How to (and how not to) stop a runaway train - Crazy Eight's Incident
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- Опубліковано 3 жов 2024
- In this video, we take a look at how a runaway train got started and how it was stopped with the help of a de-railer, a shotgun and another locomotive
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Sometimes I feel I've got to
👏👏
RUNAWAY
ba dum chhhhh
"Doing an Ozzy Osbourne." That is poetry my friend. Nice pun
Ayyyyyyyyyy but boooooooooo
@@AdventureswithGeneral this guy has to be the most in-line-with-my-tastes UA-camr ever. Dude even did an entire Cowboy BeBop themed episode 😂
Lmao
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.
Boots know nothing else LOL. I mean it’s really not funny because they kill a bunch of people and steal a ton of resources and numerous other things.. but man.. how fucking stupid do they have to be to have thought that’d work? I mean that’s funny by itself. And standing feet away no less. Shooting at something containing fuel and may cause sparks.
Some of the absolute dumbest of society end up being the enforcers of the law and “protectors” of safety.
[the sound of screaming children has been removed]
O, USA 🇺🇸
This is an extremely underrated comment
america, f k yeah!
I mean an elephant derailed a train. But it died in the process.
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)
That's 6008.
Or we could preserve the 4389.
It's a SD 40-2 i'd assume some heritage railway would want it as a backup locomotive
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.
Hey look buddy….
Were they Texan?
They didn't use a railway gun either. A 31 inch shell fired from the Schwerer Gustav, now _that_ would have stopped the train for sure!
@@scottthewaterwarrior the train would stop existing
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.
I assume it's these many incidents of rigging the dead mans switch that caused the implementation of the alerter. A button you have to press when an alarm sounds is a lot harder to jury rig.
Thunderbolt 1000 did that.
@@kevwebb2637 Just because one guy did it doesn't mean someone else cannot.
In the Hinton accident it supposingly was a lunch box placed on the pedal; and an unconnected air brake hose somewhere in the middle of the train.
@@kevwebb2637 yeah and it should be redone, that vid sucks.
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.
Independent brakes operate off main reservoir air. When a reduction is made in the brake pipe and the independent isn't bailed off, a 50kpa reduction in BP should raise the independent 50-125kpa in the brake cylinders. An automatic brake valve can be used in place of an independent in the event it being necessary.
@@3801Catcher You're right, thanks for the correction.
@@rileycoyote4924 no worries mate, happy to help.
From what I heard CSX never released the identity of the engineer so what happened to him is only known internally
It's common belief the engineer was fired. But CSX apparently found another way to make him useful. On another documentary of this incident another railroaded commented that they brought in the engineer responsible as a way to train new ones. He retired in 2017 from what I've heard. So no he wasn't fired.
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.
And that's how CSX 8888 (CR 6410) ran away i guess.
After the "Crazy 8" incident, the throttle and dynamic brake switches were reverted back to being separate switches.
@@BHuang92 Correct.
it was mentioned in the video
2:28
Yes, this engine was equipped with older electronics that required a selector lever to transition the electrical system supplying power to the traction motors when the engine and generator become unable to supply enough power in their current state.
The dynamic brakes are also applied in this way, only the selector must be in the "off" position, the pulled towards you. The indicator will read "B" , then the throttle can be applied to produce dynamic braking power.
The engineer was a former employee of the Pennsylvania Railroad. How he did not understand this process when most early EMD locomotives like the GP/SD7/9 used this is beyond me.
The dash 2 electronics made the transition process completely automatic, and the dynamic brake lever became its own entity on the control stand.
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.
Plus there's AWS and TPWS that confirm driver vigilance and can slow a train down if it's approaching a red signal to quickly
Yeah I don't think anyone uses the simple "hold down the pedal" system anymore, it's way too exploitable, plus it doesn't really catch any scenario where the driver becomes incapacitated while still holding down the pedal.
