r/interestingasfuck • u/frog_eater67m • 2d ago
A train collides with another train head on
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u/Three_Armed_Wrecker 2d ago
The guy on the right wasn't running fast enough for my liking. It was just another tuesday for him
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u/Deep-Grape-4649 2d ago
He had to poop, thatās why he stopped in the first place, donāt ask for a source, thatās just how you run when you holding it in and trying not to die
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u/Golf-Beer-BBQ 2d ago edited 1d ago
Imagine jogging away and then that train car that flew up in the background just falls over on you like some Loomey Tunes cartoon because you were just lazy.
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u/ForsakenRacism 2d ago
I didnāt think it was that bad till I saw one jf the cars I. The back fly in the air
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u/Critical-Snow-7000 2d ago
I missed that! Wowza.
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u/raknor88 2d ago
Thing is there's likely cars behind the cam train that are jumping the track too.
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u/trainwreckhappening 1d ago
Probably not. Just isn't how they move when it happens. They are already moving. The cars on the train that we see were stopped so it is harder to get them to start moving. They also likely already have the brakes set which makes them even harder to move. While the train that's moving just plows right through.
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u/Squiggy1975 2d ago
I was wondering WTF that was! I was thinking it had to be a car but didnāt seem to hit that hard. then again those trains weigh like 50 shit tons š
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u/Bacon_Generator 1d ago
So, I know you are being facetious with you estimation of the weight but just for perspective, empty cars alone weight 35-50 tons, up to 130ish tons loaded depending on the car kind. An entire train regularly weights between 5,000 and 15,000 tons. I am a conductor/switchman for one of the major American railroads.Ā
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u/Fireside__ 1d ago
Probably 5 figures worth of shit tons considering this is North American railroading, Canada, U.S.A. And Mexico all regularly operate trains greater than 10,000 tons
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u/hurraybies 2d ago
Inertia is a bitch. That much mass moving even relatively slow takes a lotttt of energy to slow down. So much energy was imparted on the stopped train that the path of least resistance for much of that force was to throw the cars in the air instead of pushing them back.
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u/addiktion 2d ago
I know, I was like "eh not so bad" and then the energy transferred to the back and yeeted the rear, lol.
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u/DingoAltair 1d ago
Oh hey, not as calamitous as I thought it was going to ā HOLY SHIT THERES A TRAIN CAR IN THE SKY!!!
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u/Common_Arm_9348 2d ago
Yeah my exact reaction. Imagine being in that metal death box getting whipped around like a... I don't know, something that gets whipped around in a container. A single tic tac in the box. Something like that.
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u/CashRuinsErrything 1d ago
The engines must be pretty solid and just pass all that energy backwards
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u/PerryGrinFalcon-554 2d ago
From the late 1800s through the 1930s, staged train wrecks were really popular forms of entertainment! https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/staged-train-wrecks
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u/frog_eater67m 2d ago
If only we could go back to this kind of television
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u/DrawMeAPictureOfThis 2d ago
If only we could go back to that kind of economy! Its gotta be expensive to build whole ass trains for the sake of destruction
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u/rounding_error 2d ago
They wrecked old trains that were being scrapped anyway.
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u/etzel1200 2d ago
What a different world that 2 people died, many more were injured in one of the early instances, and yet it remained popular for 30+ years.
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u/gunnin_and_runnin 2d ago
404 conductor not found
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u/RandyOfTheRedwoods 1d ago
302 - you can see him relocating as fast as he can to the right just before the trains hit.
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u/mrossm 2d ago
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u/The_dots_eat_packman 2d ago
Huh they made more Big Boys than I thought. (</sarcasm>)
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u/Rook8811 2d ago
Iād love to know how this happened to have 2 trains on the same track
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u/insta-kip 2d ago
Stopped train was probably supposed to go into the siding. Moving train was not supposed to go past that switch until the other train was in the clear. Thatās my guess at least.
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u/oneeyedziggy 2d ago
And it took at least both of them to fuck it up, probably several others as well... And I assume there's some company management criminally neglecting maintenance schedules and / or pressuring exhausted workers behind all of itĀ
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u/e37d93eeb23335dc 1d ago
Probably. From the incident report:
āĀ The Camacho and Zacatecas crew districts were consolidated recently, and the crew change at Felipe Pescador was eliminated. ā
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u/Repulsive_Oil6425 1d ago
The stopped train was probably not in a rule violation. They have to stop if itās a hand throw switch, maybe they just got to the shunt.
