Did anybody see Unstoppable yet?


Any movie will take ficticious license to "make the movie".
I have no intention of going to see a movie about a runaway train just because it has a train in it.
MAYBE I will see it when it comes on TV.
________
LovelyWendie99
 
Last edited by a moderator:
On CSX 8888, the Alerter was present and functioning. However, when the Engineer set the air brake pressure to 20psi, it nullified the Alerter by making the Alerter assume that the engineer was in the cab applying the brakes. The engineer did this, as well as added some throttle to allow the train to enter an "autoengineer" state, without picking up too much speed, allowing the engineer to dismount the train (supposedly a common, but discouraged practice). However, the switch was not set properly, allowing the locomotive to enter the mainline. The engineer was unable to climb back on the train, and the train eventually lost all it's brakes.

Info found @ http://kohlin.com/CSX8888/z-final-report.htm under "Conclusions".

I plan on taking the wife to see the movie sometime this week.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I saw unstoppable today with my wife, who is not a train fan. We both enjoyed it. Its a great 'popcorn flick' with lots of action and a few explosions. The active was surprisingly good too. Its not going to win 'best picture' or anything, but its a fun movie.

As for the dead man switch, the explanation from the movie is that the dead man switch sets the trains air brakes, but the air wasn't connected, so no brakes. How realistic that is, I don't know.

Just remember, this is a FICTIONAL action movie, NOT a documentary. And the dead man switch is a minor fiction compared to some of the rest of the movie!
 
mtrpls said:
Athearn, most likely, in the "fantasy" line-up. I was thinking about doing the locomotives myself, but would rather avoid investing the time and money into creating custom decals and custom painting when I have a gut feeling Athearn is going to surprise us sometime soon. This goes for the Prixton Chemicals tank cars too.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing while watching the movie.
 
I ran a loco that had the deadman disconnected,(not a class one RR by any means), so the engineer could climb out front and lift the cut bars on the grade then climb back in and reverse to "kick" the cars.
I bitched about that for some time but was up against an old union man.
The loco is still around but now running on a dead line.
I'm going to go see the movie with a couple of buddies, we'll see how it goes.
 
SP4439 said:
I was thinking the same thing while watching the movie.
Click to expand...

Thats funny so was I. LOL. I saw the movie last night and enjoyed it. ya, it has its "that could not really happen" moments, but its a movie, not a documentary.
 
Mouse said:
I saw it last night. Pretty good film as anticipated. Whos gonna be first to model the 777 or 1206?? =)
Click to expand...

CP9302 said:
John on Diesel Detailer already did some AWVR SD40-2s

http://dieseldetailer.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=pro1&thread=3278&page=1

Nice to hear some good things about the movie. I need to find time to got see it.
Click to expand...

I was going to say. I know I seen somewhere on the net, of someone already modeling the locomotives last year when all the home footage of filming was hitting youtube. Im supprised Microscale hasnt announced a decal set for them.

Not only that, im also supprised Trains magazine hasnt done a feature on the equipment involved in the unstoppable train.
 
Trivia
Ironically, a train used during filming accidentally derailed in Bridgeport, Ohio on November 21, 2009. No one was injured in the incident, and production was halted for the remainder of the day.
 
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

Oh5oh said:
Saw it this evening. Entertaining movie in that it has constant action and lots of good railroad shots. Predictable storyline. Thing that spoiled a lot of the enjoyment for me was the occasional blatant suspension of the laws of physics.
Click to expand...

Yes. If the 777 was running "in excess of 75 miles per hour" (or even 71 as they cop found out on his radar gun) then how does an SD40 going 55mph catch up to it?


CP9302 said:
John on Diesel Detailer already did some AWVR SD40-2s

http://dieseldetailer.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=pro1&thread=3278&page=1

Nice to hear some good things about the movie. I need to find time to got see it.
Click to expand...

But 1206 is an SD40, not an SD40-2. Denzel also forgot to turn the rear headlight ditch lights off while traveling forward :D (he had them both on full)

They dubbed in the throttle-up sound of a geep for 777 because the two GEs didn't throttle up as noticeably as the EMDs, and they dubbed in the sound of that same geep for the SD40. (I only heard 4 clanks instead of 6 when it was going over the joints!)

