[TURKEY] The Death Train

[Retroliser]

Before The Ottoman Government came to power, Turkey maintained a total monopoly over rail infrastructure and the provision of freight and passenger trains across the 12,532 km (7,787 mi) of track covering the country. However, with the collapse of The Republican Government, the state-owned company had, effectively, been privatised, due to the former owners being either arrested for crimes against humanity, such as former President Erdogan, or retired from politics due to their names being intimately connected to the 'dirty' topic of The Republic.

---

Eskişehir, Turkey

"Salak, you've got another 10 trucks to go."

Salak, an overweight freight engineer, reached for his radio. He was in the process of getting a 30 truck-long freight train ready for a trip from Eskişehir to Edirne via the tunnel under the Bosphorous, the only rail link that connected The Middle East to Europe without having to go around The Black Sea through Russia. His conductor, Aptal, was outside of the train relaying to him how much of the train was still in the siding he was departing from

"Understood, Aptal," He replied, before trailing off. "For fuck's sake, you said you threw the switch!"

"I did throw the switch, what's the problem?" Aptal radioed back.

"You didn't throw the one in front of us!" Salak snapped. "I'm heading straight onto another siding!"

"Ah, shit... How far will you need to stop?"

"About 15 trucks, give or take a few."

"That's fine, we stop, back up, be a little bit late, we can make it up when we get onto the main line."

Salak grimaced. Before the railway was privatised, there was a bit of leniency that would have made his colleagues suggestion perfectly fine. Now though, the company was being run for profit only, meaning he'd have his manager giving him a hard time for the delay. Shaking his head, he began transmitting via his radio.

"I'm gonna throw it myself."

"What!? Don't be an idiot!" Aptal replied in alarm. "You keep your fat ass on that train!"

Rolling his eyes, Salak smacked the deadman's switch in the cab, tossed his radio carelessly onto the dashboard and opened his cab door to climb down from the locomotive.

"I said stay in there!" Aptal shouted into his radio angrily, while running towards his obese companion. Unfortunately, he was no longer in possession of it. Salak waddled nonchalantly to the switch and threw it, putting the train onto the main line. The sudden sound of the train's engine roaring to life made him notice that it was merrily speeding off without him.

"Oh shit!" He cried before breaking out into a sprint after the locomotive.

"You better get back on there, you fucking idiot!" Aptal said via his radio. "Run, fat boy, run!"

Huffing and sweating, the grossly overweight engineer ran as fast as his weak legs could carry him. He had been running for less than a ten seconds, but his legs were already aching, and he was out of breath. Hand outstretched, he mentally fist-pumped when he was able to just about grasp hold of the locomotive's hand-rail. He only needed a little more speed, and he could climb onto the ladder that would get him back into the cab.

Suddenly, a searing pain shot through his lower abdomen, the unexpected, and vigorous exercise, had caused him to have a stitch. Salak's legs gave way, causing him to release his grip and fall, face first, into the rocky ground beside the track. Aptal threw his arms up in the air and cursed in anguish, while a number of other rail workers pointed, jeered and laughed at Salak's misfortune.

"Nice one, fatty!"

Aptal watched in despair as the train steamed away.

"I told you not to do that!" Aptal scolded, while sprinting towards his colleague to help him onto his feet. "Wait... Where the hell's your radio?"

"I left it in the cab. I couldn't be bothered listening to your nagging."

The pair then watched the train roll onto the main line.

"What do we do now?" Aptal asked. "We can't catch with it now."

"It'll be fine," Salak reassured him. "The deadman's switch needs the operator to press it every minute or so. It'll cut in any second now."

They watched, expecting the loud hum of the engine to suddenly cease, signalling the cutting out of the power. Unknown to both of them, Salak's discarded radio had landed on the switch, keeping it permanently pressed down. Seconds turned into a minute, causing the two rail workers hearts to sink.

"I don't think that switch is working."

 

[Retroliser]

"Shit!"

Several miles from the Eskişehir freight yard, a pickup truck, with a horsebox attached, had broken down on a non-gated level crossing, while on its way to a horse show. The driver hit the steering wheel angrily before hopping out of his car to walk the short distance to the signalman's phone. Every railway crossing possessed a telephone that allowed the user to call the nearest signalman. The intent was that slow, heavy goods vehicles, especially those with low-loaders, could call the signal box and have them stop all train traffic in the area temporarily so they could get themselves across the tracks without getting grounded. In this instance, it was being used to report that the level crossing was blocked.

