Luckily, the police were able to flag most crossings and prevent a grade-crossing accident.Īnother significant concern to authorities were the two cars of molten phenol that made up part of the train. Even worse, there was no one to operate the horn or bell, and the locomotive light was not on.
Before long the locomotive burned through its independent brakes and the train truly was out of control. Immediately the CSX dispatcher, as well as local authorities, were notified of the runaway. With the locomotive now accelerating it was impossible to get back on after correctly lining the switch. Rather than applying the dynamic brakes he moved the throttle to notch 8. Finally he went to apply dynamic brakes, and this is where the error occurred. This is typical yard practice as it allows cars to be “kicked” and sorted easily. The latter was ineffective as the air hoses were not connected to the locomotive. The engineer applied the independent (locomotive) brake as well as the air brake. Instead, he planned to slow the train down, climb out, throw the switch, and then climb back on.
The locomotive approached a switch that was lined incorrectly, and the engineer did not believe he could stop in time to avoid running through the switch. According to the report, CSX #8888 was moving a cut of cars in Stanley Yard (near Toledo) from a classification track to a departure track. For an unmanned train to get out onto the mainline the stars must clearly be in alignment, and that appeared to be just what happened here. Miraculously, there were no injuries.ĬSX #8888 quickly earned the nickname “Crazy Eight’s” and the investigation began over just what happened. Eventually, through the actions of second locomotive and crew the train was safely brought to a stop, 2 hours and 66 miles later. The 47 car train reached speeds upwards of 50 miles per hour while authorities made multiple attempts to stop it. It quickly began a high-speed journey south along the Columbus Subdivision through the communities of Findlay, Bowling Green, and Kenton. On CSX #8888 escaped from Stanley Yard in Toledo, OH. What many of the general public do not realize, is that Unstoppable is a dramatic retelling of real life events. While there’s no doubt that inaccuracies will abound (it is Hollywood after all), it should be at least remotely entertaining.
You can watch the trailer for the movie here. Staring Denzel Washington, the movie tells the story of an unmanned runaway train and the attempts made to stop it. This Friday is the premiere of the movie Unstoppable.