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  • Imagine: You're on a train, calm, relaxed, and enjoying your journey without a care in

  • the world.

  • After all, traveling by train is one of the safest ways to get somewhere.

  • But what's that?

  • You feel it accelerate, and soon it's already moving at breakneck speed, ignoring stop signs,

  • stations, and other trains.

  • You're pinching yourself in a futile attempt to wake up, but it’s no nightmareyoure

  • on a runaway train!

  • Wait, that really happens?

  • Sure does, and there are plenty of real cases, like that of train #1908.

  • It was a cold winter night on January 11, 2004 when the 5,000-ton freight train was

  • moving along the main Volkhovstroy 2 line in Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region,

  • where Saint Petersburg is located.

  • Even though everything seemed to be in order at that moment, just a couple of hours before,

  • it looked as if the train wouldn't be able to start its journey at all.

  • (Perhaps that wouldve been for the better given how things would turn out later…)

  • The thing is that two people were supposed to arrive at the train yard that night: 31-year-old

  • engineer Eduard and his 24-year-old assistant Alexander.

  • But when it was time for their shift to begin at 11pm, the engineer was nowhere to be seen.

  • After waiting for his co-worker for 15 minutes, the assistant decided to inform management.

  • They eventually got hold of Eduard, and the engineer simply said that he’d overslept.

  • He ended up arriving on site at 12:15am, making him 1 hour and 15 minutes late.

  • Obviously, everybody was severely behind schedule now, so the engineer’s standard pre-journey

  • medical check was done in a hurry.

  • But his health readings were normal, and he was totally sober.

  • Everything was fine, nothing out of routine here, except maybe the fact that instead of

  • his uniform, the man was wearing a suit and tie, as if he was going to some important

  • event.

  • But nobody seemed to find that odd

  • And why would they?

  • After all, the engine driver, although quite private, was a disciplined worker.

  • He was just your normal guy, liked football and hockey.

  • Perhaps he just had a wedding or something to go to after work, and he wouldn’t have

  • time to change.

  • Who knows?

  • In any case, after the doctors gave him the green light, the engineer was ready to go.

  • He climbed up into the cab, and that's when his assistant noticed another oddity.

  • Eduard didn't put a new tape into the train's speedometer, which was a serious violation

  • of the rules.

  • But when asked, Eduard assured his partner that everything was ok and started the locomotive.

  • It left the train yard at 12:42am and headed for its first station, where it got connected

  • to 58 loaded cars.

  • After the train left the loading station, the engineer broke protocol once more by refusing

  • to check if the brake system was working correctly.

  • Again, they were critically behind schedule, so nothing seemed too alarming at first.

  • But then

  • As the train came toward the railway haul Volkhovstroy 2 – Kukol’, the station operator

  • reported that there was another train approaching the station.

  • Train #1908 was supposed to make way for the other locomotive and wait for it to pass.

  • Alexander the assistant confirmed receiving this information, and the train started to

  • slow down.

  • But within seconds, the younger man screamed in horror when the engineer hit the controls

  • to accelerate!

  • When Alexander tried to bring his co-worker to his senses, the much stronger engineer

  • answered back with physical threats.

  • Desperate, the assistant realized that there was nothing he could do to prevent what was

  • sure to become one of the most terrible railway disasters in history.

  • By that time, the engineer had already switched off the cab signaling, which was supposed

  • to inform him about the maximum speed allowed on the track.

  • At 2:58am, the train blew through the red light at Kukolstation, careened on a totally

  • unscheduled route, and dashed toward the main track.

  • No one could contact the two men insidethe train’s radio receiver had been switched

  • off.

  • It was gaining speed, now reaching 60 mph (100 kph).

  • Horror-stricken Alexander couldn't do a thing to stop his partner.

  • Eduard, obviously, had lost his mind.

  • Everything changed at Valya station.

  • At 3:02am, when the runaway had already blown through the previous stop at Myslino, the

  • Valya station operator came up with the idea to cut the power on the line.

  • It was done just seconds before the multi-ton train sped past his station.

  • Even though the electricity had been successfully cut off, the train kept gaining speed because

  • it was going downhill.

  • Luckily, this descent turned into a steep incline about 5 miles (8 km) down the way,

  • and the train's speed started to drop.

  • At 3:45am, the train finally lost its forward momentum and came to a stop.

  • Alexander the assistant immediately saw his only chance to escape.

  • He jumped out of the cab and rushed toward the nearest station to report the incident.

