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What-happened-on-the-one-way-TRAIN-TO-HE · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and today I'm
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Speaker 1: going to tell you three stories that demonstrate that. But
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Speaker 1: before we get into those stories, if you're a fan
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Speaker 1: of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
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Speaker 1: don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get
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Speaker 1: into today's stories. On the evening of December fourteenth, twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty four, a woman in her mid thirties named Priya
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Speaker 1: got ready for bed inside of her home in Jehenkloh Village,
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Speaker 1: which is a rural community in central India. Priya put
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Speaker 1: in her pjs, brushed her teeth and then climbed into
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Speaker 1: bed by herself. She was waiting for her husband, thirty
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Speaker 1: five year old anand Yadav, to finish his bath and
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Speaker 1: then come in here and join her. And as Pria
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Speaker 1: laid there just waiting for her husband. She couldn't help
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Speaker 1: but feel like their house was so quiet, and in
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Speaker 1: many ways, the quiet of their house was this constant
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Speaker 1: reminder of this really deep sadness in her life, which is,
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Speaker 1: you know, Priya really wanted a kid, but she and
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Speaker 1: her husband had struggled to get pregnant and now you know,
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Speaker 1: they're in their mid thirties and it just seemed like
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Speaker 1: time was running out, and you know, it's like all
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Speaker 1: she wanted was a family and she didn't know if
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Speaker 1: she would actually have one. Now for Pria, though, you know,
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Speaker 1: this was not some new revelation, like this pain had
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Speaker 1: been going on for years, and so like she did
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Speaker 1: most nights as she laid in bed waiting for her husband,
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Speaker 1: she just did her best, you know, not to dwell
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Speaker 1: on it and just think about the other things in
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Speaker 1: her life that were going well, like you know, her
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Speaker 1: relationship to her husband.
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Speaker 2: You know, they were very happy, a very healthy couple.
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Speaker 1: And so she's sitting there and she's thinking about that
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Speaker 1: and again trying to be grateful.
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Speaker 2: When the door opens to the bathroom and Nande comes out,
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Speaker 2: but he's not dressed for bed.
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Speaker 1: He's wearing a bathrobe like he hasn't gotten dressed yet,
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Speaker 1: and he's acting kind of funny. And Priya, she's looking
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Speaker 1: at her husband, trying to figure out, like, what is
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Speaker 1: he doing, why isn't he dressed, what's going on here?
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Speaker 1: When she suddenly realizes his face is like bright red.
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Speaker 1: Clearly there is something wrong with her husband. And then
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Speaker 1: before she can ask him what's going on, anand just
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Speaker 1: turns and runs.
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Speaker 2: Out of their bedroom, just wearing his bathrobe.
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Speaker 1: And so Priya, you know, she gets out of bed
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Speaker 1: and she chases after her husband, trying to make sense
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Speaker 1: of what the heck is going on here. She gets
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Speaker 1: outside and she sees her husband is now collapsed on
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Speaker 1: the ground outside, and so Pria really does not know
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Speaker 1: what's happening here. She has no sense of what could
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Speaker 1: be wrong, and so she just runs over to her
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Speaker 1: husband and she rolls him over and she's shaken him
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Speaker 1: to like get him to talk to her, but all
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Speaker 1: she sees is his face is still this beat red
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Speaker 1: color and it's almost like he's passed out or something
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Speaker 1: like he's not responsive. And so, really having no clue
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Speaker 1: what else to do, she just rushed next door to
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Speaker 1: a relative's house. She got some family members they came
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Speaker 1: outside and together they scooped up the non responsive ununed,
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Speaker 1: threw him in a vehicle, and they rushed him to
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Speaker 1: the hospital. And when they got to the hospital, Priya
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Speaker 1: leapt out of the car, you know, leaving a NUND
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Speaker 1: and her family behind, and she bolts inside. She tells
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Speaker 1: the front desk attendant what's going on, that her husband
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Speaker 1: he's not breathing, he's unresponsive. He's in the car. And
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Speaker 1: so right away medical staff came charging out. They went
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Speaker 1: and they got an UND. They brought him inside and
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Speaker 1: before long Priya is running behind all the doctors and
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Speaker 1: nurses that are rushing ANUND on a gurney through the
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Speaker 1: hospital to an exam room. They get in the exam
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Speaker 1: room and even though Priya, you know, she's kind of
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Speaker 1: off to the side, she can't really see what's going on,
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Speaker 1: but she can see the doctor who is primarily trying
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Speaker 1: to figure out what's wrong with an UND, and she
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Speaker 1: sees at first he's kind of like doing a couple
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Speaker 1: of things to see if he can get Anon to
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Speaker 1: start reacting to him. But pretty quickly she sees this
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Speaker 1: doctor just kind of sit back and there's this look
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Speaker 1: of pity that comes over his face, and he turns
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Speaker 1: and he looks over at Pria and he tells her that,
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Speaker 1: you know, unfortunately your husband is dead.
