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** In "[[Recap/ThomasTheTankEngineS19E19And20DieselsGhostlyChristmas Diesel's Ghostly Christmas]]", As a result of Diesel refusing to help Paxton deliver the Christmas tree, a secton of track gets damaged when Paxton derails. [[LaserGuidedKarma Karma catches up to Diesel later in the episode]] when he tries to get away from Paxton as the Ghost of Christmas Past and runs over the damaged track, which derails him.
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* The origin story for ''WesternAnimation/{{Kissyfur}}'' is put into action when the circus train Gus and Kissyfur are being transported on speeds towards a bridge damaged from a storm. The engineer is unable to stop the train in time, and they all plunge off the bridge into the river below, thus allowing Gus and Kissyfur to escape from the wreck.
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Renamed per TRS


A version of this will often feature in a RollercoasterMine. It can be part of a TrainJob plot, and may be the cause of a TrainwreckEpisode (although that trope is broader than its name might suggest).

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A version of this will often feature in a RollercoasterMine. It can be part of a TrainJob plot, and may be the cause of a TrainwreckEpisode (although that trope is broader than its name might suggest).
BigDisasterPlot.
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* ''Averted'' in a US military experiment to determine ways to derail a train with a small amount of explosives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-8gV4DJZUw . The train was able to pass over a ''30 inch gap in both rails''.

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* ''Averted'' in a US military experiment to determine ways to derail a train with a small amount of explosives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-8gV4DJZUw .https://youtu.be/rCyVj6kt2zA?t=208 . The train was able to pass over a ''30 inch gap in both rails''.
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[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife'', the chapter "Apprehension" opens with soldiers blowing up the track your tram is on, and you'll end up crashing into a nearby pool of water if you don't get off in time.
* In ''VideoGame/LighthouseTheDarkBeing'', one of the last puzzles in the game deals with replacing a broken rail with a new one. And you have to make sure to stop your mining tram in time, otherwise it derails and lands you being [[TrappedInAnotherWorld trapped in the Parallel World forever]].

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* LaResistance in France and the Low Countries also did this after Overlord to delay the arrive of German troops and supplies (particularly fuel). The most effective saboteurs were railway workers who knew how to inflict the most damage with minimal effort.
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* Soviet resistance fighters during WWII would often disrupt the tracks in order derail or stop Nazi trains. It was a relatively safe and simple way to disrupt enemy logistics and (with luck) set up major accidents. Naturally, many Russian WWII films include such scenes, complete with something complicating the sabotage. If successful, the train is inevitably derailed.

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[[quoteright:300:[[WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a_crack_in_the_track.png]]]]
[-[[caption-width-right:300:''"His driver applied the brakes, but it was too late..."'']]-]



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[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' a bridge on the route to Paris is taken out by Knights of Jove allied to Martellus which forces the train Agatha's on to stop. When the ''Wyrm'''s engine gets tipped by a group of Uplifted bears in the ensuing fight some of the cars in back are loaded with the passengers and uncoupled from the disaster dominoes occurring with the rest of the train and then convert into a very unstable looking emergency escape airship to flee to the Depot Fortress of St Spzac.
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->''What bridge?''

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->''What bridge?''->"''What bridge?''"
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-->-- '''Tonto:''',''Film/TheLoneRanger''

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-->-- '''Tonto:''',''Film/TheLoneRanger''
'''Tonto''',''Film/TheLoneRanger''
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->'''Tonto:''' What bridge?
-->-- ''Film/TheLoneRanger''

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->'''Tonto:''' What bridge?
->''What bridge?''
-->-- ''Film/TheLoneRanger''
'''Tonto:''',''Film/TheLoneRanger''
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* Deakin blows the track in front of the train in order to stop it in ''Film/BreakheartPass''. O'Brien is able to stop the train before it hits the damaged section. The outlaws and Indians are then set to work to pull up a section of track from behind the train and use it to replace the damaged track so O'Brien can get moving again.
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* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfSuperman'': In "The Iron Eater", Superman has to [[StoppingTheTrain stop a train]] after the eponymous monster eats a section of track.

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* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfSuperman'': In "The Iron Eater", Superman has to [[StoppingTheTrain [[{{Trainstopping}} stop a train]] after the eponymous monster eats a section of track.
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* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfSuperman'': In "The Iron Eater", Superman has to [[StoppingTheTrain stop a train]] after the eponymous monster eats a section of track.
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->'''Tonto:''' What bridge?
-->-- ''Film/TheLoneRanger''
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* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'': In "The Wild Brood", the villain blows up a bridge in order to destroy something being carried on a train.

