Unstoppable

Hey!  Both my wife and I liked the movie so much that we bought the DVD and watch it from time to time.  Perhaps the plot is unreal but there are some great train scenes.  It is just another fun fantasy movie.   NH Joe

The movie is based on a real-life event. However, the news clips from real-life indicate that the event was not nearly as exciting.

I liked the cops trying to shoot at a red button going 70 mph. They should have had Annie Oakly standing on the saddle of a galloping horse shooting a pistol. That would have been more realistic.

Great movie and very entertaining.

GVDobler posted:

The movie is based on a real-life event. However, the news clips from real-life indicate that the event was not nearly as exciting.

I liked the cops trying to shoot at a red button going 70 mph. They should have had Annie Oakly standing on the saddle of a galloping horse shooting a pistol. That would have been more realistic.

During the "real event", the consist was NOT going 70 MPH, and the police officer was indeed instructed to "Shoot at the red Emergency Fuel Shutoff button.". However, what the officer wound up actually shooting was the large red cap on the fuel fill fitting! At least they tried, but naturally the Hollywood types had to liven things up. 

Great movie and very entertaining.

Listen carefully, and you can hear Denzel utter the immortal phrase...couple knuckler..

yes I watch it everytime i see its on

rat

I know this movie has lots of scenes that are only possible in Movies, but my thoughts are because it’s about a runaway train, it’s fun to watch.  An engineer getting off the diesel trying to throw a switch/turnout, then slipping down and not able to get back to the Cab of the diesel, and the throttle going to full speed, is hokie. However, the scenes, the scenery, the path this train took, the fast pace of the movie was a Wow. Denzel Washington, a really good actor, made watching the movie exciting. The stories within the movie was also interesting, referring to the new brakeman with family issues. I’ve watched this movie many times and also purchased a copy of it. I am not a railroad employee, so I’m not making any complaints, just commenting on a fun to watch movie. Maybe there will be more railroad movies in the future. Great thread. Happy Railroading 

As a pilot, I have to accept the many incredibly stupid and unrealistic aviation scenes or I could not watch any movies.  Same with cars, ships, as well as trains.  Just sit back and enjoy it for what it is, a fantasy with trains.  My only complaint with this movie was there were no surprises.

It's a cartoon fun movie. My wife and I went with three railroad friends and all the way through I thought they are going to pick this movie apart. They all loved it. You can't take a movie like that and not think it's fun. Its was a roller coaster ride. We bought the blu-ray. Don

I love this movie and may very well watch it tonight in our viewing cycle.  No sports on TV so its DVD library, NetFlix, and Bravo (for the CEO) time.

That being said, part of me enjoying a movie is picking apart goofs and mistakes (discussed in another thread last month).  My favorite one in this movie is when the TV reporter is mentioning incredulously how fast that Denzel is driving the train backwards !! to catch up to the other train. Us train folk know that there is no forward or backwards in the locomotive and that they can go just as fast in either direction.

It's great chewing gum for the eyeballs - I always find it fun to watch.

Amfleet25124 posted:

My favorite one in this movie is when the TV reporter is mentioning incredulously how fast that Denzel is driving the train backwards !! to catch up to the other train.

The big "say what" for me was the stupidity of the emergency stop switch.  They managed to drive right next to the locomotive multiple times, but nobody thought to just reach out from the speeding truck and punch the button, job done!

That was only one of them, there were more.

Amfleet25124 posted:

I love this movie and may very well watch it tonight in our viewing cycle.  No sports on TV so its DVD library, NetFlix, and Bravo (for the CEO) time.

That being said, part of me enjoying a movie is picking apart goofs and mistakes (discussed in another thread last month).  My favorite one in this movie is when the TV reporter is mentioning incredulously how fast that Denzel is driving the train backwards !! to catch up to the other train. Us train folk know that there is no forward or backwards in the locomotive and that they can go just as fast in either direction.