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Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 1: For Pria, this whole thing has happened so quickly that
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Speaker 1: it's almost like she can't even begin to process it.
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Speaker 1: And so instead of you know, becoming hysterical with grief,
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Speaker 1: her first thought is, how could he have died? Anon
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Speaker 1: was a healthy guy. He's you know, thirty five years old.
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Speaker 1: He's he's in the best shape of his life. He's
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Speaker 1: a happy guy with a robust social life. Like there's
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Speaker 1: there's no reason he should be.
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Speaker 2: Dying right now. Like what in the world happened here?
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Speaker 2: What killed him?
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Speaker 1: Like that's her question to the doctor. But the doctor said,
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Speaker 1: he's like, I don't know. The only way we're going
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Speaker 1: to be able to figure out what happened to here
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Speaker 1: is to do an autopsy, because there's just nothing obvious.
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Speaker 1: And so, sure enough, a couple of days later, the
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Speaker 1: hospital's pathologist was, you know, inside of an exam room
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Speaker 1: with a non's body laying on a table right in
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Speaker 1: front of him. And this pathologist had done countless autopsies.
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Speaker 2: This was you know, very standard work for this doctor.
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Speaker 1: And so the pathologists, you know, they went into this
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Speaker 1: autopsy really not having any idea what killed the skuy,
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Speaker 1: But in their head they were thinking, okay, maybe it
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Speaker 1: was a sudden heart attack, because this sort of seems
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Speaker 1: like that could be it. And so they made their
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Speaker 1: first decision on an Non's chest, and the first place
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Speaker 1: they went to look was a Non's heart. But after
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Speaker 1: looking at an On's heart, they determined that no, he
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Speaker 1: did not go into cardiac arrest, he did not die
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Speaker 1: from a heart attack. This death was not connected to
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Speaker 1: his heart, and so the pathologist naturally moved from the
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Speaker 1: heart to Ann's lungs, which is another area that you know,
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Speaker 1: he believed could have something to do with this death.
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Speaker 1: But after checking those out, it was clear the lungs
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Speaker 1: did not have to do with a nons death. And
5:53
Speaker 1: so after that, the pathologists wound up checking all of
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Speaker 1: a Non's organs, you know, trying to find any sign
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Speaker 1: of what killed him. But there was nothing. There was
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Speaker 1: no indication that this guy should have died. Now, the
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Speaker 1: pathologist was a little bit surprised because they figured, you know,
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Speaker 1: by this point.
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Speaker 2: They would have had the answer of what happened to him.
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Speaker 2: But you know, it's no matter.
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Speaker 1: They had done many autopsies before where it required some
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Speaker 1: you know, further looking to figure out what happened. And
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Speaker 1: so they moved on and they made an incision in
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Speaker 1: Ann's throat, and when they opened up Ann's throat, the
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Speaker 1: pathologist just stepped back and gasped because in their entire
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Speaker 1: career they had never ever seen anything like this. It
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Speaker 1: would turn out that Priya was not the only one
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Speaker 1: who felt deep sadness around not having a family yet.
