What Happened to This Runaway Train?

The Santa Fe passenger train incident at Los Angeles' Union Station marked a dramatic chapter in the history of railway transportation. On that fateful day, the train, bound for its destination, encountered a catastrophic failure in its braking system, rendering it unable to stop as it approached the station platform. With its momentum unchecked, the train crashed through a concrete barrier, shattering the tranquility of the station's concourse. The deafening roar of metal meeting concrete echoed through the halls as panic ensued among passengers and bystanders. Miraculously, despite the chaos and destruction, there were no fatalities. However, the incident left an indelible mark on the collective consciousness, serving as a sobering reminder of the inherent risks associated with rail travel and prompting a renewed focus on safety protocols within the industry. In the aftermath of the event, rigorous investigations were launched, leading to the implementation of enhanced safety measures and the tightening of regulations to prevent such occurrences in the future. This historic incident at Union Station stands as a testament to the resilience of both the railway system and the human spirit, underscoring the imperative of continual vigilance in ensuring the safety of passengers and personnel alike.

IT’S HISTORY - Weekly Tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.

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» CREDIT
Scriptwriter - Dillan Aultimate,
Editor - Karolina Szwata,
Host - Ryan Socash
Music/Sound Design: Dave Daddario

» NOTICE
Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only - always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word/spelling mistakes - retractions will be published in this section.

[Josh-yrgd]

The date of the first runaway train (Santa Fe) was not mentioned in this video. It occured on January 25, 1948.

[jdubs]

The locomotive on the Federal was a GG-1.

[adave]

1:00 A Super Chief locomotive would not be connected to an El Capitan passenger train. Those were two separate train names. And it’s El Capitan, not El Captain.
1:28 The brakes on the locomotive failed. I doubt the brakes on the entire Santa Fe failed.

[jaykay]

Looks like someone needed more....TRAINING.

[paulw.woodring]

I was in on bringing GG1 4876 to the B&O Museum in the 1990s. What Ryan related as the post-crash history of that motor is what everyone long thought happened. Recent research by some Pennsylvania Railroad historians now leads experts to believe that what the railroad meant by "rebuilt" is that some components of the locomotive were salvaged, and since it was not that old, they were not just going to write it off as a total loss, so they took a new frame and mostly new body and other new or spare components and put them back together with the parts that were salvaged from the wreck to put "A" 4876 back into service, but nowhere near most of the original unit.

[YouSimon]

No. 19 was the engine number, not the train number. The Super Chief was train No 17.

[PowerTrain]

"Ah jeez man, the president is gonna be here! What are we gonna do?"

"Just put it in the basement."

"IT'S AN 80 FOOT LONG, 475, 000 POUND LOCOMOTIVE BUD, TF YOU MEAN"

"JUST DO IT."

[stevehansen]

I grew up in San Gabriel, a few miles from Union Station. I was five years old when the El Capitan got away. I happened to be in Los Angles was with my Aunt Lois the day that it all happened. I distinctly remember passing Union Station on the way home and got a good look at the locomotive protruding through the wall. For many years you could where the wall was repaired.

[sped]

That one where the train landed on the escalator, it sounds to me like the operator there got railroaded. They say that she was a fill in, that she worked 10 of the past 11 days, and that the hours that she worked should have had no influence on her ability to safely operate the train. One of the problems I have with that is that just because she had the previous 18 hours off, that isn't enough time to recover and get adjusted to a normal routine. It doesn't take long to get out of whack when you're working irregular hours, but recovery time is far more, often taking several days of regular sleep patterns to get back to normal. I know, because I worked goofed out hours like that for many years. 18 hours off absolutely isn't nearly enough time, even if she had slept all the way through, which she definitely didn't. She still has a life to live and things to do in her time off besides sleep. The blame was just shifted to her because CTA had fucked up hours for some of their employees and they just didn't care enough about those employees to assure that they had ample time off to recharge before they went to work the next time. They really doubled down on excaiming that her work schedule had absolutely no bearing on why she fell asleep at the wheel, going as far as saying that she made phone calls and sent text messages when she should have been sleeping, which incedentally is none of their fucking business, but they sure hurried to implement new rules for when their drivers are and aren't allowed to work and how much time off they're required to take off before their next shift. Yeah, they really went out of their way to throw her under the bus, or train, as it were, and heap 100% of the blame on her, when in reality, it was actually 100% THEIR fault for having her work fill-in anytime someone else wasn't able to work their regularly scheduled shift.

