The Unstoppable Crazy Eights Incident 

Hit dat independnet.

*RON, GET THE GUN! WE GOT A TRAIN TO SHOOT*

Fun fact: “Unstoppable” was filmed on mostly Wheeling and Lake Erie property. And the 1206 units still operate today as WE 6353 and WE 6354

I was an engineer for CSX from 1998 - 2004. 8888 came through Barr yard. I had to climb on it and read all the graffiti. 'My little runaway' was all over the cab. Fun times.. Lol

The “Crazy 8’s Incident” is probably the last runaway we will see for a while or ever mainly because the technology we have now is designed to stop situations like this from happening.

I've met with some people from CSX corporate before. Yes they're still a company at the end of the day, but they also expressed to me more times than I can mention how much love, and appreciation they have for their fanbase, their community, and country. I hope to see CSX continue successfully on the high iron, until the end of time itself.

I know I am over a year too late but a few facts that you missed that I believe should be mentioned in this video... The engineer who was at the controls of 8888 as it was making its movement was never fired from CSX. He was 2nd in Seniority in Stanley Yard and had no prior records of incidents prior to this. CSX put him back on the job and he worked for CSX all the way up to 2015 when he hired out. He is now happily retired from CSX. I know this because I have a friend who knows this engineer personally. Another interesting fact that was missed is when the train hit that portable derailer at Galatea. Galatea is also known as North Baltimore, and the derailer was not placed on the mainline. The dispatcher routed the Runaway Train into the siding, where the derailer was placed at roughly the middle of the siding. Another fact that was not discussed in the video was the situation at Bowling Green University. The Runaway Train passed right by the Bowling Green University Campus, which was partially evacuated due to the emergency. Another fun fact is when the train started passing through Findlay, a CNN Helicopter started broadcasting the event live on National Television. After this, the Governor of Ohio at the time Bob Taft as well as US President George W. Bush was alerted of the escalating crisis. When the incident concluded, George W. Bush personally visited Ohio and congratulated the heroes to those involved and became a supporter in legislation to prevent this incident from happening again. I would also like to expand on part 3:43 where you state that more derailing attempts were set up. The actual concern was that on the route that the train was traveling on, the train would have come into Columbus traveling through Ridgeway, Marysville, and eventually coming in through the Northwest side of Columbus. There was a curve at N Soulder Avenue where the line that the train was on joins the Norfolk Southern, and it was moving too fast to make that corner. The initial plan was to derail the train at Ridgeway, however, there was a train already blocking the corner at Ridgeway. 4:10 I would also like to point out that it wasn't the dispatcher who placed the Kenton Local to intervene. The person who actually ordered that was a person by the name of Jon Hosfield. Jon Hosfield was the train master for both the Toledo Branch and the Scottslawn Secondary, and he had been following the train South since it left Stanley Yard. He was the guy who actually hopped on board and stopped the Runaway Locomotive in Kenton. Also, another funny side note. In 2005, 8888 actually suffered another accident and the engine became damaged, however, CSX decided to rebuild the locomotive. After this accident people who actually worked on it began believing that the engine was cursed lol

I remember this happening. We were at home when the train got away and we saw it on the news. There’s a set of CSX tracks that ran through our back yard and our ghetto behinds ran outside to watch it roll past as soon as we found out it was getting close. Channel 8 had their news chopper following it and we knew how close it was.

There's an old WWII commando training film here on RU-vid (or at least there was) called "How to stop a train". Large sections of track need to be removed to stop a train once it's got going, there's no surprise that those little derailing gimmicks didn't work on a train at speed...

Even though it’s now a dash 3 rebuild I atleast hope 8888 (now 4389) is preserved when it’s retired

*Cues Stanton Curve Theme*

Thanks to a trip to the National Railway Museum in my home of Montreal, Canada, I’ve gotten a chance to use one of those control stands (in a simulator) and I can entirely understand how one would make that mistake

*Crazy Train intensifies*

I never knew that locomotives had a control stand with a combined dynamic brake/throttle control.

