History Main / Trainstopping

* Featured prominently on the cover of the April 1979 issue of ShogunWarriors, where TrackTrouble has caused Combatra to pause a fight with Rok-Korr in order to catch the first car of the train before it falls into a ravine. (Passengers are still shown tumbling out of the open doors of the train car.)

Maybe [[RunawayTrain a train is out of control,]] maybe a train is approaching a destroyed bridge, maybe someone is [[ChainedToARailway is chained to the tracks,]] maybe a villain is trying to [[TrainEscape escape via a train,]] or perhaps a [[TraintopBattle action sequence involving trains]] is going out of control.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' Bumblebee is forced to stop a subway train train before it reaches a certain destination, or a bomb will go off [[spoiler: She doesn't stop the train, but she did manage to stop the timer on the bomb]]

*** Surprisingly, Supes himself never full-on stops a train in this manner [[note]]Without Batman/The Batmobile's help at least.[[/note]], but the villainous Metallo intentionally ''does'' to show his power, causing a huge pile-up. There's also another variation in "My Girl" when terrorists misfire their BFG and destroy a railroad bridge and Superman uses himself as the tracks.

[[quoteright:300:[[Franchise/{{Superman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/trainsquashing.jpg]]]]

* In ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' volume 1, issue 1, TheHulk is tricked into destroying a train trestle. As a result he has to hold the tracks up so a train can pass safely.

* Done (in the last method) in ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie'' - "Angel Grove" (Sydney) Monorail, Giant Villain Foot breaks section of track, teens inside lead monorail car can't stop the train, Sixth Ranger mecha flies down and uses wings & back to substitute for the missing track before going off to join the others.

* In three "[[LetsPlay/AchievementHunterGrandTheftAutoSeries Things to do in Grand Theft Auto V]]", the Creator/AchievementHunter team attempts to do this with the train the drives around in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''. They tried with buses, a tunnel filled with dump trucks and an entire conga line of dump trucks. None of them stop it.

* In ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'', "Untouchable" has meta of the week, Clive Yorkin, using his powers to destroy an overpass and drop rubble onto a track in the path of a train full of passengers. To keep the passengers safe, Barry grabs firmly onto the train and vibrates so fast it causes the train to [[IntangibleMan intangible]] and phases through the rubble safely.

* According to its Pokedex entry, Hariyama from ''{{Pokemon}}'' actually has this ability.

[[RunawayTrain A train is out of control!]]

* ''Series/{{Supergirl 2015}}'': After guiding a plane to a safe water landing in the pilot episode, Supergirl gets to stop her first train in the fourth episode, [[Recap/Supergirl2015S1E4HowDoesSheDoIt "How Does She Do It?"]] After failing to convince a suicide bomber in a mag-lev train's lead car not to activate his bomb, Supergirl decouples the rest of the train and slows it to a stop, allowing the car to carry the bomb to a safe distance.

*** Sinestro destroys a bridge so a train full of gold is forced to hit the brakes. It doesn't stop in time, but Sinestro creates a replacement set of tracks to divert it to a nearby mountain cave where he can rob it blind. Hey, he has a [[GreenLanternRing Yellow Lantern Ring.]]

** In "The Power Pirate" episode of the original (1973) show, Superman saves a train rolling backwards down a mountain by using his strength to bring it to a stop.
** In the opening animation for that series, he's shown stopping a runaway train by grabbing the train's back end and pulling until the train stops. This may be a unique case, but it's a lot safer than the other method.

Used more in UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks, when trains were a popular means of transportation in the US (where most {{Superhero}} stories come from), but still alive today. One could put on a [[WildMassGuessing tinfoil hat]] to mention that, if not for the supers, there would be a lot of train crashes, and it seems the train regulation committee [[NoOSHACompliance forgot OSHA Compliance]] when they noticed [[HoldingOutForAHero some dude in a cape]] always appeared to save the passengers. These days, a FlyingBrick with a more "Modern" setting can do this with an out-of-control airplane, and others make do with subway lines or trucks.