Oh, and I liked watching the two ex-KCS SD40-2s blow up. It was sad to see the engineer killed. He looks like he's either an engineer in real life or he did a good job acting one. (no SD40-2s were harmed in the making of the movie :D)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Saw the movie, and enjoyed it.

But I'm wondering about not setting the air.

Wouldn't the freight car brake shoes then be full if no air?

I always thought that air releases the brakes and if the air goes out or a hose connection comes loose will cause the brake shoes to contact the wheels.

So how did 777 start pulling the cars if all their brakes had been full since the air was never connected? Brute force?

Is my interpretation of air brakes completely wrong?


I also doubt Athearn will make models of 777 or 1206 or any other movie loco. They would need special licensing to do it. While not impossible, I doubt they would seek such a license for a potentially small seller.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The way air brakes works is that the locomotive's compressor charges the brake cylinders on the freight cars. The air pressure in the hose keeps the cylinders charged. When an engineer brakes, the air in the cylinders release air into the pipes connected to the brake shoes. When the engineer dumps the air as in emergency braking, all of the air from the cylinders are dumped onto the brake shoes stopping the train.

However, if the cars are sitting in the yard, the air will bleed out slowly. Eventually, the pressure in the system is the same as the surrounding air. When this happens, and the cylinders are not recharged, the cars cannot brake.

In a rail yard, they either hook up a yard air hose for longer cuts, or for shorter cuts, they set the hand brakes. (brake wheels). In common practice, they do not hook up the air hoses when switching cars, they simply release the hand brakes, and move slowly. The reason why 777 (or in real life, CSX 8888) ran away was because the engineer thought he was dynamic braking but throttled up instead.
 
Saw the movie yesterday and I loved it. Yah, there were some little things that made me go "Oh yah, it's just a movie". It was predictable, but the rest was good. The one thing that really bugged me, after 777 slammed into the horse trailer, they had the driver's left side ditch light out. Then after about 2 more front shoots of 777, all the rest would show the driver's right side ditch light out. When it comes out on Blu-Ray, I'll check it out.



MyReadingSig.png
 
I saw it last night and loved it - and so did my wife, whom I had to practically drag to the theater. The on e part that bothered me was when the two units got in front of the train to slow it, and they tried to helicopter the guy in....really? Just have two engineers on the power up front, and one of 'em runs back, hops onto 777 and applies the brakes - end of story. I mean, there's a friggin' walkway for cryin out loud!
 
Your post about the helicopter reminded me of a part in the move that really bugged me.

The "news" chopper that you see throughout the movie is way too low, and I mean way too low. They typically stay higher up to gain any benefit of autorotation if something goes wrong.


And you are so right about using the walkway. In the 1985 movie runaway train, there was an F unit in the consist that prevented using walkways (and the nose door was jammed), but in Unstoppable there are usable walkways throughout.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Finally saw the movie. It was very good, although at times somewhat unrealistic. But the point of any movie is to entertain and it did that very well. Will definitely get it on DVD when it comes out though.
 
nwdrummer379 said:
I went and saw it last night. I really liked the way they filmed it and Denzel/Pine did a good job. I don't want to ruin it for anyone but one thing I will put out that I didn't like was the way the identified the trains by locomotive number. A good amount was filmed at Brewster yard and it was pretty neat knowing that I stood on the exact same turn table that Denzel Washington did :D
Click to expand...


That's all I know trains by... out here on the KCS they only talk about locomotive numbers.... I dont know if QC25EW went by, but yea, I saw TFM3083 West pass by a few minutes ago, so I know I'm safe now, 'cuz the dispatcher told me so...
 
Lightstorm said:
Finally saw the movie. It was very good, although at times somewhat unrealistic. But the point of any movie is to entertain and it did that very well. Will definitely get it on DVD when it comes out though.
Click to expand...

Assuming that DVDs haven't gone obsolete by the time it comes out :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top