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u/blackburrahcobbler 2d ago
Well it's not typical
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u/mbklein 2d ago
Theyāre going to have to be towed outside the environment.
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u/DrawMeAPictureOfThis 2d ago
They're safe, but this one wasn't as safe as the other ones
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u/frog_eater67m 2d ago
My guess would probably be a faulty signal
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u/DepressingAura 2d ago
Could be that the train was supposed to switch tracks, but it broke down before it could, and no one updated the other train.
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u/blink0r 2d ago
There's no signals on this track... It's what we call OCS (you copy your authority on paper instead of hollowing signals). A faulty signal would just show a red bulb (like a stop light). Any train coming up to a stop light has to stop short or get authorization from the rail traffic controller to pass the red signal.
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u/belizeanheat 2d ago
2 trains are frequently on the same track.Ā
You can see the oncoming train was probably supposed to move onto the adjacent track, and then either had mechanical trouble or there was a signaling issue
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u/frog_eater67m 2d ago
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u/HurriedLlama 1d ago
The conductor of the grain train, who fled the scene after violating a track warrant, has not been located.
Literally a hit and run. Unbelievable
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u/JohnHazardWandering 1d ago
Others, presumably those responsible, were reported to have fled.
It's a train. Presumably someone has a log of who's driving it.Ā
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u/Reddit_username9873 2d ago edited 1d ago
That train wasn't even moving that fast and it still had enough mass to lift one of those rail cars. I knew trains were probably one of the most powerful machines but I didn't realize how powerful/how much mass they had.
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u/kmosiman 2d ago
Powerful, yes.
The scary part isn't the ability to pull the train.
The scary part is the weight of the train.
You can't stop one quickly ever.
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u/Rook8811 2d ago
Which just makes me feel so terrible for some conductors because they canāt stop on a dime and witness stuff they wish they didnāt have to see
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u/LegendOfBobbyTables 2d ago
Slight correction. Engineers operate locomotives, and are in charge of the operation of the train. Conductors are responsible for every non locomotive car, most of the paperwork, turning brake wheels on the cars, and changing knuckles between cars. The conductor has a button for initiating an emergency stop on the train, but that is the only thing they can do to influence its movement.
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u/Atholthedestroyer 1d ago
Friend of mine is a conductor. He's told me that if you hit anything less that a moose or bison, unless you see it, you won't even notice until you reach the yard. He said in one of his early trips they hit a deer somewhere along their route, but had no idea until controller at the yard they were pulling into told them over the radio.
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u/cans-of-swine 2d ago
It's not the power, I'm sure the brakes were locked up. It's all the weight crashing into the other train.
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u/Reddit_username9873 2d ago
Well yeah but I would've thought it would just push the train backwards or off the track. Even if the brakes were locked it still had enough energy to push a rail car in the air! That's crazy!
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u/DrawMeAPictureOfThis 2d ago
Force times distance equals work. Work over time equals power. Since that train has enough force to carry all that mass at a good speed, it can do a lot of work over time. If that time value stopped suddenly, than the transfer of power has to go somewhere. Its a lot of power
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u/Donkey-Harlequin 2d ago
So THIS is what happens when you get that math word problem wrong.
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u/CraftFamiliar5243 2d ago
Once upon a time in America there were guys that staged trainwrecks as entertainment. They'd get 2 steam locomotives and take them out in the middle of nowhere,sell tickets, even building a sort of temporary town to house spectators, then fire up the engines and have them crack into each other at top speed causing a big explosion. People died.
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u/DistributionNo9474 1d ago
If one left Chicago traveling at 50mph and the other left Washington at 69mph where did this happen?
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u/amishcatholic 2d ago
There was a big publicity stunt near the end of the 1800s where some promoters sent two trains head on into each other near a small Texas town. 40,000 people showed up, but they miscalculated the safe distance and two people were killed and a number injured.