 That is a darn good movie', and Denzel is one of my favorites'.. It is being recorded as we speak.  I can't believe it came out 2010, the last time I watched it'......

I like Runaway Train with Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, and Rebecca De Mornay.

Fun to watch. Trains and Denzel. Unstoppable combination!

Ed

Well, Vicky and I will be watching a lot of movies for the next two weeks. We went to the docs today not feeling well. He did some tests and sent samples to the lab. Then put us in quarantine for two weeks. Friends up the street are going to get food for us and leave it at the door. What fun. Don

I get a kick out of watching "Unstoppable". I was working at Buckeye Yard in Hilliard, Ohio the afternoon that event took place in real life.  The train was heading south unmanned on the Toledo branch and we were hoping that it would be derailed or stopped before it got to us. I recall the yardmaster cleared a track "just in case" but as it turned out a road foreman was able to stop it outside of Kenton as it climbed a gradual grade. As Jack pointed out it didn't get close to 70 MPH, and an officer of the Ohio State Patrol did kill the fuel filler cap!  I will never for get the engine number though CSX 8888. I saw it a few times afterward and it always gave me the creeps to be around it. The guys I worked with appreciated the movie for what it was " just plain entertainment"!  Doug

scale rail posted:

Well, Vicky and I will be watching a lot of movies for the next two weeks. We went to the docs today not feeling well. He did some tests and sent samples to the lab. Then put us in quarantine for two weeks. Friends up the street are going to get food for us and leave it at the door. What fun. Don

 Best of luck' we'll be rooting for you'... hope you feel better soon'...

penn station posted:

I like Runaway Train with Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, and Rebecca De Mornay.

That movie had a pathetic ending! 

Personally would rather watch the 1976 Silver Streak with Gene Wilder and the inimitable Richard Pryor. Fantasy train scenes here too but much more entertaining!

The movie certainly serves to emphasize the power and speed of trains. Perhaps if more people watched it, they would think to be more careful around tracks and trains.

Nothing will ever come close to “Disaster on the Coastliner”!  

Jon  

I beg to differ KOOLjock...but even Dan Tana could not save The Final Run

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Run_(1999_film)

Tinplate Art posted:

Personally would rather watch the 1976 Silver Streak with Gene Wilder and the inimitable Richard Pryor. Fantasy train scenes here too but much more entertaining!

Only the last 5 minutes. The rest of it makes for a good nap

I watch it because it was filmed in Bellaire Ohio.  I live south of Bellaire and my commute to work takes me through Bellaire.  I alway stop at Krogers to gas up the truck and when they were filming in Bellaire got to see a lot of action. The final chase scene was filmed in Martins Ferry Ohio and I got to see that being filmed.  Yea, I suspend belief and enjoy the movie when it is on.

The runaway locos were GE's.  What would happen if somebody put shot a hole on one of the compressed air tanks.  Would a leak thete cause the brake system to go into emergency?

It's funny, I had just "eyeballed" that video on my bookcase yesterday.  Sounds like it might be time to watch it again -- for the excitement and the gaffs.  I, too, like the Ohio location.

TRRR

(Don, will be thinking of you.)

Gabe and I were in Gulla’s for lunch and one of the film crew asked us all to stay in the restaurant for about half an hour while they filmed the stone bridge scenes. The helicopter pilots really were making insane moves between the train and one of the old brick buildings. The crew member was also watching from inside and told us the pilots were combat vets.

Tom wasn’t retired yet and he worked at the north end of Bellaire, so he got to see a lot of equipment go by. His co-workers ran into Denzel Washington, who was very nice to them.

I liked the movie, had the usual things I like, stupidity of  corporate beancounters, trains, etc. To be honest with movies you have to suspend disbelief most of the time, movies are about the story and furthering it, not realism. I have worked most of my adult life  in the securities industry and automated trading/order flow systems, and movies centered around the industry to create dramatic tension show things that never existed or are impossible....but again, it is drama. The last movie I saw, Ford Vs Ferrari, was an incredible popcorn movie but it has a lot of things  in it that didn't happen or are stretches of the truth, but in the end many of them made it a more enjoyable movie. 