Just for trivia, in Italy, at least on the kind of trains that I have seen, the system has a pedal that, when pressed, resets a 90-second countdown.
Keeing the pedal pressed doesn't reset the counter, so the driver has to press (and release) the pedal at least every 90 seconds to confirm that he's awake and aware.
If the driver doesn't press the pedal for more than 90 seconds a few audio and visual allarms go off, starting quite mild but getting progressively more and more annoying.
If the driver still doesn't press the pedal at this point he's presumed to be incapacitated and brakes are automatically applied, alarms keep going off and, on some models, the onboard system also automatically "phone" the control room, in order to alert them so that they can check what's going on.
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, you don't use a gun to stop a runaway! You use a shunters pole and rope!
Ah, I guess that only works where you have 2 tracks running side by side, though...
The vast majority are the most inept wannabe cool dorks you’ve ever met. That’s why even the boot lickers stay away from then unless they have to. They may not even be the asshole ones, but might be so fucking stupid they shoot you or your dog or kid, or they arrest you for something there’s no evidence you did or etc. and they almost always “can’t do anything” about whatever it was anyways, so there’s no point in calling them regardless. Just really some of the dumbest of society. Some fucking idiot sheriff near where I grew up started busting sex shops for selling CBD.. which is and has always been legal there. Shocker, they all sued the shit out of the city and won. Of course the tax payers paid for it. Cops cost the taxpayers millions and millions. Definitely more than they ever help for the community.
Keystone Cops behavior.
@@fishandjam5383 or something to tangle up the train's axles (e.g. some sort of net)
@@Piankhi_the_Greater Maybe, but I was making a reference to Thomas The Tank Engine, specifically the episode Old Iron.
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!"
The guy in charge wasn't the brightest bulb in the movie.
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!
Shooting the button is the most american way of stopping a train possible, just like blowing up a whale carcass with dynamite.
Great movie, saw it in the cinema backin the day and still watch it regularly on DVD
"Stop the Runaway!"
What an exciting story! Keep up the good work sir!
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
Brakes were already applied, so that applying brakes wouldn't have made a difference. Plus I've heard many drivers put a brake shoe or other object on the pedal, as sitting in a position to always be on it gets uncomfortable after a while.
@@quillmaurer6563 a deadman switch is normally clamps the breaks on the entire train not just the locomotive or it would be a pretty useless "dead man switch" if it didnt in fact halt the train. unless there is some bizzare american practice where that isn't the case. if they haven't learned that simple mistake from 250 years of railways history then there is truly no helping them. if a driver is negating a safety device for convenience then he should be prepared for retribution from those of the families of those he endangers by doing so.
@@Spiro20004 Brakes in wagons were supposed to be disabled and main pipe disconnected. Why? How was he supposed to stop it then? In Europe only shunting done without air brakes connected is done by small battery shunters that don't even have compressors, and they pull single loco or EMU arround the shed and nothing more, but even then I've seen modifications with putting industrial compressor on roof, as it's much simpler and safer to fill that few dozen meters of main pipe, than to walk, disable brakes, release brakes, enable them again, repeat with every car.
@@Spiro20004 It would have applied brakes on the whole train if the brake hoses were connected. Because this was a shunting maneuver, never intended to go more than 10 mph, the brake hoses were not connected, meaning no brakes on the cars, only the locomotive. To my understanding shunting like that is standard practice.
As for the dead-man's pedal, I see it as a somewhat bad design to require the driver to keep their foot on it the entire time, as that would be very uncomfortable for an extended period of time. I could see using a weight sensor in the seat instead. Modern technology could even allow for biometric monitoring, to determine if the driver is alert and not asleep (or dead). The alerter system is a much more effective thing, basically if the driver doesn't manipulate any control for more than a certain amount of time an alarm sounds, and if they don't move a control or shut off the alarm the brakes are applied. Again, not effective in this situation as the brakes were already applied. Of course the best solution to all this takes the driver out of the equation entirely, stops the train automatically if it passes a signal at danger or goes too fast. This Positive Train Control technology has been around for a while, but major railways have lobbied against it becoming mandatory due to cost.
