History Main / RacingTheTrain

* ''{{Cars}}'': Lightning [=McQueen=] does it while trying to catch up to what he thinks is Mac.

* A [[SilentFilm silent]] {{PSA}} showed several men in a car racing a train, while a man gambled with the GrimReaper. [[CaptainObvious It doesn't end well]].

->He saw\\
The train\\

--> "... the tie goes to the train." (Old railfan saying)

* Jude of ''{{Wild ARMs 4}}'' does this [[HeroStoleMyBike while riding a bicycle]]. The bike eventually breaks from the strain.

* A version of this happens in Legend of Zorro when the horse, Tornado is racing to catch up to the train

* There are plenty of stories about people in cars (or on bikes, or on foot) who [[{{Too Dumb To Live}} try to beat trains to crossings.]] [[{{Downer Ending}} Most of them end up dead]]. Remember, when you race a train, if it's a tie, you lose.

So, you've got a [[SuperSpeed speedster]]... let's call him Steve. There are many ways you can show off a character's powers-- guys with SuperStrength can lift buses, gals with {{Flight}} can jump off tall buildings and not plummet to their deaths, guys with [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway Heart]] can... uh... that's not important. But what can good ol' Steve do? Race a bullet train, that's what!

* '''Operation:Livesaver''': The public safety awareness campaign's "These are the next 60 seconds of your life ..." series of commercials often depicted the consequencs of racing a train, always with deadly results. One common example showed a Volkswagen Cabriolet, filled with five teen-agers joyriding, speeding and trying to race an oncoming train to the crossing; needless to say, they didn't make it and the community where
they lived was thrown into sudden and deep mourning.
* ''TopGear'' has used the format several times with Jeremy Clarkson in a car vs. James May and Richard Hammond riding the train. In Europe the train was the EuroStar and TGV, and in Japan it was the ''Shinkansen''.

* '''Operation:Livesaver''': The public safety awareness campaign's "These are the next 60 seconds of your life ..." series of commercials often depicted the consequencs of racing a train, always with deadly results. One common example showed a Volkswagen Cabriolet, filled with five teen-agers joyriding, speeding and trying to race an oncoming train to the crossing; needless to say, they didn't make it and the community where they lived was thrown into sudden and deep mourning.

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* ''TheDukesOfHazzard'': In at least one episode, the villians barely made it across a railroad crossing with a train coming, to escape pursuit by the Duke boys. Bo simply used a convenient ramp to ''jump over'' the train in eventually catching the baddies.

Basically, someone shows off how fast they (or their PimpedOutCar) are by running parallel to, or if he's particularly cocky, in front of a train. It goes without saying that this is a horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad idea in RealLife. Remember, between you and a train, if it's a tie, ''YOU LOSE''.

* There is a race in southwest Colorado called the Iron Horse Classic where cyclists race an old steam train 50 miles through mountainous territory. The train almost never wins.

Basically, someone shows off how fast they (or their PimpedOutCar) are by running parallel to, or if he's particularly cocky, in front of a train. It goes without saying that this is a horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad idea in RealLife.

* In Warners' ''Streamlined Gretna Green'', Junior the roadster tries to outrace a train, gets hit (naturally) and has to go the hospital/body shop; once he recovers he then goes and does it ''again'', this time it's the train that gets the worst of it.

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** And in ''Contra: Shattered Soldier", an {{Expy}} of said boss does the exact same thing, except that you're on a small train carriage which the boss lifts off the ground with ease.

* One of the robotic bosses of ''{{Contra}} Hard Corps'' and ''Contra: Shattered Soldier'' makes his entrance by outrunning the train you're on, followed by pushing it to a stop, and then lifting the end of it. This turns out to be a bad idea in the end.

* Happens twice in ''{{Unstoppable}}'' with a runaway train going 70 mph. Subverted in that this is done out of necessity.

* In ''[[MegamanX Megaman X4]]'', Slash Beast shows up to the Traintop Battle by running parallel up to, then jumping onto the train car used as his boss room when X or Zero get to it