* Near the end of the GSC arc of ''PokemonSpecial'', [[spoiler:Red makes his BigDamnHeroes return by calling out Snorlax]] to forcibly slow the runaway Magnet Train down to a stop before it crashes into a deadend.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''
** "Christmas With The Joker". Being {{Badass Normal}}s, Batman and Robin are forced to stop the train through the relatively mundane method of disconnecting the carriages from the engine, then leaping off the train with the engineer in tow.
** On another occasion, Batman is forced to stop a runaway tram, using the Batmobile. He manages to stop the tram, but also totals the car and has to continue his RaceAgainstTheClock to stop a TimeBomb on foot.
* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'':
** Surprisingly, Supes himself never full-on stops a train in this manner [[note]]Without Batman/The Batmobile's help at least.[[/note]], but the villainous Metallo intentionally ''does'' to show his power, causing a huge pile-up. There's also another variation in "My Girl" when terrorists misfire their BFG and destroy a railroad bridge and Superman uses himself as the tracks.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'':
** Justice Lord! Wonder Woman stops a train after an overpass is wrecked during Doomsday's first appearance.
** Sinestro destroys a bridge so a train full of gold is forced to hit the brakes. It doesn't stop in time, but Sinestro creates a replacement set of tracks to divert it to a nearby mountain cave where he can rob it blind. Hey, he has a [[GreenLanternRing Yellow Lantern Ring.]]

* In his first theatrical cartoon, {{ComicStrip/Popeye}} saves Olive Oyl, who is ChainedToARailway, by ''punching out'' the train at the last second.

* Mr. Mighty in ''Webcomic/EverydayHeroes'' [[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/eddurd/everydayheroes/series.php?view=single&ID=78476 has to do this]] to protect a BusFullOfInnocents.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' uses this in the episode "Christmas With The Joker". Being {{Badass Normal}}s, Batman and Robin are forced to stop the train through the relatively mundane method of disconnecting the carriages from the engine, then leaping off the train with the engineer in tow.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'' : Sinestro destroys a bridge so a train full of gold is forced to hit the brakes. It doesn't stop in time, but Sinestro creates a replacement set of tracks to divert it to a nearby mountain cave where he can rob it blind. Hey, he has a [[GreenLanternRing Yellow Lantern Ring.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'': Surprisingly, Supes himself never full-on stops a train in this manner [[note]]Without Batman/The Batmobile's help at least.[[/note]], but the villainous Metallo intentionally ''does'' to show his power, causing a huge pile-up. There's also another variation in "My Girl" when terrorists misfire their BFG and destroy a railroad bridge and Superman uses himself as the tracks.

* Featured prominently on the cover of the April 1979 issue of ShogunWarriors, where TrackTouble has caused Combatra to pause a fight with Rok-Korr in order to catch the first car of the train before it falls into a ravine. (Passengers are still shown tumbling out of the open doors of the train car.)

* ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'': Nate Heywood AKA Steel, gets to do this at the climax of the Season 2 episode [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/LegendsOfTomorrowS2E6OutlawCountry ''Outlaw Country'']], preventing it from reaching the pass and exploding the load of [[Unobtanium dwarfstar]] it's carrying. He's visibly excited after he succeeds.

[[quoteright:300:[[Comicbook/{{Superman}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/trainsquashing.jpg]]]]

* ''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}'': Subverted in ''Supergirl vol. 5 #18''. Kara stops a train but it breaks in half and derails upon crashing onto her indestructible body. Kara has a breakdown but she calms down -a bit- when she discovers that it was an illusion.
* A miniseries of SpiderMan called: ''SpiderMan: Power of Terror'' introduced a new Deathlok character (Deathlok is a LegacyCharacter of [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Zombie]] {{Cyborg}}s) that at one point was chasing [[MakingASplash Hydro-Man]] down the subway system, and he met up with a metro train about to ram in another one. He stopped it in a splash page, cementing his level of strength for the book.

* In ''{{Kinnikuman}}'', the 21st Chojin Olympics had Train ''Pushing'' as one of the qualifier events. However, when Terryman sees a puppy has wandered into the path of his train, he immediately gets ahead of the train and stops it. Unfortunately, because the qualifier had rules about touching the train more than once, the act of heroism gets Terryman disqualified from the games.