@@antonisauren8998 quite right, as i said. american practices make these accidents unsurprising to me
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.
I am a little bemused that an SD40 control stand ended up an SD40-2. I don't know if this was a goofy Conrail specification (Conrail had several "unique" specifications on the SD40-2, like Flexicoil trucks and class lights) or if the control stand was replaced in a rebuild (also completely possible).
Some clarification for anyone reading who might be unfamiliar with the terms being used here - the original SD40 of 1966 vintage used a control stand which utilized a common lever for power and dynamic braking, with a selector switch to change between modes. The revised SD40-2 of 1972 utilized the standardized AAR control stand. The AAR stand was introduced as part of the 1972 "clean cab" concept which significantly reduced cab clutter, standardized the direction of throttle and brake levers (moving any lever forward adds braking or decreases power, moving any lever back decreased braking or increases power) and specified that throttle and brake handles should be physically shaped differently (which is why the dynamic brake and throttle levers on an AAR stand are rotated 90 degrees from each other). This was in response to several similar incidents (e.g. the fatal 1969 Santa Margarita crash).
Crazy 8*
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.
I was always interested in this story as a rail fan and is always cool when someone talks about it
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.
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.
I can't stop laughing at the fact that police thought it was a good idea to shoot a moving locomotive with a shotgun
My not quite certain recall is the railroad provided instructions for how to attempt it.
I wonder if the police were on something when they thought of
That idea why would you shoot at something flammable
It was a crazy idea. A loco motive, you might say.
@@DavidKehley Diesel is actually surprisingly difficult to ignite in its liquid form
they won’t let you in if you’re not an idiot. Like I’m being completely serious, in the states they block people who aren’t idiots. Went to court about it and everything to protect their right to not hire intelligent people. You’d also imagine they wouldn’t have let all those kids get needlessly slaughtered if they weren’t dorks with punisher backgrounds playing tacti-cool while being 40lbs overweight and literally not doing their one and only job. Literally to protect children from being massacred.
[the sounds of screaming children has been removed]
Thanks to you I bought the movie 'Unstoppable'. And I loved it.
"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
Crazy 8's is probably the most famous rail accident of all time. And the movie "unstoppable" puts that perfectly
Police be like
"Solve every problem with a gun. Be a man."
#beaman
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
and to be fair, the brake-throttle lever is a bit confusing. I think they changed it to two separate levers after that
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)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Melbourne_runaway_train
IIRC there was also a less serious runaway (rollaway) on the Belgrave line around the same time (early 2000s), though I can't find any information on it now.
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.
Sounds like it's absolute hell on the operator and would lead to major repetitive motion injuries.
@@Hybris51129
There is an audible "Sifa" call-out for four seconds before the train does apply the emergency brakes, so unintended braking is quite rare. From what I've heard a short tap of the foot is enough to apply the Sifa pedal, and I'd imagine that after a few days you'll get used to it.
@@mikeblatzheim2797 Yes. I forgot to mention. First comes an indicator light, then an acoustic warning signal and then the braking. And yes, you get used to it quickly. :D
@@Hybris51129 So I guess something like... walking would be even more injurious? :)
@@cr10001 Walking is slightly more natural than constantly moving your foot a small amount constantly. Otherwise why you have things carpal tunnel from keyboards and the like?
What a fitting background music, "Trainwreck of electroswing"
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.
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.
Oh dang, a railway story I've heard of? Thank you, Technical Difficulties!
Heeeeyyyyy a fellow Tom Scott viewer!
nice to find more tom scott viewers in the wild
For a video, can you do a video about how some British diesel locomotives used to have steam heating boilers and whistles?
I never knew about the whistles, but this was common in the US during the transition period since passenger cars needed steam
@@Idaho-Cowboy huh interesting
erm your on about the gronks right?
thats the only diesel i know that has a whistle.