As soon as the driver lifted the receiver, the phone in the signal box a mile down the track began to ring. After a few moments, the signalman answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello! I'm at a level crossing, my car's broken down and it's stranded on the crossing itself. I don't know when the tow truck will arrive."

"Right, okay, that's fine. Thank you for reporting this, just give me a moment."

The signalman put the phone down and swiftly pulled a few levers, setting the distant signal for his block to danger, and the nearest stop signal to danger too. With his job done, he returned to the phone.

"It's done, don't worry about a train coming, they'll stop long before they reach the crossing."

As soon as he finished his sentence, a long freight train roared past the signal box, and straight past the stop signal. Stunned, the signalman watched silently as the titanic steel monster hurtled down the tracks towards the crossing.

"Oh crap!" He yelped, before putting the receiver back to his ear. "A train just flew past my signal!"

"What!? You said they'd stop!"

"I don't know why it hasn't, but it's on its way RIGHT NOW, get any of your precious belongings out of your car, and stand back from the tracks."

The driver quickly hung up and opened up his horsebox.

"Hey, come on," He cooed to the horse inside, while putting a halter over its head. "We've got to go."

As the driver led the horse out of the box, he saw the train barrelling towards him. Swiftly, he guided the horse off the tracks and out of harm's way, just as the train slammed into the horsebox it had been occupying.

The horse whinnied and struggled with its owner, alarmed by the loud crash and bits of debris falling around it as a result of the crash. While the driver busied himself with calming his horse down, the signalman had put a call through to the Eskişehir freight yard's yardmaster to report the runaway.

"Eskişehir, a train just ran through my signal, freight train, 30 trucks long in length," He reported. "It was travelling at high speed."

"How can that be?" The Yardmaster, Yusuf, queried. "The deadman's switch should have cut it off if it was unattended."

"Then maybe the engineer went crazy?"

"With the conductor too?" Yusuf countered. "How unlikely is that? Let's see, the train is currently being operated by... Salak and Aptal. Keep your signals at danger, I'll report this to the other stations in the direction the train's approaching, so they can change their signals too, and get all traffic off the main line."

"Roger that."

Just as Yusuf put the phone down, a pair of forlorn looking faces entered his office, causing him to look at them in surprise.

"Salak?" He said, dumbstruck. "Aptal? What... WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE!?"

"Our train," Aptal began sheepishly. "It got away from us."

"Got away from you!?" Yusuf ranted. "It's a train, not a fucking dog! What the fuck did you idiots do!?"

"I don't know!" Salak protested. "I hopped out of the cab to realign a switch Aptal forgot to throw, and it just got away from me."

"YOU LEFT THE CAB!?" Yusuf exploded, causing the two rail workers to flinch. "That train you so carelessly handled just flew past a signal box. Do you have any idea how much of a shit-storm this is going to cause?"

Salak and Aptal hung their heads in silent shame.

"Just... Get the fuck out of my office!" Yusuf ordered. "Leave me alone to sort your fucking mess out. Oh, one last thing... Don't expect to have a fucking job at the end of today."

With the two rail workers swiftly evacuating from the room, Yusuf brought up the cargo manifest on his computer. At first, the trucks contents were nothing too special; cement, coal, flour, however his heart sank when he read what was in trucks 7 to 10 and 16 to 23. 'Petrol, highly flammable' the cargo manifest read. Yusuf let out a loud sigh of despair. In addition to the locomotive, a DE24000 with another DE24000 slaved to it, having up to 5,000 litres of fuel in the master and slave units each, there were 12 trucks filled with up to 120,000 litres of petrol/gasoline, a theoretical total of 1,450,000 litres/383,049 US gallons. The explosion, if the train were to crash, would be massive.

Yusuf picked up the phone and dialled 112, the emergency phone number.

"You've called the emergency services dispatch board, what service do you require?"

"I need to be put through to the local constabulary immediately."

"What is the nature of your emergency?"

"I'm the yardmaster for Eskişehir freight yard. I have a runaway train, and need them NOW!"

The dispatcher immediately connected him to the local police station within Eskişehir.