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* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'': In "The Wild Brood", the villain blows up a bridge in order to destroy something a valuable brand-new video game console being carried on a train.train, [[RunawayTrain which he also rendered a runaway]]. The train does end up plunging off the bridge and [[StuffBlowingUp violently blowing up]], but the game console is saved.
* In one of the WesternAnimation/SupermanTheatricalCartoons, "Billion Dollar Limited," bad guys attempt to wreck the titular train carrying a large shipment of gold. They try rerouting the train on a switch to a boxcar loaded with explosives, and blowing up a bridge. Superman foils both plans, but is unable to save the locomotive from being destroyed by a bomb. Fortunately, he's powerful enough to pull the train the rest of the way.
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* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'':

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* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'':''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine''... hoo boy, if we were to list them all, we'd be here all day!:
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[[/folder]]
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Real Life aversion

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[[folder:Real Life]]
* ''Averted'' in a US military experiment to determine ways to derail a train with a small amount of explosives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-8gV4DJZUw . The train was able to pass over a ''30 inch gap in both rails''.
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* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Hoodwinked}}'', while the Wolf and Twitchy are riding a mine cart through the hills, they accidentally destroy part of a trestle after Twitchy mistakes some sticks of dynamite for candles. The resulting damage causes Red Puckett's cart right behind them to be sent flying into the air.


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[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* Ride/BigThunderMountainRailroad in all incarnations. Such hazards tend to include such things as broken trestles, flooded caves, earthquakes, and tunnels undergoing blasting.
**Disneyland Paris's version goes a step further by having a trestle that has been partially washed away, with resulting drop being the location of the on-ride photo.
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[[caption-width-right:350:''"His driver applied the brakes, but it was too late..."'']]

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!!Examples

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!!Examples
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[[folder:Film - Animated]][[folder:Films -- Animation]]



[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

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[[/folder]]

Administrivia/RollingUpdates.

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[[/folder]]

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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crack_in_the_track.jpg]]
If the track on which a train is supposed to run has been damaged or obstructed, any train running across it will be at best halted and at worst completely destroyed. Sometimes this happens by accident -- a storm, flood, or other disaster might wash away a bridge or knock a tree across the line. Other times, there's a nefarious scheme at work -- some villain sabotages the rails so as to wreck the next train that passes (or, in a downplayed version, simply to force it to stop). Either way, it has the potential to lead to a disaster, and makes our heroes' train trip more hazardous than they would like.

Often, the problem will not be noticed by the people on the train until too late -- in order to save the day, it will be necessary to warn the driver somehow. The situation can be exacerbated if you've got a RunawayTrain, since the train can't stop even if the danger is known. This is one of the main reasons TrainStopping by passing heroes is necessary.

A version of this will often feature in a RollercoasterMine. It can be part of a TrainJob plot, and may be the cause of a TrainwreckEpisode (although that trope is broader than its name might suggest).

This is, of course, TruthInTelevision. Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} has an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_rail_accidents exhaustive list of train accidents]], many of which were caused by this.

Contrast RailroadTracksOfDoom and ChainedToARailway, where there's something on the track but the danger is not to the train. Not to be confused with departures from metaphorical rails (such as DerailedTrainOfThought, OffTheRails, or TranslationTrainWreck). Also not to be confused with a trouble in the soundtrack. Or a ''race'' track trouble.

