Are there any articles online accurately describing what happened in the real story of when the engine took off unmanned? Did Trains have an article on it and if so what issue?
Yes. Search previous threads.
From Vanity Fair’s web site
Q: Is Unstoppable really based on a true story?
Denzel Washington and Chris Pine chug into theaters this weekend in Tony Scott’s runaway-train thriller, Unstoppable. Denzel Washington plays a railway veteran assigned to show the new guy on the job (Pine) the ropes. Is a movie about a train with no one on it exciting? Is this really a true story? Will Unstoppable be unstoppable at the box office this weekend? As a service, we answer every question that you could possibly have about Unstoppable.
Q: Are you sure your introduction is correct? I swear I’ve seen this movie before, but Chris Pine wasn’t in it. Aren’t you forgetting John Travolta?
A: John Travolta and Denzel Washington starred in last year’s The Taking of Pelham 123, which was also directed by Tony Scott.
Q: See, this movie came out last year. Why are we still talking about it?
A: The Taking of Pelham 123, which came out in 2009, was a movie about a hijacked New York City subway train. Unstoppable is a movie about an unmanned, out-of-control freight train. There is a distinct difference.
When I was a little kid, I had a book published by Reader’s Digest that had to date from the early 1960s. There was a story titled “Runaway Train on the Main Line”, which was supposedly a true story. I don’t know if that incident was the basis for this film. The story seemed to be set on the East Coast, probably New York or New Jersey. It’s been a long time since I read the story.
I remember once hearling about an incident in California where an entire Union Pacific train got loose on Cajon Pass, and wasn’t able to stop until it reached the terminal.
Link to the FRA’s Final Report, as hosted/ posted on a private website, which has some other links, which are worth looking at, esp. the 2nd one:
http://kohlin.com/CSX8888/z-final-report.htm
http://kohlin.com/CSX8888/x-play-by-play.htm
http://kohlin.com/CSX8888/index.htm
Thnaks much to Joe for posting and hosting all that ! [bow]
Also, a link to a recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer - "Pennsylvania man lived the drama that inspired ‘Unstoppable’ " - about the Trainmaster - Jon Hosfeld - who was the guy who actually boarded and stopped the 8888 then
I read that one back then, too. It was a true story - it happened on the Central RR of New Jersey, in the ‘Chemical Coast’ area near the Arthur Kill as I recall, and at least the illustration looked like a red Alco RS-3 to me. But it was not the basis for this film.
There have been several runaways on Cajon, of either the the brake failure / inadequate brakes/ ‘p*ssed away the air’ variety - but none of this kind where the engineer apparently accidentally hit or left the throttle in a positive ‘Run’ position and dismounted. Not all ended that well - there was an SP train of fertilizer or something similar - neither coal nor grain, anyways - that got away in the mid-1990’s and piled up, killing some people in a trackside house near San Bernardino. A few days later a high-pressure natural gas line that had been nicked by either the wreck or the clean-up work exploded and killed a few more. It was all the subject of a couple of NTSB reports.
- Paul North.
I think the story is experts from CSX8888
One misprint, the locomotive was probably equipped with 26L air, not 6L.
One other thing that’s bothered me. The engineer made a 20 pound reduction on the automatic brake, even though the car"s brake system wasn’t connected. A lot of “experts” out there think he was at best mistaken or at worst a big doofus for doing so.
I think he was a doofus for getting off the moving engine, but not for making the automatic reduction. In fact, if I was in the same situation I would do the same.
So am I mistaken? (I probably already know the answer to the doofus part, so I won’t ask about that.) Or do I and others maybe know something the rest don’t?
Jeff