Fact: the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway (which my dad works for) helped make the unstoppable movie. 1206 was a wheeling engine painted. After filming, it was painted back into the wheeling’s colors and still operates today.

Y’know, I wish people could’ve bought 8888 off CSX before they rebuilt it to at least have 1 memorable SD40-2 in preservation

Watched unstoppable for the first time tonight and almost instantly went to this video afterward. The thrill I got while watching it makes me wish I could see it for the first time again. It may have been exaggerated, but still a fantastic movie. Great video!

By setting the independent brakes, this disabled the alerter that would otherwise have brought the train to a stop through a penalty brake application (and PC trip of the engine).

"Something's getting away!" America: Shoot it! Interesting how the lash-up scene was set up as a real plan in the actual event. I wonder how it would have turned out if 8888 got far enough to meet that train.

Unstoppable was one of my favorite movies as a child, I never really knew the movie was based off a true story.

Interesting video. Now I know where the story/movie of Unstoppable comes from... Good video hope to see more videos from you... 💯

Best explanation I've heard of this, very detailed video. Thanks!

Great job, I am glad this showed up in my recommended videos.

Another great video!

There aren’t that many great train movies, but unstoppable is really cool. It’s always fun to go back and watch as I learn more and more about how railroads work, I understand more of what’s going on in the movie.

The engineer on the chase engine was at our annual dinner , and told us the whole story and he was in the movie that came out about it .

One of my favorite incidents.

Loving the content!

Thanks for putting in the soundtrack!

Great video!

Happy Anniversary of CSX Runaway.

I Loved Your Channel

Very cool and great video! It is amazing to think how many incidents happen that are human error that dont make it beyond a company or safety folks.

this was one of the incidents that the movie unstoppable was based on

dang...20th anniversary...

Love that you used some footage from Train Sim World for this.

FWIW: I was under the impression that railroad locomotives -- even back in 2001 when this happened -- had some kind of _dead man system_ built into the control station that would not allow the locomotive to operate without an operator present.

I personally live in the in the Toledo area and was born around the time this happened. My uncle used to work around that yard and others in the south east Toledo area until a few years ago; hired out as a contracted crew driver out in Walbridge. He’s told me a little bit about this story but wasn’t really involved in it at all.

The engineer is now working in the fast food industry.

I know next to nothing about trains and railroad. I had never heard of this until I saw the movie Unstoppable, I was kinda surprised to learn it was loosely based on a real event. However, I was surprised to learn that attempting to shoot the fuel shutoff button wasn’t Hollywood drama, but really attempted. It seems to me it would have been much more effective to shoot a bunch of holes into the fuel tanks. If the fuel leaks out, the engine won’t run, the train would eventually stop. Once again, I know very little about trains. I have no clue how much fuel a train carries, or how long it would take to drain. I’m guessing if punching a bunch of holes into the fuel tanks was a possibility, someone would have suggested it.

Very good video Jonathan. They need to restore 8888 and run it on the mainline to locations like my house and horshoe curve in Durango.

Superb animation!!!

Excellent video! With the wide adoption of PSR on the American Class-1's, I wouldn't be surprised if a similar incident happened in the near future

Nice!

I would have liked to have seen a shot looking at the couplers with some coupling noises when the other engine coupled to the back of the train. Nothing big just something I would have liked to have seen. great video though, really unpacks the phenomenon in an efficient way

The video is so good 😊

This Makes Me Want To Watch The Unstoppable

Well done.

7:46 Bear mountain River sub!! Nice!

Yep I remember watching the movie unstoppable for the first time witch was 11 years ago! And four years ago was when I first heard about the crazy 8 story that inspired the movie! Pretty intense situation if you know what I mean I’m not gonna lie. 😊

You know I'm curious to the current whereabouts of CSX 8392 the engine that help stop the runaway.

nice video

I'm gonna subscribe!

Awesome

The AWVR reference

Nice

5:50 SD40-3 is the new registration for 8888, for those looking for it! Apparently, they weren't interested in saving it for a railroad museum or something!