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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'': In "Jesse James", Jesse's gang pull one rail to the side to flip the train. One of them decides to improve on it by bending ''both'' tracks at a time, letting the train jump the tracks and coast to a stop in a nearby town (eliciting locals remarking they didn't know the railway was coming to their town and what this'll do to property prices).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film - Animated]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Mr Incredible has to stop a train before it reaches a destroyed section of track -- which he does, although not without getting sued for injury by some of the passengers.
* In ''WesternAnimation/LaBalladeDesDalton'', one of the people who the Dalton brothers are trying to kill is a train driver, and they decide to accomplish it by derailing his train. Unfortunately for them, the train goes further than they expect when it leaves the rails, and Luke gets to it before they do. Luke tells them that the driver is dead, which isn't true.
* Bad Cop from ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'' blasts away a section of a railroad bridge where it crosses a tall canyon, willing to sacrifice the locomotive and all aboard in order to eradicate LaResistance.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'', the Giant pulls on some tracks just as the train approaches. Hogarth gets him to put the tracks back, but he takes too long and is hit by the train.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Anastasia}}'', Rasputin's goblin minions try to kill Anya first by detaching the train car she's in, then by destroying the bridge up ahead.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'', the beginning of the skit involves One-Eyed Bart (Mr. Potato Head) destroying the train track and making his escape with Woody having to save the train full of orphans.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]
* In ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', an earthquake damages a rail line, necessitating Superman's intervention.
* In ''Film/TheTitfieldThunderbolt'', the track used by the so-named train is blocked by the bus company against which it competes.
* A critical plot point in ''Film/TheCassandraCrossing'', since the contaminated passenger train must cross it. The United States military knows the bridge is substandard, and subsequent shots of the bridge show increasing amounts of dereliction, rust and decay.
* At the end of ''Film/TheBridgeOnTheRiverKwai'' the title bridge is destroyed by demolition charges, causing the Japanese military train trying to cross it to fall to its doom.
* In ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie'', the giant Ivan Ooze breaks a monorail track, forcing Tommy to disengage from the battle in order to use his Zord as a temporary replacement for the missing section.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'' has TheHero journey back to 1885, seeking to avert the demise of his MentorArchetype. However, gasoline isn't a readily available fuel, so the TimeMachine needs to be accelerated to 88 mph by a steam locomotive. However, the spur that's used leads to a wrecked bridge over a canyon. There's even a PointOfNoReturn where the [=DeLorean=] must attain 88 mph, or TheHero will die trying.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* In the first book of ''Literature/ThePillarsOfReality'', the train on which Mari and Alain are travelling runs along the top of some coastal cliffs -- parts of which turn out to have collapsed. It looks like it could be natural, but it actually deliberate sabotage to get rid of Mari and Alain.
* In Cherie Priest's ''[[Literature/ClockworkCentury Dreadnought]]'', the titular armoured train finds itself in a race against another train, not so much because they need to get to their destination first but because whichever train is ahead might be able to sabotage the other's track. When the train does indeed have to apply its brakes, it only just manages to stop in time.
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'': In "The Wild Brood", the villain blows up a bridge in order to destroy something being carried on a train.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'':
** In the episode "[[Recap/ThomasTheTankEngineS3E6ThomasGetsBumped Thomas Gets Bumped]]", Thomas tries to run across his branch line faster, having been late the previous day helping some school children get home when their school bus breaks down. One piece of the tracks on his line has been bent by the hot sun, and when he tries to slow down, he ends up derailing when he runs across it.
** In the episode "[[Recap/ThomasTheTankEngineS5E7ByeGeorge Bye George!]]", George the Steamroller is sent to build a new level crossing. He deliberately does so very poorly, so that the asphalt covers the rails. As Thomas tries to deliver some vegetables, his driver notices the unsafe level crossing and tries to stop him (as the signalman didn't tell him about it earlier), but Thomas ends up derailing when he goes over the crossing and crashing into a chicken coop.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' episode "The Robotnik Express", the titular bomb-loaded train is headed towards an unfinished bridge, built directly over the Buffalo Village. When Sonic reaches the bridge, he informs two of the workers that [[RaceAgainstTheClock they only have five minutes]] to fix the bridge before the train gets to it. Towards the end of the episode, when Sonic is forced to sacrifice his original plan to switch the train onto a dead end and save Da Bearz, they have to fix the bridge as fast as they can, at least to the point of launching the train to the other side of the bridge.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode "Where's Grandpa?", when Grandpa Lou goes missing at a Canadian tourist attraction, Tommy and Chuckie sneak onto a train ride that is closed for maintenance to find him. When the engineer sends the train onto a test run, the train heads toward an unfinished track leading to the edge of a cliff, which Tommy and Chuckie aren't aware of, but Stu and Didi certainly are. Didi tries to switch the train onto the safe track, but sends it onto the unsafe one instead. Fortunately, the train stops before it goes off the unsafe track, and Tommy and Chuckie get out just in time. Unfortunately for Stu, who was chasing after the train, the slope of the hill makes the train go backwards, and it chases after him.
* The Characters/TomAndJerry cartoon "Kitty Foiled" shows Tom Cat fix Jerry Mouse ChainedToARailway of a scale model railroad set, then ride atop the running train itself. Jerry's newest friend, a yellow canary, drops a bowling ball in Tom's path, which not only wrecks the tracks, but powers a huge hole in the living room floor! It never occurs to that TooDumbToLive cat to hop off the train.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{TUGS}}'' episode "High Tide", when Top Hat, Zebedee, and Zak come across a narrow canal with a railway bridge above it, the high tide causes Zebedee's steel rig to damage the bridge. While Zebedee and Zak leave to get help, Top Hat uses Zebedee's steel rig to prop up the bridge whilst Puffa travels across it. Unfortunately, shortly afterwards, the steel rig sinks and the bridge collapses, forcing Top Hat to [[TrashLanding catch the Goods Engine in Lord Stinker the Garbage Barge]] when it comes across the bridge.
[[/folder]]

Administrivia/RollingUpdates.

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