Question: How does Connie have authority over the control room? Yardmasters are not in charge there. Yardmasters only have authority over the yards they are assigned to manage. A railroad employee higher ranked than a yardmaster is in charge of the control room. I don't know what his job is called. So how is Connie giving orders to the people in the control room when she wouldn't any have authority over them?
Question: Wouldn't it be easier if Stewart just attached his cab to 777 and any other qualified personnel with him just walked from Steward to 777 and took control of it, too easy perhaps? Or the welder could have someone with a BB gun in the back to shoot the famous "kill switch" next to fuel tank, instead of the cops trying to?
Answer: Put a man in the back of the truck with a broomstick and use it to push the fuel cut off switch as the truck drives alongside the train.
Question: In the scene where 777 is curving on the viaduct, is that the crew, with the video equipment and stuff?
Chosen answer: Yes, for the news crew they used the filming crew.
Question: Near the end, when Ned drives his truck alongside the train, why have Will (with an injured foot) jump to the truck and then carry him to jump back to the runaway train? No town has such a long stretch of parallel road. Why not save time and carry some other railroad worker directly to the engine of the runaway train?
Answer: Ned was already moving. He wouldn't have time to stop his truck, wait for someone to get in then gun it back up to speed to get in front of 777.
Question: They try to stop the runaway train by deploying another train in front of it and continuously braking. Instead of having a man come in from a helicopter, why not just have a man jump from the train in front onto the runaway train? (00:40:00 - 00:45:00)
Question: Is it likely that Dewey would have been subject to charges for the death of Judd Stewart? Although the failed plan technically wasn't his fault, the reason for it happening in the first place certainly was.
Chosen answer: Highly unlikely. Dewey's negligence is not a direct cause of Judd's death, as Judd had every opportunity to decline the mission. Judd's family could bring a civil suit against the train company and Dewey personally for wrongful death but even that is a long shot since Judd assumed the risk.
Question: Would the kind of field trip the kids were going on in the movie ever be allowed in real life?
Answer: Absolutely. I went on a similar one when I was at school. They are planned in advance to avoid service lines etc and schedules may need to be adjusted but it is possible. It's just unfortunate for movie purposes this one almost ended in disaster.
Question: Bunny says he needs track D-16 track cleared because there are students are going on a field trip on that track. What if a freight train had finished loading at the day the field trip was taking place, and they needed use track D-16 in order to reach its destination?
Question: How are locomotives able to pull such long trains? Triple 777 pulls a 39 car train, which can weigh thousands of tons when the cars are loaded.
Answer: In the same way locomotives pull long trains in real life. Diesel engines are built to pull the weight. When it gets to a certain point you might need 2 engines.
OK but what is the physics behind how locomotives are able to pull so much weight?
I'm not sure on the physics but a quick Google search comes up with: Trains are really heavy, but to move a train, you only have to overcome the friction between the wheels and the [axles]*. But since there are wheels, it's even easier to move it. Imagine a really heavy box. You'd have a very hard time lifting it, but you could shove it a few millimeters horizontally. [But instead of shoving it, you can make it roll!]* The same thing applies to a train. Now, since the train is so heavy, it takes a long time to get it moving, and to slow it down, due to [inertia].
I'm not sure of the physics, either, but it is my (basic) understanding that having the wheels as well as the rails made of steel minimizes? the friction. [Living in the suburbs of the "Steel City" helped to know this!] I'd clarify your answer above by pointing out a train is comprised of numerous small cars - as opposed to being one very long car - so is somewhat easier to "get moving."
Question: Aren't freight trains awfully loud in real life? Triple doesn't seem very loud in the movie.
Question: At the beginning the driver is running trying to get back on the locomotive. Why did he not wait until the back of the engine came up, jump on, then go to the front?
Answer: Two reasons. Firstly, it was human instinct to try to get on the front. Secondly, he knows it will be nigh on impossible to get on the back then work his way forward on a train that was half a mile long.
The question asks about hopping onto the rear step of the engine. Ned probably didn't think about this when he was going for the front and by the time he fell off, the locos had passed.
Question: When Frank and Will first came face-to-face with the runaway train, they moved their train onto a side track. Their last 1 or 2 cars did not clear the main track, and the other train hit them. But the end of the last car that was not knocked away must have incurred some damage. When Frank and Will later reversed their train to catch up to the runaway train, how could they connect to a bent coupler?
Question: When Gilleese sees the brake hoses are disconnected, why doesn't he just connect them there and then?
Answer: For intra-yard movements the automatic air brakes are supposed to be disconnected. The independent brake is what Dewey applied and is what is shown slipping out moments after he exits the train.
Question: Couldn't Dewey have just stopped the train, backed it up, and then changed the switch instead of hopping out of the cab?
Answer: He would have been able to, although he would have lost a considerable amount of time in doing so. However, the film was based on a true story where the engineer of CSX 888 noticed a misaligned switch and saw he wouldn't be able to stop in time, so he decided to get out of the cab to align the switch. He thought he set the locomotive up properly to make it safe to get out and back in, thus avoiding the need fully to stop and then back up. So it's not really a matter of what Dewy could have done differently since they were just following events has they had already occurred.
Question: How did the throttle lever slip from idle to full power? Throttle are notched, and built to require significant force to move to prevent that from happening.
Answer: It's a complicated answer that the movie somewhat glosses over but in the real life incident this film is based on, the engineer purposefully set the throttle at 100% believing that the dynamic braking system would slow the train. The dynamic brake was not properly set, however and this coupled with the fact the automatic air brake was not applied caused the train to slowly accelerate out of control. To read more, visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSX_8888_incident.
Dynamic does not work at the speed they were going in the yard.
It's possible that the throttle lever in the movie had a design flaw that allowed it slip.
Answer: Yeah, but it wouldn't be nearly as dramatic.