[TrainfanJanathan]

Transportation operators keep falling asleep at the controls because the companies keep cheating with the rules. They know you're supposed to be off duty for 8 consecutive hours, but they never factor in the time it takes to drive home, cook dinner, eat dinner, go to sleep, get ready for work, and drive back to work.

When I first started as a city bus driver, I had a route that started at 16:00, then ended at 02:00, then I had to show up the following morning by 08:00. I was woken up at 08:00 by a manager asking me where I was. I didn't know that I was scheduled to be there that early, because I didn't even know it was possible to schedule someone to be at work without 8 hours of sleep. I thought that was illegal. Had I known I was scheduled to be there at 8, I would've had to get up at 6 to be ready in time. I would've only had 4 hours of sleep.

All of their Sunday runs are like this. They have you finishing late in the evening, but you have to be up really early the following morning. On my regular route, I finish at 17:00, but have to wake up at 02:00 the next morning to be ready for my run that starts at 04:15. I was so tired and cranky, that I started not taking a shower on Mondays, just to get slightly more sleep at night.

The funny thing is, if you tell them that you can't show up because you're too tired, that counts as a sick day, but if you get in an accident due to sleep deprivation, they won't hesitate to "throw you under the bus."

[KyrilPG]

There's a very famous one that happened in Paris' Gare Montparnasse in 1895.
The train overshot the tracks' end buffers, plowed through 100ft of the station concourse (which tracks were elevated), the locomotive perforated the thick front of the station's building and fell to the ground nose first, while the rest of the train still hanged from the elevated platforms.
The photos of the accident are known the world over.
It was pictured anachronically and in a romanticized way in Scorsese's "Hugo" (the movie is set in the inter-war period, around the early 30's).

Sadly, the original station no longer exists, it has been displaced by a few hundred meters and rebuilt with modern architecture, and a skyscraper now sits where the original station was.
The accident photo also ended up as the cover of Mr Big's album Lean Into It and several books.

[trainglen]

It wasn't 173. That's the train number. It was locomotive 4876 that was covered, cut into pieces and rebuilt.

[dckatyx]

You left out the famous 1976 Silver Streak runaway into Chicago’s Central Station. A number of famous people were involved in that disaster.

[trainnerd]

Am I the only one who feels that “Silver streak“ should have been given an honorable mention? Cool video! Great pictures!

[goldie]

For reference, the Federal Express was traveling at 35mph at the time of impact

[markpalaszewski]

The Sante Fe locomotive was an F unit, I think an F7 but not sure. The paint scheme was called the Warbonnet.

[blazinjay]

That's not called a lead car. It's a Locomotive

[ThePTBRULES]

Train Numbers and Locomotive Numbers are different.... Any locomotive can power a assigned train. E.g Train 173, titled "Federal Express" was Power that day by GG-1 #4876. They didn't leave Train number 173 in the floor, they left the locomotive 4876 under the floor because they couldn't removed her in time and remove the rest of the consist, the passenger cars, away.

[brj_han]

Here's a fun fact about CTA accidents. Everyone knows if a CTA bus or train has an accident, there's going to be payouts. So if a bus or train accident happens, there's always more passengers on the train or bus *after* the accident than *during* the accident.

It was a common problem finally becoming a joke. The first thing investigators had to do was determine if the person on the accident vehicle was actually in the vehicle when it was in an accident.

I'm sure it wasn't limited to Chicago. But it sure happened a lot, lol....

[travist.]

In September 1972, the first line of the new BART system, opened in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the time, this new system was considered revolutionary, because of its computer-controlled trains. Less than a month after the opening, the computer glitched, sending a train off the end of the track. A train was entering the Fremont terminal, when the computer caused it to accelerate, rather than brake. The train crashed through the end bumper, and the lead car went down the embankment. No one was killed, but several people were injured.