fitting background music, "Trainwreck of electroswing"

"The engine is not worthy of preservation" That's just the csx saying "NAH we don't care about historical engines or rolling stock that why we don't run steam locomotive on our line anymore"

Nice documentary.

Crazy that I may be getting a job with CSX here soon

Oh dang, a railway story I've heard of? Thank you, Technical Difficulties!

It’s amazing how the Hollywood movie was able to almost copy paste this incident as it’s very dramatic. I thought they embellished a lot but this shows the movie was 95% true to events

Hah jokes on you csx I have a fondness for 43 since it’s my decoder call sign in all my dcc equiped locomotives

I Like Deisel Locomotives it's Amazing

This gives me vibes of "Old Iron."

Train Rush... Perfect choice of music. The conducter would 100% make his train a runaway one for a film.

The reason I've heard about this incident is the Citation Needed episode about it. Edit: They talked about the Police trying to hit a switch by shooting at it, but they didn't mention that they used a SHOTGUN to do it. How did anyone expect this to work?

I was getting worried that you were going to forget to mention Unstoppable with Denzil Washington (and that other guy)!

Heard about the runaway train wagons reaching 62 miles/h and ran straight trhough the capital of Norway. Sjursøya train accident on wikipedia.

So, there's the easy 8 (a variant of Sherman.) The crazy 8, which was a train. What other kind of 8 big chonky steel boi can we get?

Umm, you forgot to add that an excursion train was held up, along with the concerns of 8888 tilting on several curves, but still good factual points on my favorite incident of my favorite train action movie.

27 of November 2017. 7:26 A train hit a broke down car at level crossing, dragging it for a few meters, the car ignited and burned the conductor post. Later around 20.00 the the 2 SNCB AM96 were being towed up a hill. The damaged locomotive (which was at the end of the convoy) broke away and started rolling downhill. She passed by the railway crossing where she had her accident killing 2 and injuring 2 railway workers. Arriving now at the station of La Louvière-Sud the train crashed into another. Injuring badly the conductor and the controller. Some passengers were injured too but not as much. The investigation says that after the accident they tried to uncouple the damaged loco from the undamaged one but were unsuccessful. So they decided on towing them together. In reality the attempts left the coupling system in a mid position due to this the loco was able to detach herself on the incline without engaging the emergency brakes. The loco was only detected a few seconds before hitting the railway workers. Any attempts to stop her were unsuccessful. It was also found that towing an isolated damaged train on a steep incline was against procedures.

Look! I'm on the thumbnail!

Unstoppable all over :P

I'm sure this has already been said but here goes anyway :P So the loco has 3 brakes yes, the Train Brake, Independent Brake and Dynamic Brakes. The Train Brake uses the difference in pressures between the brake cylinders on the cars and the pressure in the air line to apply braking force (basically the pipe is always charged at 90 psi and reducing the pressure in the pipe applies the brakes) this works on every car and as long as the hoses are connected The Independent Brake applies straight air to the locomotive brake cylinders. It's your basic bog standard air brake. It only works on the locomotive however. The Dynamic Brakes transition the traction motors to DC generators, applying mechanical resistance to the axles and also creating an excess of electricity (think of regenerative braking but on steroids) This excess electricity is sent to large resistors on the loco roof where it can be discharged as heat. In the Crazy 8's incident, the Train Brake pipe was not connected as the loco was performing switching operations and was constantly picking up and dropping cars from different sidings. This also rendered the Dead Mans Pedal useless as this applies an emergency application to the Train Brakes but not the Independent. The Dynamics and Throttle used the same lever and the driver had to cycle between them via a secondary lever. However, (having driven a GP40 with this set up) These are an absolute pain. There is no clear indication of which mode you are in and it is very easy to mix up which mode you are in (speaking from experience) The Driver hadn't properly set the throttle to Dynamic mode and thus when he thought he set maximum Dynamics, he actually set full throttle. Rest of the story is pretty much accurate tho

Im thankfull 8392, which was the engine that stopped 8888, is still around, i think she is owned by a leasing company.

