5 Trains Perfectly Designed (To Murder Their Occupants) 🚂 History in the Dark 🚂

A few notes on the Doodlebug disaster that you missed: - There were only three survivors on the Doodlebug: the driver, the conductor, and a railroad employee, all of whom managed to jump before the crash. - The heavy freight train (being double-headed by a pair of PRR I1SA 2-10-0s pulling 73 cars) was not even derailed by the accident. - The impact with the freight train was so severe that it ruptured the 350 gallon fuel tank. Witnesses reported that fuel, which started burning almost immediately, had been sprayed inside the coach. It was said that flames upwards of 25 feet were shot out from either side of the leading engine as it grinded the car 500 feet down the track before finally coming to a stand. - Despite firefighters extinguishing the flames in only 45 minutes, the fire was so fierce that bodies could not be retrieved for several hours. Most of the passengers had physically fused to the chairs they sat in from the extreme heat, and rescuers had to make use of hacksaws to remove them from the wreckage. - Autopsies ultimately concluded that only 9 people had died as a result of the impact, with the rest being killed due to the fire. - The testimony by the driver was crucial in finding the cause. He stated that he had remembered receiving orders to pull into a siding at Silver Lake, but had no recollection of actually passing it. The first he knew something was amiss was when he spotted the heavy freight train on the same line as him. - It should be noted that this particular driver had complained about fumes in the cab several times beforehand, but these complaints went unanswered.

"Fowler's Ghost" was probably a bit overthought, in hindsight. Fireless locomotives were eventually achieved by charging up locomotives with steam from stationary boilers, so that they didn't have to make their own.

Over in the UK we call, what you call a doodlebug, a woodlouse. A doodlebug in the UK means something very different. A doodlebug in the UK refers to the German V1 rockets from WW2. With that I mind you can see why I was always confused that in the US a single railcar is named after a rocket. I mean the black Beetle I can understand. Haha

I was told bombardier is pronounced bom-bar-dee-ay by a mate who worked at the Crewe works

Train Murder man, you have bequeathed unto us- your humble servants, another amazing video. For which we are eternally grateful!

It took 43 deaths because corporations. Regulations are written in blood. That's why, despite being a tradesman, I hold zero animosity towards organizations like OSHA

That was a very Monty Python dispatching of the British Rail logo.

Thanks for the laughs over the 'lion on a unicycle' - quite lifted my spirits this grey morning. The 'ghost' wasn't the only 'phantom dud' attributed to a famous engineer - there is the infamous Dean 4-2-4 express tank loco of the GWR. Fitted with Dean's centreless bogies at each end, the single pair of driving wheels were flangeless. It only needed one trip from the shops into the yard to reveal the engine was incapable of staying on the track; Swindon legend is that the works photographer was quietly instructed to drop the glass negative he'd exposed, destroying the evidence of the thing's very existence, and it was quietly scrapped..... As for doodlebugs, the V1s got the name because of their engine noise, which sounded a bit like a cockchafer. Hence, by sound association, the same name being given the early gasoline-electrics. (So long as you heard a V1, you were all right. When the motor stopped, THEN you worried.....)

Another one for yer. Nigel Gresleys LNER class U1 2-8-8-2 garret banking locomotive. Used for banking heavy mineral trains up the Worsborough Bank, Yorkshire, England. They had to travel trough the Silkstone tunnels, two very lonmg and poorly ventalated sections, which were climbed at walking pace. The U1 had a poorly ventilated cab as well which used to fill with smoke, several crew members were rendered unconcious by the fumes and legend has it a guard on a train the u1 was banking was killed by the fumes. In the end a primative breathing apperatus was fitted so the crew could remain alive.

If you live in London and were born before WW2, a doodlebug is something very different indeed!

I would definitely add the ICE 1 (DB Class 401). In 1998, in the Eschede Derailment, a steel tire on one of the passenger cars broke, causing the boogie to get caught at a guide rail at a set of points, ripping the guide rail out, which then pierced the car, while at the same changing the setting of the points, causing the following cars to run over to the parallel rails, and finally crashing into the pillars of a bridge, killing 101 people. Steel tires were only used in trams before, not in high speed trains.

Great video! Two points for you: 1st, there was a second type of fireless steamer. Largely a type of switcher, these engines would fill their "boiler" - actually a pressure tank, with steam from the local boiler house. This would then be used to move the locomotive like a conventional locomotive. They never had a firebox, as they were usually employed in industrial areas where an open flame or burning embers could trigger a fire or explosion. Speaking of hazards, you missed a major murder machine: the camelback steam locomotive. With its engineer's cab atop the boiler, if the main rods broke, the shrapnel would slice through the cab, engineer or brake brakeman and all. Furthermore, they often had a miniscule "cab" hanging off the back of the boiler for the fireman's protection. Some of these areas didn't even have a floor deck attached to the backhead. Firemen would stand on the tender and a bouncy bridge plate while shoveling coal into the boiler. Dangerous stuff for all involved. Keep up the great work! ❤

I'd like to state that there is(or was, in this case) a steam powered 'Doodlebug' in the very early 1900's, dubbed the Stanley Steamer(only source of this... hazardous doodlebuh comes from A whistle up the valley, which talked briefly about it. Good book though). It was extremely promising, offering steam heating for the coach and stuff that was standard on normal passenger services with full-size... except it leaked fumes. A lot of them. In the book, it stated the doodlebug rolled right past a station, and when they managed to get on it and stop it, the poor conductor was out cold(fate unknown), overcome by the gases that leaked from the boiler.

I have a daily doodlebug with a one car consist for two of my branch lines, as they were light rail lines so they were often used for that reason on the railroad in modeling

You should do top 5 voodoo engines (supposedly cursed, prone to accidents and catastrophes)

Fun fact about the voyager is that when travelling along costal raliways in poor weather water gets into the electrics causing th locomotive to breakdown which is not great when they are used in an island nation, the UK.

A.K.A 2 Two trains perfectly designed (to torture HITD). Get it? (That’s a joke coming from a British person too)

Hey Darkness can you do a top 5 trains that started bad but ended up being great overtime?

I'm surprised you didn't mention the Rolling Rivers. They didn't get the epithet "Rolling" for being safe. Also, it's pronounced "bom-bar-di-ay"

It’s okay history, one day BR won’t be on your list. One day