@@davidty2006 so did some class 40s and a bunch of other first generation diesels
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).
Omg, it's the triple 7 incident. Wow, such upload!!!
I’ve heard this story before on thunderbolt 1000 siren productions channel this is one of my favorite stories
Love how you used Train Rush from A Hat in Time. Very fitting.
“Doing an Ozzy Ozbourne” that is the most metal thing I have ever heard when it comes to trains BY FAR 😂
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
Hah jokes on you csx I have a fondness for 43 since it’s my decoder call sign in all my dcc equiped locomotives
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.
"How am I going to stop some big, mean mother hubbard from tearing us a new disaster site? The answer... is a gun. And if that don't work, use more gun."
A 50 cal could stop a small/medium engine, but it will take either several rounds of 50 or a small cannon shell to stop a massive 211L V16
You'd need probably like a 20mm anti-tank rifle, if not bigger
The size of the prime mover inside of a locomotive is immense. You would need more firepower.
I wouldn't exactly say it stop it cold because it still has momentum
This gives me vibes of "Old Iron."
I felt the same way when I first saw Unstoppable for the first time. A big Red locomotive running away (under power no less), only for a smaller and older Blue engine to give chase to stop the runaway was an easy comparison for 11 y/o me
Nice documentary.
I Like Deisel Locomotives it's Amazing
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" 💀
Nice vid on a CSX Diesel, and this event inspired Unstoppable.
Well... this event, and a whole lot of hollywood over-hype and invented drama tbf
Train Rush... Perfect choice of music. The conducter would 100% make his train a runaway one for a film.
Stopping a train with a gun? now THATS American!
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?
They make “non-lethal” bean bag rounds that are supposed to just knock the target out with little risk for actually killing it. Sure a normal bullet won’t ignite a fuel tank but the force of a beanbag round if it hits would probably jam the button down.
Probably a big game of Telephone! between whatever guy said "okay, you need to get someone to hold this big red emergency cutout button for up to 5 seconds" and the poor cops beside the rails being told "shoot the big red thing on the side!"
Rubber riot bullet from the shotgun had most logical sense in this situation.
@@randomnickify Beanbag would probably be better. Rubber bullets are still going to deliver a huge amount of kinetic energy to such a switch and probably just break it.
Crazy that I may be getting a job with CSX here soon
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
"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"
Man I watched unstoppable more times than I wanna say
Life imitates art imitates life.
It's been said that
You can work to make something idiot-proof ,
BUT you have surely discounted the Genius of Idiots !
Unstoppable is my favourite movie honestly, the build up, the drama, and the ticking timer you feel threwout the film
I enjoy this video quite a lot, but there are a few misconceptions and misinformation in this video...
0:42 Most Diesel Locomotives did have a Dead Mans Pedal, however by the time of 2001 when this incident had taken place, the Dead Mans Pedal had been replaced by the Emergency Alert System or the "Alterter". The Alterter is a safety device that monitors when an engineer is operating the train. Every 90 seconds, the Alerter activates a loud high pitched warning that the engineer must acknowledge. If he doesn't acknowledge the warning, the Emergency Alert System will automatically engage the trains brakes.
1:09 A little misinformation. On May 15th, 2001, CSX train Y116-15, symboled for intra-yard movements, goes on duty at 6:30 AM. They are symboled for a yard switcher, tasked with switching cars around CSX Stanley Yard in Walbridge Ohio. The train has a three-man crew, engineer, conductor, and brakemen. They are given locomotive 8888, an EMD SD40-2 built in the 1970s for Conrail as engine 6410, before being taken by CSX after the Conrail breakup and becoming engine 8888. It was just before 12:30 PM, when the crew of this train is briefed on their next assignment, to move a cut of 47 freight cars from yard track K12 over to yard track D10 so space could be cleared up for more cars.
