On May 15, 2001, an experienced freight engineer steps down from his locomotive in a rural Ohio rail yard to fix a misaligned switch. He's done this kind of work for thirty-five years, the train is creeping along at walking pace, and he'll be back on board in seconds. Then everything goes wrong. Join Alice and Zach for the story of CSX 8888 — a three-thousand-ton freight train carrying tank cars of toxic chemicals that runs loose through northwestern Ohio with nobody at the controls, and the ordinary railroaders who have to figure out how to stop it before it reaches the next town. This is the story Hollywood turned into the movie Unstoppable, with all the parts they left out.

Sources:

• "Runaway Train" by William M. Hendryx — Reader's Digest, March 2002
• "A 3,000-Ton Locomotive Was Loose, Unstoppable, and Filled with Toxic Cargo" by Jesse Hicks — Popular Mechanics
• "CSX's Runaway Train: The Crazy Eights Incident" — AmtrakGuy365 (YouTube)
• "Ordinary Railroaders Stop Deadly Runaway Train: The Crazy Eights Incident" — Fascinating Horror (YouTube)
• "CSX 8888 — Crazy Eights" by Dan Robie — WVNC Rails
• Federal Railroad Administration incident memo, May 2001
• Contemporary news coverage from CNN, the Los Angeles Times, and CBS News
• EPA emergency response documentation on phenol-related rail incidents

Find FINAL BOARDING CALL online:

• Website: finalboardingcallpodcast.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @FinalBoardingCallPod
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Credits: Final Boarding Call is hosted by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas, researched and written by Alice Stern, produced and edited by Alice Stern and Zach Stemas.