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An Engineer's perspective of the movie 'unstoppable'

posted 14 years ago by suntop007
50 replies | jump to latest

First, I must say that this was a very enjoyable movie well worth the time spent viewing. It does everything a movie should do, intrigue, engage, thrill, and hold your attention. I will dissect a few points but the reader should not take it as me just being critical. I have discussed with several with my co-workers who have seen this movie and we agree that this movie, at the very least increases the mystique and romance of trains and their crews. This movie is truly a "foamer's delight"!

I noticed on other threads the mention of forced early retirement of "Old Heads" like Denzel. The fictitious railroad they are working for was non-union. But the new guys are union and Chris Pine's character was a local chairman for the UTU - United Transportation Union, which I myself am a member of. When there is a renegotation of a work contract where union vs company vs old timers the old timers often do get forced out. The yellow jacket jokes in the movie are tongue in cheek of how newer employees of most major railroads must wear vests for the first 1-5 years.

I have in front of me the incident report of the runaway train the movie was loosely based on. Runaway CSX train May 15, 2001. Location - Stanley Yard in Toledo, Ohio. 3 man crew. CSX 8888 - 22 loads, 25 empties. Engineer failed to control movement to permit stopping in time to line switch, made the decision to dismount and run to line the switch. Engineer tried to remount the engine and his hands slipped off the grad irons and he fell to the ground. He was dragged approx 50 yards taking injuries to his legs and forehead. It travelled 71 miles before being stopped. In that time the train was shot at to try to trigger the fuel shutoff switch like in the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apsKBo8-zak and a manager eventually boarded the train to bring it to a stop. I watched the interview of this manager the next day on Good Morning America and he said he was "In my comfort zone" when he made the decision to attempt to board the train just like the welder in the movie did. They did attempt to derail it pretty much like they showed in the movie with a series of portable derailers which the train dissentigrated. There was no crew trying to slow it from the front or year. But hell, it makes a helluva good movie!

On to some discrepancies. It was obvious they shot several different endings for the movie, wonder why they made a big deal of the welder on TV at the end - the one who said he was in his comfort zone? Based on the "comfort zone" comment that was made by the RL hero of that day I would bet an alternate ending had Denzel and Chris Pine slowing the train down enough for the welder to jump on board and stop the train.

The scene where the engineer had two locomotives tag the front end to try to steady the speed while some unknown guy tries to rapelle to the locomotive was truly the hardest thing to swallow. If I had tagged my engines to the front of a runaway train, I'd put on some dynamic brakes to keep my locomotives flush against the lead of the runaway, then I'd casually saunter back thru the units and cross over to the cab of the runaway and stop it. We move between moving units over the road all of the time. It did make good suspense though. I thought it was a bit tacky that they have an engineer hero get killed off doing this move and not one thing mentioned in the later script about it at the end.

The politics of the yard master lady, the corporate manager, the CEO was all pretty much spot on, I hate to admit that. Too many times I have seen the big wigs override decisions of their working managers and employees for less than honorable reasons, the results are all too often worse than if they stayed out of it.

Great movie, it'll join my dvd collection that includes Silverstreak, Underseige 2 - Dark territory, and other rail movies I own.

[–] dudleydemon 14 years ago

A question for a bona fide American railroader. Don't American locomotives have a "dead man" system? In N.S.W., Australia, the driver has to press the "vigilance control" button every 90 seconds or so. If he fails, then the system assumes he is not in control and the train stops automatically. Various other systems are in use around the world but they all work on a similar principle.

Another question. What other train movies are on your list?

[–] dizzy_hampster 14 years ago

They mention this in the movie. Someone asked that very question and the reply was "There's a wand the engineer has to hit periodically or the air brakes are automatically applied. Unfortunately, this train's air brakes were disconnected." So in other words, the deadman system recognized there was nobody in the cab and tried to kick the air brakes in but was of course not effective.

[–] fireflyer40 13 years ago

Actually, I think what happened was that the halfwit who got off the train and let it roll away put the independent brake on full and left the throttle open. When the independent is on full, the alerter won't kick in, but the train will still move, albeit with a great deal of difficulty because of the resistance from the locomotive brakes. Eventually the brake lining will all burn off and away she goes.

[–] ontheweb 14 years ago

Thanks for the insight.

The dramatic license of the movie didn't bother me since they said "based on actual events." Movies are supposed to be dramatic and if they were totally factually accurate a lot of people would be asking
for them to put it back in. The only part that I thought was just too much to take though was when the train was rounding the corner and one one rail.

YOu say you guys change trains all the time when they are moving but are you changing trains
when they are going 70mph under life threatening conditions however? Just curious.

Thanks,
Al

[–] mochabean82 13 years ago

Yes but suntop said that the rails coming off the track was common at certain speeds...

"Paragon schnitzophonic."
"You mean a paranoid schizophrenic."
"Sure. Whatever."

WFE

[–] peterjerome8 14 years ago

Could a man walk on top of a train unaided while it was doing 70 miles an hour as denzil Washington did? I don't think so.

[–] sjmills1 13 years ago

I'd casually saunter back thru the units and cross over to the cab of the runaway and stop it.

They did the same thing in Silverstreak by pretending there is no way to get into the locomotive from the cars. In fact, I'm pretty sure some shots of the Silverstreak's slave engine actually showed it as having a solid nose with no door, even though the lead engine clearly does.

BTW, I'm sure End of the Line is in your collection. If not, it's the best train movie, IMO.

[–] PenTheater 13 years ago

WHAT ABOUT THE SWITCHING?

one train goes one way and another takes the other track?
From what I've seen on how a switch works, most are manual, and even if they were electronic, none could ever switch that fast.
am I right?

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dlamontjenkins 13 years ago

The movie is on HBO this month, so I am watching it for the first time now - and have watched it about three times this week! It was a good movie, and I thought it was a little more realistic than what one would think by reading some of the negative comments about it. Like someone else said, it was good to have someone with some knowledge of that field put it in perspective. And yeah, many of us, no matter what field you are in, can relate to those political routines that from we saw the yardmaster and corporate. So thanks much for writing this.

[–] milesdigby 13 years ago

I loved your review. It was very in depth and useful.

You really should do more. One of the funniest things I ever saw was way back, on David Letterman in 1983 when he had a real union welder review the movie "Flash Dance" it was incredibly funny. He hated Jennifer Biels welding technique "she is wearing metal buttons while welding that gives you flash eye" then he shows someone who is constantly doing this long blink thing. "Because the buttons flash light up under your welding mask".

After basically tearing the movie apart, Dave asks what did you think of the dancing. "She is an incredibly talented woman" also the "choreography was superb"(this is all said in very thick as his neck, Brooklyn accent).

So take your railroad knowledge to every movie that has a train in it. Could create a new kind of micro review for every movie.

Again thanks for the great review.