Dominic Mazoch posted:

The runaway locos were GE's.  What would happen if somebody put shot a hole on one of the compressed air tanks.  Would a leak thete cause the brake system to go into emergency?

All they really had to do was put a crewman on the rear of the SD's trying to stop the train from the front, have him cross over and enter the cab.  Far less risky than Chris Pine trying to board the runaways from a pick-up truck.

Rusty

The "Making of...." short film is worth a watch. Denzel on top of the train with a harness was pretty gutsy. The helicopter pilots earned their keep as well.

Another thought.  Modern locomotives used wheel slip controls.  Do some or all use radar which gets a read off the ballast?  I think the first EMD Super Series locomotives did.  Anyway if radar is used, could police using radar guns, aim at the locomotive radar, and cause it to jam up?

Dominic Mazoch posted:

Another thought.  Modern locomotives used wheel slip controls.  Do some or all use radar which gets a read off the ballast? 

The EMD "Super Series" adhesion control system used a radar transceiver, and except for some GP40X units, that system first began with the 50 Series units.

I think the first EMD Super Series locomotives did. 

Yes, i.e. the 50 Series.

Anyway if radar is used, could police using radar guns, aim at the locomotive radar, and cause it to jam up?

No.

Dominic Mazoch posted:

Another thought.  Modern locomotives used wheel slip controls.  Do some or all use radar which gets a read off the ballast?  I think the first EMD Super Series locomotives did.  Anyway if radar is used, could police using radar guns, aim at the locomotive radar, and cause it to jam up?

I would doubt police radar have the power, they probably have less power than your typical microwave oven.   Plus, police radar guns are probably a different frequency than what the locomotives use. 

I would wager a locomotive's adhesion control system would be located to mitigate possible interference from trackside influences.

Rusty

Rusty Traque posted:

... police radar guns are probably a different frequency than what the locomotives use.

I get a quick burst of K or Ka radar on my detector with passing diesels on the Water Level Route.

From “News & Editorial Comment,” David P. Morgan, editor. Trains, March 1967, pg. 16.

“Heroes never fade away—just ask the Mopac”

The romanticists will tell you that the brave engineer was retired with the steam locomotive, that so-called automated railroading has abolished the breed. Not so. Missouri Pacific’s 49-year-old T. A. Perry Jr. is a brave engineer, and he proved as much aboard a diesel yard engine at Poplar Bluff, Mo., on October 30, 1966. At 12:30 a.m. a four-unit freight locomotive got away from its hostler and came off a service track under full power toward Perry’s switcher. Perry sounded a warning, realized there was no one aboard the runaway, rammed his throttle wide open, and started north up the main, sandwiched between the runaway behind him and No. 67—an 81-car freight—approaching in the opposite direction. (Unknown to Perry, a quick-thinking engine foreman alerted the dispatcher, who radioed 67’s crew to stop and unload.) Once out of town and on tangent track, Perry eased off the switcher’s throttle, let the runaway catch up and couple (at an impact of 20 to 25 mph), then left his engine to climb along the running boards of the trailing hoods (which were doing 40mph) and shut down each one’s engines. Not easy for a man of Perry’s 5-foot, 8-inch, 235-pound size. He got ‘em stopped, just 2 miles from No. 67, radioed for assistance, and returned to Poplar bluff to finish his yard trick. To Perry’s surprise, Mopac President D. B. Banks sent a congratulatory letter and a $1000 U.S. Savings Bond. Perry appreciated the letter (“That’s so when I tell my grandchildren about it I’ll have something to prove it wasn’t just a tall tale”) but was amazed by the bond. Said he: “I did nothing that any other man would not have done in the same situation.”