History Main / RunawayTrain

* An episode of ''LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' featured a runaway train with children on board.

* One of these is created as part of an escape plan in ''{{Grandia}}''. The heroes lure the villains into the train engine, where they had stoked up the fire really high and then broke the brakes. Then they detached the passenger cares, trapping the villains in the engine. While nobody was hurt, by the time the engine had slowed down enough for the villains to safely leave, they were too far away to be an immediate threat.

* On {{X-Men Evolution}} the Brotherhood create accidents so they can save the day. Their final act is trying to stop a runaway train. They leave after being reminded that there is a second train that will cause a collision.

* The Reverend W. Awdry's Railway Series (more commonly known as Thomas the Tank Engine) features at least one incident of a runaway train caused by children interfering with the controls. As with all incidents in the series, this was based on similar real life occurrences. The train is caught when another engine's fireman hurls a shunting-pole/lasoo around the train, catches it, and then jumps over to apply the brake.

* Played almost perfectly straight in one of the later (and far sillier) episodes of SeaQuestDSV, with a trans-atlantic mag-lev. [[RefugeInAudacity Underwater]]. They even had to get it to jump the tracks...

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* A similar thing is the concept of ''BlastCorps'', but instead of a runaway train, they have a truck set on an automated course.

A train of some kind is on an out-of-control (or apparent out-of-control) trip to disaster (or at the minimum, expensive damage.) Attempts to stop the train or prevent disaster consist of:

* The entire plot of ''Blast Corps''.

The defining characteristic of this trope is that the train is out of control or can't be stopped. ''Emperor of the North'', where Ernest Borgnine as Shack tells the engineer not to stop the train even though there's a danger of a crash if they don't make the siding before the oncoming express, is not an example in this case; the engineer could stop the train.

* Played almost perfectly straight in one of the later (and far sillier) episodes of SeaQuest, with a trans-atlantic mag-lev. [[RefugeInAudacity Underwater]]. They even had to get it to jump the tracks...

* The ending of ''TotalOverdose'', after missiles destroy the train trestle. The train can't be saved, but Ram can rescue his [[{{Chifickification}} chickified]] LoveInterest from her bondage at the front of it.

* The entire plot of ''{{Unstoppable}}''.

The semi-unrealism with this trope is that the majority of locomotives in the world have some form of a DeadManSwitch. If a certain handle in the driver's cabin isn't depressed constantly when the train is moving or if no positive action is showing an alert operator is detected within a set time period, the emergency brakes will come on. Moreover many trains also are equipped with some sort of speed control device that will apply the brakes automatically if various unsafe conditions are met. In addition, since the 1870s, all trains have used a failsafe air braking system; when the braking lines are pressurised, the brakes are released. An absence of pressure applies the brakes. Therefore, an individual carriage severed from the rest of the train will automatically grind to a halt. If you're lucky, you'll get a [[HandWave handwave]] about how something has disabled these [[FailsafeFailure failsafes]] but don't count on it.

* ''Film/{{Runaway Train}}'', where the engineer has a heart attack, with two escaped convicts aboard (with sheeeeews), and the prison warden who wants to capture one of them really bad, rather than just, say, letting the train crash and having him get killed in the wreck.
** Don't forget there's an innocent woman with them on the train and the guard is really, really vicious and sadistic.

* A train in Ohio [[http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93304&page=1 left its station]] in Toledo without a conductor in May 2001 and went on a 66-mile runaway race, until an engineer was able to jump onto the engine and stop it.

* Happens in a sequence in HeroicTrio when a bad guy takes over a train station as bait for the heroes.

See Also DeadFootLeadfoot. If the FailsafeFailure isn't justified, then this may also be a case of DidNotChooTheResearch.

* A real-life incident happened in Australia when the driver of a commuter train suffered an apparent heart attack and died. He didn't fall out of his seat, and was heavy enough that the weight of his leg kept enough pressure on the pedal which controlled the dead-man's switch to prevent it from tripping, causing the train to go out of control and crash. The accident caused train manufacturers to add a second switch, a button that has to be pressed once a minute or so to prevent the train from stopping automatically.
** A lot of times crews would cheat with that system by putting heavy things like bricks, rocks, or their lunchbox on top of it to keep from having to press it.