Runaway: Stopping a Stolen Locomotive. 

I was railfanning in Seattle this day. I remeber driving down the freeway listening on the scanner. Listening to this ws like reliving the whole thing.

I had the pleasure of working as a Conductor out of Lincoln Nebraska for about 24 years. The average layperson cannot comprehend the stress you felt that day! You were professional and you knew you had good people in the field that kept a disaster from happening! I remember many Dispatchers like yourself that stayed calm and took action immediately when necessary! Thank you for sharing this incident! I’ll bet you couldn’t sleep for hours that night at home because of the stress! Then I hope you slept like a baby! Thank You for your service!

Good thing that the caught the SOB that stole the power.He could've killed many people with his GTL/Grand Theft Locomotive.

17 years as a train dispatcher here. You are a pro. This was real dispatching. Absolutely flawless. Those train crews did an incredible job as well. The inclusion of Brian’s photos was a nice touch. Great video, watched the whole thing.

The 2nd-guessing and armchair quarterbacking by management you speak to at the end of the video has not changed in 30+ years since this incident. This sort of nonsense was also portrayed extremely accurately in the movie "Sully". I've spent time in the field before I went dispatching, I will mark the start of 18 years as a dispatcher this August (and 29 years in the industry this Sept). This incident and your handling of it is why I've always looked up to and respected dispatchers, even before I started in this industry. You, Sir, are a dispatching god. And kudos to the train crews and field personnel involved as well. Sadly, far too many of us are prevented from just being able to do our jobs far too often these days.

I work in an entirely unrelated industry, but one that carries responsibility for human life. I know what its like to return home totally exhausted from mental fatigue. Point being, we had the best of radio communications and live schematic indications. You did extremely well under those conditions and I really feel for your frustrations. When everything goes pear shaped and the wheels fall off, we are the ones to blame. Blamed of course by the people trying to cover their arses, in case they are put in a position of criticism. Hats of to you sir, and liked the way you stuck up for your crews. Its called team work.

Railroading has only gotten worse since then. FAR WORSE!!!!! I have almost a quarter century in and it’s such a horrible job but I have to stay to collect the retirement. You did an incredible job!!! I wish I had dispatchers like you but that caliber is few and far between. Thank you for your service!!!!!

What a fascinating story! As a local resident, I've never heard of this story, but I'm amazed at the fact that someone was actually present to catch photos of the event! Fortunately, with new technology advancements, this should never happen again. Also interestingly enough, all of the stolen locomotives are still in existence; even the old SD9! The two geeps are still with BNSF as BNSF 2720 and 2717 and work in Illinois, and the SD9 is now DBGX 1723, and resides in Joice, Iowa.

Man I was riveted to my seat here. You are a one cool and calm dispatcher. Hell of a job!

Stolen by a transient, ordered to pay $4500 in restitution and live in a halfway house. Credit for time served in jail (6 months)

Even today with the Centralia North, Seattle Terminal, Seattle East, and North Branch/Stampede Sub on separate frequencies, there are still enough yardmasters, etc. sharing the road channel that it can still get confusing...

I remember the "bad old days" of the whole of BN on "road channel one"... On a "scanner" unless you were up on a local mountaintop it didn't sound like this... But with a high location and a good antenna on the radio, this is exactly what you heard...

I'm only familiar with military protocols, but that was some of the worst radio discipline I've ever heard.

I do not think today's Movement Planner would have handled the situation very well. I am happy to have worked with talented dispatcher's as yourself during my 38 years.

They have caused confusion and delay, and shall be banished to the Shadow Realm... That is top-notch dispatching. Good on you for keepin things tidy under pressure

That radio traffic is a nightmare what happened to identifying yourself before talking.

AS A RAILROADER, IF I WAS A GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT, AND IF YOU WALKED INTO MY OFFICE, AND LOOKING FOR A JOB, I WOULD SAY- “HOW MUCH PAY, AND CAN YOU START THIS AFTERNOON!!??” KEEP THEM ROLLING BROTHERS!! 👍👍

Sounds more like the radio channel is hijacked. For safety reasons alone every RTC should have a different standby channel. This is insane.

Funny, I was a conductor out of a Tacoma never heard this story before

Man this is nuts, I've seen dispatchers have bad days but this takes the cake. I can't imagine how stressful that had to be.

DAMN, My hands are just a-tremblin' Adrenaline een flows over taped convos

Too many bad memories. I couldn't watch. 37 years conductor SoCal

This is something you don't hear about oftentimes. Fascinating As for you MR Dispatcher, you did a wonderful job.

Men like you sir are always an example of the spirit and dedication to doing what is right and honorable.

Excellent program, I have no idea how you could have gotten the radio transmissions after all these years, but it was quite compelling like that!

Pity there's no "derailer turnout, controlled by the dispatcher - which can be electronically operated in order to off-run and derail away from the main - anything that "gets away" either accidentally or in this case stolen / hijacked by a useless idiot. No interconnected train control system is ever "complete" without several deliberately placed - "DELIBERATE" RUN-OUT / DERAILING TURNOUT into a SHORT TRACK SECTION set-up, that removes anything abnormal and places it "ON THE GROUND" - well away from the main.

I just listened to this and I must say, you and the crews were very brave when this happened. I have huge respect for railroaders like you guys and it shows! You handled the situation well and definitely deserve respect for what you all did to stop a disaster. Very good job!👏👏

I found this to be fascinating. At first it was hard to follow your use of radios that allow cross talk not being easy to understand, after a while and by watching your excellent track plan I got into what was going on and then I was hooked. In UK we do not use radios to the extent you do, however many of the things you talk about are familiar to me. At the end I could not believe how you got hauled in for your actions and told you should of set the switch half way to derail the locomotives. Obviously that GST hadn't a clue about how signalling works and the limitations of what you could do. Your calm and collected decisions really prevented a disaster. A shift to be proud of and one you should of been commended for right away without having to spell out what you did and why.