In Poland we have RADIO STOP system, that wuld be probably helpfull in cases like that. The system works on short radio waves, all trains who(?) pickup the signal automaticly disengages engine and apply breakes. This is usefull but have been abused. If i'm not misteaken our trains also have automatic stop sensors that can detect whenever stop signal is being send by transsmiter, then the system informs engineer that signal have been send, if not deleted in 4 minutes the train stops, and can be turn on again after complete stop only.

Imagine the resume of the driver of 8392 “Ok so it says here you chasrd a runaway train, backwards?” “You have no idea”

A friend of mine worked on the engine at the CSX shop.

Very well put together. In my opinion, most amateur rail mini-documentaries tend to either be extraordinarily boring, or the presenter takes it way over the top to attempt to make it not boring. You found a good mix between the two: you calmly told the story in an interesting way that held attention to give a brief overview

The station master called ahead. "Clear the Line!" He said. "It's a runaway train!" Signals were changed and points were switched.

Nice do you still take request for seeing trainz ?

The Engineer is now pursuing a career in the fast food industry.

Nice 👍

It's a train, not a chipmunk Dewey!

I remember seeing a live shot on WTOL that day

I love unstoppable

I know the movie Unstoppable was based on this incident but didn't know by how much.

SD40-2 locos are my fav locomotives

Nice reenactment of the 8888 incident.

Ofc, Conrail had something to do with it, no wonder the engine was so troublesome

Yea boi

6:32 As yes this was indeed Tony Scott's Final Film he Directed before he died 2 Years Later in 2012.

I can hear the chase theme from Thunderbirds!

My dad was one of the builders of 8888

Hey, I had a question. How do you shoot the pictures in burst and video, or is that just someone nearby? Thanks!

4:10 nice horn

Saw this going down. At Bolling green gas station Chased this as far as Mortimer crossing north findlay ohio. Went home to mcComb ohio and watched the rest unfold on wtol, and wima tv . With coverage on wfin findlay ohio, and wima LIma. Ohio. Even watched the police shooting the engine. Thought it might have been a terrorist attack. Going home to prepair for the worst. Thanks for good show.

NS had a Dash9 40c numbered 8888, was a lot of accidents and weird stuff happened with it..

I've lived in Northwest Ohio my entire life and remember this incident. I've watched every RU-vid video that I've found on it and I can't believed that none of them have used Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy in their sound track.

Isn't it amazing that this 1 in a 1000000000 situation happens with a train that's name is 8888

A change was made to one brand of locomotive's controls after this incident.

I like the visual aids

2:25 grade crossing safety promo train in the area (the northbound train later told to go to siding? 3:54 Apparently not)

Song song stoppable movie is based off of crazy eights incident

Trip optimizer is a GE thing, not EMD

Best shot of the clip: 7:35 =) beautiful steam loco. Cant make out which one it is tho =/

Hermes has to have his fun!

In Germany, it wouldnt possible. After 30 seconds, the loco says: „Sifa, Sifa, Sifa, Sifa Hwangsbremsung“and the train stops. Sifa is the german dead man switch, that you have to release/push every 30 seconds

TS is great for telling rail stories!

1206 are familar #'s to me...An Address, one of my Grandmother & Grandfathers address. The other was 1204...Just saying, Great Memories♥️

Imagine the kind of crap that would of happened if they fixed the big boy before this and it happened to be in the area and saved the day. That would of been sick

Neat

What I still don't get about that incident is, if they were willing to derail the whole train and the portable derailer wouldn't work, why didn't they get an earthmover to destroy the track in its path? Or, for that matter, why not get a helicopter to put an engineer - or a stunt-man or someone who can be talked through applying the brakes - onto the engine?

👍👍

pls, where did you get the 1206 model?

8888 lives on as 4389 if anyone was wondering.

The best train movie vus far "unstoppable"

Wha how did you get the awvr 1206 oh nvm trainz download station