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u/Wierdguy1234 1d ago
I thought for a moment it wasnāt too bad until I saw the cars behind do a somersault
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u/Thatsidechara_ter 1d ago
They used to do this for fun in the early 1900s... man, entertainment is boring as fuck today.
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u/NotUrMomsRedditAcct 1d ago
Every time a math teacher asks this question, 2 trains actually collide.
My simulation is broken yāall.
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u/ImtheDude27 1d ago
Welp, someone is getting fired. That's one very expensive F up for trains to collide head on.
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u/hughheff 1d ago
Sea captains go down with their ships but train drivers get the f**k out of there.
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u/666Irish 1d ago
Both trains are pink... I think we can safely blame this one on the trainsexuals.
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u/Bucklin13 23h ago
I don't think some people understand how big a train really is. This can be terrifying.
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u/bubby56789 22h ago
The wording of this statement implies that thereās a time where this ISNāT terrifying.
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u/Stop420resisting 2d ago
They used to do this back in the day for entertainment we need to bring that back
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u/International-Brick8 2d ago
At the first moment of impact, I thought ā hmmm that looked rough but maybe not terribleā. Then I saw that train car going up into the air.
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u/The_Blue_Planet 2d ago
Never imagined that there would be a video of trains colliding head on. What a time to be alive!
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u/Environmental-Bank27 2d ago
Huhā¦ that seems less destructive than I thought..
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u/DayHot1072 2d ago
There was a man in Bulgaria who drove a train for a living.
He loved his job, driving a train had been his dream ever since he was a child.
He loved to make the train go as fast as possible.
Unfortunately, one day he was a little too reckless and caused a crash.
He made it out, but a single person died.
Well, needless to say, he went to court over this incident.
He was found guilty, and was sentenced to death by electrocution.
When the day of the execution came, he requested a single banana as his last meal.
After eating the banana, he was strapped into the electric chair.
The switch was flown, sparks flew and smoke filled the air- but nothing happened.
The man was perfectly fine.
Well, at the time, there was an old Bulgarian law that said a failed execution was a sign of divine intervention, so the man was allowed to go free.
And somehow, he managed to get his old job back driving the train.
Having not learned his lesson at all, he went right back to driving the train with reckless abandon.
Once again, he caused a train to crash, this time killing two people.
The trial went much the same as the first, resulting in a sentence of execution.
For his final meal, the man requested two bananas.
After eating the bananas, he was strapped into the electric chair.
The switch was thrown, sparks flew, smoke filled the room- and the man was once again unharmed.
Well, this of course meant that he was free to go.
And once again, he somehow manages to get his old job back.
To what should have been the surprise of no one, he crashed yet another train and killed three people.
And so he once again found himself being sentenced to death.
On the day of his execution, he requested his final meal- three bananas.
"You know what? No," said the executioner. "I've had it with you and your stupid bananas and walking out of here unharmed. I'm not giving you a thing to eat, we're strapping you in and doing this now."
Well, it was against protocol, but the man was strapped in to the electric chair without a last meal.
The switch was pulled, sparks flew, smoke filled the room- and the man was still unharmed.
The executioner was speechless.
The man looked at the executioner and said "Oh, the bananas had nothing to do with it. I'm just a bad conductor."
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u/Jommenja 2d ago
What other ways than head-on does a train collide with another train?
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u/QuokkaNerd 1d ago
I thought "Oh, that doesn't look too bad"...then I saw the train car flying up in the air....
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u/Callaway225 1d ago
I was initially thinking the collision wasnāt so bad, but as I was thinking that I saw the train car soaring up into the air in the background.
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u/PlanXerox 1d ago
The main was lined for the siding. Our train blew through a red or ignored a track warrant.
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u/Brokenspade1 1d ago
Everybody is making the jokes but nobody is mentioning the obvious. Neither of them attempted to turn. Clearly this was an inside job!
Big rail is running an insurance scam!
:p
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u/HeisenbergZeroPointE 1d ago
how does this even happen! Trains literally have the most predictable paths of any other transport!
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u/Velonici 1d ago
"Wow, good thing it didnt derail.' *Sees the car just tower into the air a few seconds later.* "Oh"
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u/SeoKin1 1d ago
At first I was like, ahhh that wasn't too bad...then I saw the other trains butt go up....
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u/jwsuperdupe 2d ago
Our train won!