Well done, sir! I got a kick out of your debrief and the "awards ceremony" still in the box. I guess it's better than a sharp stick in the eye. There are things I miss about railroading (conductor, yardmaster trainee, and control operator), and I've been tempted to go back.Nine months is all I'd need to collect my Tier Two. But then I think of some incidents with aftermaths similar to yours and I'll stay retired with the good memories intact.

MoW here. Be kind to your DS and YM, you never know what they're dealing with.

This is great, thanks! Would love to hear more stories in this format.

That was absolutely riveting to listen to and get in your headspace as the nightmare slowly unfolded. Dispatchers have all of the fun! I've subscribed and I'm looking forward to more interesting stories. 3rd trick diesel running shop/1st trick back shop/1st trick wheel shop - three and a half years of fun and games as the Milwaukee Road could not climb out of a fatal bankruptcy. It was the absolute best and worst of times, and I wouldn't change a thing. Well, I do wish the MILW did live to see another decade or two. An SD70ACe in MILW's original passenger scheme would have been nice.

Great story even better with the radio now. Lots of lessons to be learned. Thanks Tom!

Hoo man, that was nuts. It was a bit of a brain exercise to keep up with the sequence of events, but worth it. Reminded me of ATC radio chatter when something like the Horizon plane theft happened. Hats off to you for handling it so well, and still continuing to manage unrelated traffic as it happened. I would have wanted to call for a ground stop (and radio silence from the uninvolved) until it was resolved. I work as a switchman in Seattle Terminal currently, and I thought the mainline channel was crowded now; this was intolerable. I can't imagine trying to get anything done with that much overlapping chatter. Glad we have more channels now. It's also cool to see those pictures taken of the 3 trains going through Argo, because it looks so different. Argo the control point has moved south, and it's now Lucile at the photos' location. There's a third main now that is where PC 3 was, so now it's just PC 2 and the Colorado that enter the main at Lucile. The industry on the east side of the main was never that busy in the time I've been here, and it's actually gone now. Closest thing to this I've experienced is a single runaway car in Balmer a couple years ago. We were on our train at the south end (fortunately in the clear), waiting to depart. Out of nowhere, the yardmaster called us and told us there was a car coming down the adjacent track that wasn't stopping. We looked out the window and saw it passing the rear end of our power, probably going 5 or 6 mph. My engineer lunged out of his seat, out the front door, and hopped on as it went by (no vest, no gloves, no eye or ear protection). He unsuccessfully tried to tighten the hand brake, then got back off. The car continued on, ran through another switch, then ran through the red light on the dock before finally stopping on the other side of the plant. No injuries, and 2 run-through switches. Turns out, a northbound train that was doubling up had set out a single bad order to the north end of a clear track. The hand brake evidently was the bad order issue, because it started rolling once they cut away. Over the course of 10 minutes, it rolled the entire length of the yard and out the bottom. Crazy stuff. My engineer didn't get in any trouble, and the trainmaster thanked him for trying to stop it. There are BS moments, and crazy moments for sure. I still love the job.

It's amazing how North America runs on this string and two cans technology.

This was damn exciting to listen to, thanks for sharing!!!

Thanks for the upload. That was an amazing look behind the railroads and the dispatchers that make them run. Not surprising that they tried to climb on your case. Unfortunately, that is usually step one for the uninformed.

You should have got something for that whole thing, that was unbelieveable because A LOT could have went very bad..............

Welcome to the jungle...How the while entire yard didn't end up in flames is amazing....

Everyday I thank the fact that we don't have this much chattering here in Italy - selective calls on GSM-R are really your friend and avoid that confusion you were mentioning about crews talking to crews thinking they were speaking to the dispatcher...

Very interesting. Good job, and thanks for posting. Glad no one got hurt.

I never worked on a railroad but I sure wish I could have worked for someone like you!

Tell me did you work as BN dispatcher, I currently work at Seattle Yards as Hallcon Driver both road and yard. I love your channel. I can understand the confusion we have same problem each day on 44-44 the channel shared by the Seattle, Auburn, and Tacoma. Our problems is that too many people get walked on.

This was a very exciting vid. It will say hands down that you are a true professional and great at your job. I want to join everyone else in thanking you for sharing this with us !!!

Wow! Very interesting. Great job on getting that power stopped!

they need a radio controlled kill switch in their locomotives, it could be called "locjack"

bloody hell, what a crazy situation

Wow. That's how you handle a "situation". Good work.

Fantastic video, and story!

Yeiks that super congested radio channel makes everything so hard! They could also do with sending the radio users on some training course run by some air traffic control trainers!

Whatever happened to the person who stole the power?

Too much jibber jabber especially when there was a loose unit. The dispatcher should’ve said nobody talkson the radio until talked too by the controller of the tracks..

great video

Facinating but worrying

BNSF is so badass.

Great video!

I just subscribed to your channel.

I don't know how you actually manage to run a railroad in america with a radio system that confusing... and how you don't have more accidents and fatalities. Why don't you just use signals to tell the drivers what to do like most countries

C'mon 505!

Outstanding!

What are the purple lines going across the tracks?

What a mess! Was there a shortage of radio frequencies?

I am wondering if the same people who own my company are the same folks who owned yours. They sound very much the same.

passenger trains with pigs?

lol your a good man...i think i would of used a sick day on that one LOL!!! >:-D

wow

Runaway train in real life

whut

Not bad for artificial narration....

Great video very interesting, I thought you did a great job.