1:21: As the engine was moving from track K12 and out onto the yard lead, the CSX Engineer was notified by his brakemen that the switch to yard track PB9 is misaligned. The engineer knew that if he went over the switch, the train would have derailed. To avoid derailment he decided to hop off the moving locomotive, realign the switch, and then reboard the train. This kind of maneuver had been performed by the people who work Stanley Yard, most of them being former Conrail employees. This engineer had been hired on by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1966, and had been promoted in 1974 under the Penn Central and had been an engineer all the way up until that point.
1:38 On most American Diesel Locomotives, there are four separate sets of braking systems. The automatic air brake, the Locomotive (Independent) brake, the Dynamic Brake, and the Emergency Brake.
1:50 The Air Brake DOES NOT disable the Dead Mans Switch. The Engineer before leaving the cab of the locomotive applied 100 pounds of pressure to the Locomotive Brake. When the Locomotive Brake is applied, it automatically overrides the Dead Mans Switch as a safety feature to prevent traction motors from seizing on a locomotive. The engineer applied this brake because the air hose for the air brake between the first car and the locomotive were disconnected, so there was no pressure for the air brakes to work to begin with.
2:17 This is highly incorrect. The Throttle on a locomotive is the locomotives accelerator, that has the ability to put more power or less power to the prime mover. The throttle has no input on the Dynamic Brake.
2:43 This is not true. Most Diesel Locomotives in the United States have the Dynamic Brake and the Throttle as separate levers. However, locomotive 8888 was an engine built in the 1970s, meaning that its dynamic brake function and its throttle function were combined into one handle. The engineer in his reaction forgot about this feature, and so when he grabbed the handle, he thought he was applying the dynamic brake, when in reality he threw the locomotive into full power. He failed to realize this before hopping off the locomotive
3:14 The engineer didn't let go voluntarily, his foot caught another switch before he was forcefully pried from the locomotive cab steps.
3:15: After the engineer fell off the locomotive, the Brakemen and Conductor didn't notice the engineer fall off the engine. Thanks to the lack of radio communication between the engineer and the conductor, the two other crew members believed he had a heart attack at the controls. So they jumped into a CSX truck and race over to the nearest grade crossing to try and hop on board the engine. It was by that point the train was moving 20 miles an hour, way to fast for anybody to jump on safely.
3:15 Stanley Yard has four exits. The train happened to be routed Northeast out of the yard, and then turned south onto the former New York Central, former Penn Central, former Conrail, and now the CSX Toledo Branch Subdivision. The train was traveling on the former New York Central mainline between Toledo, Ohio and Columbus, Ohio (Ohio's State Capital).
3:20 What also made this Runaway Train different was the direction it was heading. The freight train was traveling South toward Ohio's State Capital (Columbus, Ohio) on a direct course. In the borough of Franklinton, Ohio (A suburb of Columbus), there is a curve near North Soulder Avenue where the line between Columbus and Toledo branches off to the North. The fear was the train was not going to make it around that corner.
4:03 The Sherriff who shot the locomotive was a man by the name of Tom Glinn. Using a twelve gauge and a buckshot round, he attempted to use the route to hit the Emergency Fuel Cut Off Button. The problem is the button has to be held down for at least 20-30 seconds to activate and starve fuel to the Prime Mover. In addition, Mr. Glinn had no idea what he was shooting at, and accidentally hit the locomotive's fuel cap.
5:02 The driver was initially charged with criminal nelgiance. However, he was cleared of all charges for the incident. In addition, the engineer didn't have any demerits prior to this, so CSX cleared him. The engineer remained with CSX up until the 2010s when he happily retired from the railroad.
5:25 Museums did try to buy the locomotive from CSX, but this was over a decade after the incident had happened. CSX didn't want to get rid of the locomotive not because they didn't want a reminder of the incident, but because the engine design is one of the most reliable ever built, and keeping it in service for as long as they could rather than getting rid of a valuable asset.
