A Train Almost Destroyed a Town When the Engineer Lost His Mind

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 nightmare – you’re on a runaway train!
It was a cold winter night on January 11, 2004. 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, the engineer was nowhere to be seen. They eventually got hold of Eduard, and the engineer simply said that he’d overslept. 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…
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TIMESTAMPS:
There was one odd thing... 1:12
The engineer violates the rules 2:41
Physical threats 3:45
Unscheduled route 4:34
What made the train to stop 5:07
Insane engineer 6:21
“Crazy Eights” incident 7:02
#trains #danger #brightside
Music by Epidemic Sound
SUMMARY:
- 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.
- After the train left the loading station, the engineer broke protocol once more by refusing to check if the brake system was working correctly.
- As the train came toward the railway haul Volkhovstroy 2 – Kukol’, the station operator reported that there was another train approaching the station. Alexander the assistant 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.
- At 2:58am, the train blew through the red light at Kukol’ station, careened on a totally unscheduled route, and dashed toward the main track.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Had the train continued its crazed path to destruction, it would’ve made it to the town of Tikhvin, population: 60,000.
- It happened on May 15, 2001 in northwest Ohio. Locomotive #8888 (hence the nickname) was moving a string of 47 freight cars on the Walbridge – Kenton line.
- 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.
- Before the engineer left the cab, he’d set the wrong brake.
- When the engineer tried to switch a special brake that would’ve slowed the train down to a crawl, he accidentally set the engine not to brake but to accelerate!
- 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.
- 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.
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