  • Good thing he got out when he could because the train then started to roll back toward

  • Valya station!

  • Remember, it was now on a pretty steep hill.

  • Naturally, the engineer didn't apply the brakes, so the train rolled another 1 mile (1.6 km)

  • in the opposite direction before it came to a halt, this time for good.

  • When the police got to the train at 4:14am, they discovered the engineer on the floor,

  • completely out of it.

  • The delusional man was taken to the hospital for mental health treatment.

  • It was a shocking diagnosis, given that he’d passed his previous mandatory psych evaluation

  • in 2003.

  • Well, in any case, thanks to some fast thinking on that station operator’s part, this incident

  • didn’t turn into a catastrophe.

  • Had the train continued its crazed path to destruction, it wouldve made it to the

  • town of Tikhvin, population: 60,000.

  • Phew!

  • What a story!

  • But I’ve got another one for you, and this runaway train might sound a little more familiar.

  • Ever heard of theCrazy Eightsincident?

  • It happened on May 15, 2001 in northwest Ohio.

  • Locomotive #8888 (hence the nickname) was moving a string of 47 freight cars on the

  • WalbridgeKenton line.

  • Twenty-two of the cars were full, with two of them containing thousands of gallons of

  • an extremely hazardous and combustible industrial chemical: molten phenol.

  • If a person inhales or digests this stuff, or if it comes into contact with the skin,

  • the consequences won’t be pretty.

  • Things were going smoothly until the train's 35-year-old engineer noticed that one switch

  • was strangely misaligned.

  • The man decided that since the train was moving quite slowly, he’d have more than enough

  • time to get down, fix the switch, and climb right back up into his cabin.

  • But as it turned out later, that wasn't a great plan whatsoever.

  • Before the engineer left the cab, he’d set the wrong brake.

  • In other words, he didn’t hit the one that would keep all the cars locked in place.

  • But that wasn't the only problem.

  • When the man had applied the brakes, he automatically disabled the dead man's switch.

  • This switch can cut the engine power and stop the train if something were to happen to the

  • operator.

  • But these circumstances wouldn't have led to such a huge ordeal if it hadn't been for

  • the last, dire mistake.

  • When the engineer tried to switch a special brake that wouldve slowed the train down

  • to a crawl, he accidentally set the engine not to brake but to accelerate!

  • So, here’s the situation: youve got a super heavy freight train with hazardous chemicals,

  • one functioning brake that’s certainly not powerful enough to stop the whole train, and

  • the only human operator is about to disembark.

  • Hmm, let’s see what happens, shall we?

  • When the engineer got to the ground and aligned the switch, he immediately tried to get back

  • on board.

  • But the locomotive was already speeding up.

  • The train dragged the man for about 80 feet (25 m) before dumping him on the ground and

  • rolling out of the yard to start its 65-mile (105 km) journey.

  • On the one hand, the engineer was luckily mostly unscathed.

  • On the other hand, a stray train was running south at a speed of 51 miles per hour (82

  • kph) with no one at the controls!

  • You can imagine the turmoil that started as soon as the authorities found out about the

  • runaway.

  • At first, they tried to stop the train with the help of a portable derailer, but these

  • attempts failed.

  • Then the police started to shoot at the emergency switch, which serves to cut off the fuel supply.

  • That didn’t work either because the switch had to be pressed for at least a few seconds

  • before the fuel-starved engine would shut down.

  • It was then when dispatchers came up with a brilliant idea.

  • Locomotive #8391 would wait in ambush for the runaway #8888 to approach.

  • There were two crewmembers on that train: engineers Jess Knowlton and Terry Forson.

  • When the two of them saw the speeding runaway, the chase ensued.

  • Luckily, Knowlton and Forson managed to couple onto the freight train's rear car and began

  • to slow it down.

  • As soon as the runaway's speed dropped to 11 mph (18 kph), engineer Jon Hosfeld, who’d

  • been waiting up ahead, managed to climb into the cab and shut down the engine.

  • Later, it turned out that the heat and friction had completely destroyed the brakes on #8888

  • after they’d been in use during the whole trip.

  • Even though this incident gave everyone involved and the public quite a scare, it did end well.

  • And, boy, talk about teamwork makes the dream work!

  • Have you ever heard about any other runaway trains?

  • Let me know down in the comments!

  • If you learned something new today, then give this video a like and share it with a friend.

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  • Stay on the Bright Side of life!

Imagine: You're on a train, calm, relaxed, and enjoying your journey without a care in

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