It's been said that You can work to make something idiot-proof , BUT you have surely discounted the Genius of Idiots !

I was thrown for a loop at the beginning of the video with the train collision pictures cause metro north is a 10 minute walk away from my home and I wasn't expecting to see a picture of an accident involving them

Life imitates art imitates life.

I’ve always wondered how they would stop them

Since I read about this incident long before the film, I have thought that, if you wanted to stop a train by shooting it, you'd want an appropriately-sized rifle to punch a hole in the engine block. All you realistically have to do is puncture the water jacket and let all the water out, either some automatic system will stop the engine to prevent it seizing up, or it seizes up from over-temperature. A big enough rifle (.50 BMG?) should stop the engine cold, but I cannot say for sure just how big would be needed to do that and if it would have been something the authority having jurisdiction could have gotten hold of in reasonable time.

There been a few videos of cars rolling away, couple managed to cross borders.

Make a video about f 10 locomotive in Indonesia which has 12 driving wheels

This was a chain of bruh moments

You should do a video about the 1953 runaway that crashed into Union Station. No one was killed, but they didn’t have time to clear the wreck before Ike’s inauguration, so they covered it up until after it was over.

Man I watched unstoppable more times than I wanna say

The Crazy 8 incident, the inspiration for the film Unstoppable

Nice vid on a CSX Diesel, and this event inspired Unstoppable.

2:23 where it says headlight that’s wrong it’s the fuel shut off, the engine run, and the generator filed.

It’s like the Thomas episode old iron.

"Doing an Ozzy Osbourne" I like that!

The same mistake of not switching from traction power to regenerative braking was made in Switzerland in 1948 at Wadenswil. They were not so lucky; the passenger train ran away down a steep incline, smashed through the buffer stops at nearly 40 mph and demolished a building. 22 people were killed.

So THIS is where the inspiration for the movie "Unstoppable" comes from :O Didnt know it was based on a true story.

Diggng the use of the Hat in Time soundtrack

Railroad engineer's lunchboxes are quite heavy -- so he can use it to keep the deadman pedal depressed.

Unstoppable is my favourite movie honestly, the build up, the drama, and the ticking timer you feel threwout the film

I like how your voice sounds like Prince Charming from Shrek LOL no offense

Wait this 8888 train...didn't they use this for the movie "Unstoppable" with train 777?

I've actually seen 4389, I live right nearby a rail yard.

This question is for Train Of Thought: What is your opinion of Trains from Anime? Usually these are based off actual locomotives such as the C62, Big Boy, and Class 8620 for example.

1:00 is that a screen shot of Factorio?

Ozborne huh REAL CUTE .

Wait wait wait, the dead man's switch is a foot pedal? How the hell does that help if the guy falls asleep or has a heart attack? It just needs weight on it

We just gonna ignore that the background music is “train wreck of electro swing”

This incident was turned into one of my favorite movies; Unstoppable. In the movie, the runaway train was numbered 777 ("Triple seven"). Trailer of the movie: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fyuoIqeL-bc.html

i wonder if someone was to drive a car or a truck alongside the locomotive at the same speed, could someone else in the car press the emergency fuel cutoff?

The coincidence of the 3 El Cajón Pass runaway derailments for another video

This is a certified 🇺🇸 moment

Australian train use a push button that I believe stops the train if it is held down & must be pushed regularly ( 90 seconds I think)

Here's a run away train that caused significant damage to Helena, Montana in 1989:. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Helena_train_wreck I remember jumping out of bed at the explosion and then the power went out. It was -34 °C outside and it took days to get power back on. The plumbing froze in every house in the neighborhood.

Man unstoppable was a good movie

I’d imagine if this engine had a name, it’d probably be Eights, just like Fives from Star Wars

No runaway theme?

People: make the unstoppable movie CSX when he heard about it: f*ck