"Officer," Yusuf said urgently. "I need you to put me through to the chief constable. I'm the yardmaster for the local freight yard, one of our trains is currently unmanned and travelling at speed down the line towards the north."

"Right, hold on just a moment, I'll inform him and put you through in a moment."

Yusuf waited impatiently, his hand drumming on his desk frantically. The soft click indicating that he was no longer on hold made him focus.

"This is Chief Constable Yaban Demirel," He announced. "How can we help?"

"Sir, I need your help in posting officers at railway crossings heading north along the mainline, beginning here in Eskişehir and continuing all the way along the line."

"Do you think you can get your train under control before it crosses the provincial border into Bilecik?"

"I honestly don't know, it might be wise to speak to the commissioner of our region, mobilise all of the provincial police forces along the line. We need time to figure out a plan."

"Alright, I'll see about getting officers to the crossings. Although... What will happen if this train crashes?"

Yusuf sighed, he wasn't happy with having to reveal the explosive potential of the runaway, but he had no choice.

"It currently has 12 trucks of fuel, and two locomotives freshly filled. The explosion would be... Catastrophic."

"Oh..."

---

With the alarm raised, officers across the province mobilised, hopping into police cars, or onto motorbikes, to speed off to the numerous rail crossings dotted along the entirety of the line heading towards the next province. It was only a matter of time before the public, and the media, would put two and two together regarding why the police would be keeping watch over rail crossings to control the traffic.

 

[Retroliser]

"Chopper November Six Seven Tango Victor to command, we are observing the runaway and parallel. I say again, observing the runaway and parallel. The train's speed is around 60 miles per hour, over." A police helicopter pilot reported, while his spotter looked out of the window at the marauding metallic monster beside them.

"Command to Chopper November Six Seven Tango Victor, understood, out." The Police Commissioner For Central Anatolia replied, before turning towards the rest of the emergency service officials who had crammed into the back of a fire brigade mobile control centre, which was roaring down the road in pursuit of the locomotive. Accompanying The Commissioner were The Chief Constable, and The Chief Fire Officer, for Eskişehir and representatives from The Ministries of Home Affairs and Agricultural, Environmental & Rural Affairs.

"Okay," The Commissioner began with a sigh. "The situation is this. Our runaway train is heading northwest towards the province of Bilecik. I've already had a word with their CFO and CC, they're going to begin posting police officers at the rail crossings, while we shall remain in pursuit of the train along the roads running parallel to the tracks. The company informed the Chief Constable here that they have almost 1.5 million litres of petrol. Suffice to say, the explosion would be like being struck by a small ballistic missile. The damage, if it were to crash in a populated area, would be horrific to both property and human life."

"How do we intend to stop it? We don't deal with trains on a day to day basis." The Chief Constable remarked. "Do we derail it in the middle of nowhere to minimise the damage or...?"

"I have been in touch with Turkish Railways, the owner of the runaway," The Commissioner responded. "They have informed me that they intend to try and stop the train by placing a master-slave unit in front of it."

"I'm sorry, master-slave? What's that?" The rep for Home Affairs interrupted. "I don't know much about rail operation."

"A master-slave unit is a pair of locomotives attached to each other in a manner that makes them, effectively, one," The Commissioner explained. "Two locomotives are attached to each other. The master is controlled by the engineer. All commands given to the master locomotive, such as speed, braking and such, are also performed by the slave unit. They are used to provide extra horsepower to allow larger loads to be hauled."

"Okay, thanks."

"Since the runaway has a master-slave hauling it, it is only natural that they would match the power of the train by giving another master-slave the task of stopping it."

"And what will they be doing to stop it exactly?"

"The plan is that they'll put their train in front of the runaway, and use that as a mobile brake. Once it's been slowed down sufficiently, they can have a person hop on board the runaway and shut it down."

"Sounds awfully dangerous."

"It is."

"When do they intend to start this plan of theirs?"

"Right now."

---

"Are you sure you want to do this, Kahraman? You're up for retirement in a couple of months."

"If you can find someone with as much experience as me," Kahraman, a rail engineer with almost 30 years of experience, replied to his supervisor as he climbed the ladder to embark the locomotive selected to halt the runaway. "Then I am all for them taking my place, but since that isn't the case... I'm volunteering."