5:37 CSX doesn't want anybody to forget about this incident as there is no reason. This incident believe it or not was extremely minor. There were no fatalities and very minor collateral damage during the incident, in fact CSX even released the names of the people who were responsible for stopping the Runaway Train, and even helped contribute in facts to the movie release Unstoppable in which this incident was based off of. The public forgot about it entirely as since it was minor and there were no fatalities, it simply was minor.
👍 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.
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?
The Crazy 8 incident, the inspiration for the film Unstoppable
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.
My understanding of what disabled the dead man's switch is somewhat different. The engineer also enabled dynamic brakes; which disables the dead mans switch as otherwise when the switch engaged it would disable the dynamic brakes. The problem is the locomotive had older style controls where it was possible to engage dynamic brakes without changing the prime mover to idle. The resulting electrical configuration results in the engine power being divided between the traction motors and the resistor bank used to dump power from the dynamic brakes.
Why would dynamic brakes disable dead man switch? In every loco I know, (well, european) it engages EP valve that connects main pipe to atmosphere and pressure drop cuts of dynamic brakes. It's designed for maximum simplicity.
@@antonisauren8998 Old bad design. The dead mans switch would otherwise disable the dynamic brakes because it isolates the traction motors rather than isolating the prime mover.
You seem to be talking about the air brakes, which were already enabled. And yes, the dead man's circuit tripped, attempted to activate the air brakes (which were already enabled so that does nothing), then saw dynamic brakes were enabled and did not power knockout because it has hardwired knowledge that it would disable the dynamic brakes (true) and doesn't know it should do so anyway because the engine is still under power.
Im thankfull 8392, which was the engine that stopped 8888, is still around, i think she is owned by a leasing company.
"Doing an Ozzy Osbourne" I like that!
- Why though?
**Loads gun**
- *’Cause ‘Murica.* That’s why.”
The train wants freedom I'm gonna take it back to with my gun
Look! I'm on the thumbnail!
So THIS is where the inspiration for the movie "Unstoppable" comes from :O
Didnt know it was based on a true story.
It’s like the Thomas episode old iron.
I was getting worried that you were going to forget to mention Unstoppable with Denzil Washington (and that other guy)!
Ozborne huh REAL CUTE .
Diggng the use of the Hat in Time soundtrack
Actually even though we don't know the man's name we do know the disciplinary action that happened he was fired after 20 years and a clean record
Railroad engineer's lunchboxes are quite heavy -- so he can use it to keep the deadman pedal depressed.
Heard about the runaway train wagons reaching 62 miles/h and ran straight trhough the capital of Norway. Sjursøya train accident on wikipedia.
This was a chain of bruh moments
Unstoppable all over :P
Man unstoppable was a good movie
I’ve always wondered how they would stop them
The coincidence of the 3 El Cajón Pass runaway derailments for another video
I heard the ttte runaway theme in my head
DUUN DUUN DUUN DUUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUN
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.
I know about that one, my local LEGO Train Club did a display in Union Station a few years ago, one of our members built a LEGO model of the station including a flexible wall section he could crash a train through, lol!
@@scottthewaterwarrior Any pics or videos? That sounds so cool!
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.
People: make the unstoppable movie
CSX when he heard about it: f*ck
The Chinese considers 8888 the Luckiest Locomotive Ever.
This is a certified 🇺🇸 moment
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
1:00 is that a screen shot of Factorio?
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
Nothing is foolproof because some fool will prove it isn't
I've actually seen 4389, I live right nearby a rail yard.
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.
That's the film with Daniel washington unstoppable
I heard that the person responsible got fired.
We just gonna ignore that the background music is “train wreck of electro swing”
This proves we live in a simulation, because this could be any other number, yet it was 8888
I have to mention the movie was very entertaining.
*stupid and unrealistic
My father who is generally meh about English movies absolutely loved this
There been a few videos of cars rolling away, couple managed to cross borders.
I like how your voice sounds like Prince Charming from Shrek LOL no offense