CSX's Runaway Train: The Crazy Eights Incident

Runaway trains are never a good thing to have roaming the rails. A derailment with so much speed, power, and weight behind them could lead to disastrous consequences. While it has happened before, it's also been prevented. On what was an ordinary day in Walbridge, Ohio on May 15th, 2001, CSX would experience a runaway train incident that would go down in infamy. With two carloads of hazordous and flammable chemicals onboard, the situation was made far worse. Many people know it as the "Crazy Eights".

Music Used:
Yakuza Kiwami 2 - Enforcer Menu
Yakuza 4 - Mood of Disquiet
Yakuza Kiwami - Renewed Unrest
Sonic 06 - Egg Cerberus & Egg Genesis
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - King Dedede
Yakuza 0 - Interplanetary Spark
Yakuza 0 - You Need Me, To What!?
Yakuza 0 - Substory Guitar Riff

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[AmtrakGuy]

Hey there, thanks for watching the video and the amazing support on it! I just wanted to clarify something regarding the control stand and me mentioning the engineer "mixed up the controls". A few people have commented that 8888 had a combined throttle+brake handle and they weren't separate as I showed in the video. In my research I don't recall reading anything about the engine being equipped with a combined handle. If I did, I assumed it was an error as I thought combined handles weren't a thing on locomotives like an SD40-2, I figured those were reserved for desktop style controls on newer or widecab locomotives. In other words, it wasn't that the engineer mixed up the controls in a panic as I mentioned in the video, rather he didn't properly set the brakes with the combined handle. That's my mistake if I was wrong, sorry about that!

[ConrailQuality]

The sheriff attempting to shoot the fuel cut-off system is the most American way to stop a train.

[haxorouse]

I do want to point out that the engineer did not use the wrong handle in applying the dynamic brakes, at the time of the incident 8888 was fitted with an older style of control stand where the throttle was also used as the dynamic brake selector, where the dynamic brake handle is now there was a manual transition lever which aren't present at all on modern locomotives, the engineer failed to properly transition into dynamic braking mode, which given the time pressure and finicky nature of the transition lever(they don't have notches, but instead move one position for each movement of the handle all the way forward or backwards and in order to move to the next position you have to recenter the handle and move it all the way forward or backwards again) is understandable, in the aftermath of this incident all CSX locomotives still fitted with the old control stands having a manual transition lever had their control stands replaced with more modern ones having separate levers for throttle and dynamic brakes

[mteronyoutube]

i like the part when they said "the train unstoppable" and then chris pines unstopped all over the place

[Jubin]

Unstoppable has been my favorite movie ever since I was little. I never knew it was based off a real incident

[redrock]

I loved unstoppable, but I saw it in theaters with my locomotive engineer dad. When it got to the S curve part my dad was like I can’t take this anymore. He then proceeded to explain what would really happen in that scenario.

[NOLJAK]

I remember hearing about this story and watching the movie unstoppable! Pretty scary situation but I’m glad it was able to end well.

[Trains-With-Shane]

One of the best mini documentaries of the 8888 incident i've seen. Good editing and narration as always! I need to watch Unstoppable again. Good movie.

[Nitroispro]

Its a shame that 8888 was converted into a Sd40-3 because I would've really liked to see the locomotive that inspired one of my most favorite movies of my time 😮‍💨

[fluffnose]

No matter how many times I hear the story, it’s always fascinating

[forsonchildren]

Hello Amtrak guy this is Terry Forson hard to believe it's been 22 years ago. I am still working for CSX. Jesse is retired and so is John. Good vidoe

[nathancorcoran]

Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the CSX 8888 incident. Great video of this event back in May 15th 2001. Also I have seen the movie Unstoppable back then that was inspired by this event in 2010.

[davidrayner]

Engineer of 40 years here. Good explanation and almost correct about how the throttle and dynamic brake are linked. Close enough for the average person. What irks me about the Unstoppable film is that they used a later model loco with entirely different controls that can't do what the engineer on 8888 did so they had it take itself out of DB and into power all by itself, as if moved by an invisible hand, after 'Dewey' was out of the cab. Why not just use the correct type of loco and have Dewey do what the real engineer did? They can't say they didn't have one available because the chase loco was of that type.

[Ko-Rail]

Correction: The Dynamic Brakes and Throttle were controlled by the same lever. There was a switch to change the setting between Braking and Accelerating.

[myesenc]

The movie Unstoppable was filmed about 3 miles from my house.

[AmtrakFlareon]

My dad actually rode former locomotive star 1206 since he’s an employee for the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway that helped make the film!

[raulmatiascasaszavala]

Excellent video and just for the CSX 8888 Anniversary day. I hope you will also make a video of the forgotten 1962 New York Central GP-20 Runaway Train incident, which was the inspiration for the 1985 film Runaway Train.

[miot_coolguy]

5:06 imagine being on your way to work when a single locomotive goes through a crossing at notch 8

[zodarian]

This makes the movie even more enjoyable to me. It was already in my opinion the best Runaway Train movie ever made and I've seen quite a few but this fact just knocked it out of the park for me going to have to watch it again

[smcnishdroid]

I remember this very well, I used to work in a manufacturing plant along this CSX line. I can remember the plant manager telling everyone to evacuate the building. I remember he came into the area I was working, said to evacuate and as he was telling me this the train went flying by. We looked at each other. I asked if I still had to evacuate… lol.