Breathing a heavy sigh, the supervisor gave him a thumbs up as a vote of confidence before standing back. Kahraman activated the diesel locomotive, causing it to roar into life, then settle to a loud hum. After taking a moment to steel himself for the dangerous task ahead, he pushed the throttle out of idle, causing his train to drive off the siding it had been parked on, and onto the main line.

"This is Kahraman," He reported via radio to his rail colleagues. "I'm on the mainline, speed currently 10 miles and increasing. How far behind is the runaway?"

"We believe that it's about two miles behind you, plenty of time to get some speed before you try to stop it, over."

Nodding, the veteran rail engineer put his radio down and put the throttle up a few notches. If he was going too slow, it was probable that the runaway would crash into the rear of his train and derail him, as well as itself, instead of acting like a brake. Once he had reached 35 miles per hours, Kahraman looked out of the window to see if the train was behind him.

As expected, the runaway was fast approaching behind him, much too fast for his liking. He immediately put the throttle to maximum, so that the velocity the 30 truck long train had would be reduced.

"Alright, I'm ready," He reported on the radio. "Braking... Now."

As soon as he put the radio down, he grabbed the throttle and reduced it. As expected, his locomotive began to slow down, allowing the runaway to catch up. With a violent crash, the runaway slammed into the back of Kahraman's train, prompting him to then apply the brakes as hard as he could. Metal screeched and sparks flew from the wheels of his locomotive, as it strained against the force being exerted upon it. Warning signals blared inside the cab, indicating that the engine was experiencing wheel slip, and that the brakes were beginning to overheat from the strain.

"Ah, shit!" He cursed, while releasing the brake and increasing the throttle to pull away from the runaway, allowing his train a brief respite from the torture it had been subjected to. After waiting a couple of seconds, he repeated the procedure. Another crash, and the deafening sound of metal scraping against metal filled the air, as he tirelessly worked to slow the beast behind him down.

"I'm down to 50!" He reported, sweating beginning to bead on his forehead. "50 miles an hour!"

"That's fantastic! Keep going, if you can get it down to about 20, we can try and get someone on board." His supervisor replied.

Kahraman glanced at his speedometer, much to his dismay, it was beginning to creep back up. He was being pushed.

"Slow down, for fuck's sake!" He cried, while releasing the brakes and putting the train into reverse. If the brakes weren't able to handle it, reversing into it might do the trick. Unfortunately, that idea immediately fell through when his attempt to do so was immediately defeated by the strength of the runaway. The force being exerted in reverse by Kahraman was being nullified, becoming nothing more than glorified wheel slip.

"She's too strong!" He reported. "The train's too heavy, when I try to brake, it just pushes me!"

"Alright, you did your best," The supervisor replied sadly. "Speed up and try to get to the next siding ahead of it. We'll get you off the main line and try attaching you to the back."

"It's worth a try," The veteran mused. "Better than trying to do this crap from the front. Okay, heading towards the next siding."

With the attempt officially called off, he put the throttle into full power and began to creep away from the runaway. As agreed, he'd side up, let the runaway pass, then try and couple up from behind. A little while later, the signs next to the track indicated the impending siding.

"I'm approaching the siding!" He reported, while glancing behind him. "She's right up my ass though."

"Give it all you've got, then brake as hard as you can," The supervisor ordered. "We'll switch it back as soon as you pass."

Uneasily, Kahraman kept the throttle at maximum. Normally, he would have begun braking a while back, so that he could side up at a safer speed, instead of 60 miles an hour, which possessed the risk of him tipping over his locomotive. As soon as the siding came into view, he applied the brakes and began to slow down. As soon as his locomotive began to take the turn, a loud crash sent Kahraman lurching forward. The runaway had caught up and rammed him.

"I'VE BEEN RAMMED!" He yelled into his radio. "I'm tilting!"

"Bail!" The supervisor cried back. "Get out of there!"

Kahraman was thrown from his seat, as the locomotive flipped over onto its side. The runaway had, when it slammed into him, jolted, causing it to jump the switch, allowing it to roar past the wrecked locomotive.

The derailed master-slave scraped along the ground. Sparks and rocks flew everywhere as the felled juggernaut ground to a halt. Suddenly, a tremendous explosion rocked the surroundings, as the ruptured fuel tanks of Kahraman's locomotive ignited, causing a fireball to erupt into the sky.