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Speaker 1: Anand as well was just really heartbroken over the idea that,
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Speaker 1: you know, he was never going to become a father,
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Speaker 1: and so, without telling his wife, Anand had gone out
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Speaker 1: and sought out professional help for their fertility issues. However,
6:54
Speaker 1: the type of professional help that he sought was a
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Speaker 1: little bit unorthodox. Instead of going to see a licensed doctor,
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Speaker 1: a Nund went to see what's called a tantric, which
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Speaker 1: is basically a practitioner of occult magic. And this tantric
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Speaker 1: gave Anund instructions for how to perform this ritual that
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Speaker 1: supposedly guaranteed, you know, if he did it correctly, that
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Speaker 1: he would be able to have his child.
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Speaker 2: A Nund clearly believed this tan trick.
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Speaker 1: And so after being given the instructions, he went out
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Speaker 1: and gathered the necessary resources and he took them home.
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Speaker 1: And then on the night that he died, while Priya
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Speaker 1: was in bed waiting for him, and he was in
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Speaker 1: the bathroom, you know, taking his bath or whatever. Well,
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Speaker 1: at some point in the bathroom, a nund performed this
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Speaker 1: fertility ritual and it killed him. A nund per of
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Speaker 1: the tantricks instructions, had taken a living baby chicken a chick,
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Speaker 1: and attempted to swallow it whole. Apparently that was all
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Speaker 1: he needed to do in order to have a child,
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Speaker 1: as he so desperately wanted.
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Speaker 2: But when he swallowed this chick, it got stuck.
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Speaker 1: In his throat and within minutes he suffocated to death,
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Speaker 1: and also, unfortunately, the chick died as well. One morning
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Speaker 1: in late November of nineteen seventy nine, a sixty four
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Speaker 1: year old man named John Perrin walked through a park
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Speaker 1: near his home in East London, South Africa, which is
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Speaker 1: a small coastal town. The park was basically a forested
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Speaker 1: area that ran right along the coastline. So even though
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Speaker 1: John was walking on a trail through all these trees,
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Speaker 1: he could literally hear the ocean waves crashing down on
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Speaker 1: the beach below. And being out here was actually a
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Speaker 1: pretty big deal for John because he didn't come to
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Speaker 1: this park very often. In fact, he pretty much never
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Speaker 1: left his house because John was a total recluse. And
8:53
Speaker 1: you know, in addition to not leaving his house, he
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Speaker 1: basically spoke to nobody. He didn't have friends, didn't have family.
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Speaker 1: He basically had the this one cousin he spoke to
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Speaker 1: sometimes on the phone, but that was it. This guy
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Speaker 1: was very isolated. But today, something that John had told
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Speaker 1: him to go outside and go to this park and
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Speaker 1: take a walk. It was just like this kind of
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Speaker 1: weird intuition that he couldn't even explain, but he just
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Speaker 1: hadn't questioned it, and here he was doing what his
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Speaker 1: gut was telling him to do. So now he followed
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Speaker 1: the trail through the woods and listened to the ocean
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Speaker 1: down below, and he eventually went around this bend, and
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Speaker 1: when he did, he saw there was somebody on the
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Speaker 1: trail up ahead. It was this young man who John
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Speaker 1: had never seen before. And this young man looked really anxious.
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Speaker 1: He was sort of pacing back and forth on the
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Speaker 1: trail like he was trying to maybe build up the
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Speaker 1: nerve to do something. At least that's what John's first
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Speaker 1: impression was. Now, to John, this guy did not feel
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Speaker 1: like a threat to him. It just seems sort of
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Speaker 1: odd what he was doing. And so John was curious,
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Speaker 1: and so he continued walking down the trail closer to
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Speaker 1: this guy to see what was happening here. You know, Remember,
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Speaker 1: John thinks he's here for like some really divine reason.
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Speaker 2: In some ways, he doesn't really know what it is.
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Speaker 1: He thinks is his gut intuition has brought him here,
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Speaker 1: you know, maybe it's this guy.
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Speaker 2: And so he's walking down the trail, sizing up what
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Speaker 2: he's doing. And as he.
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Speaker 1: Gets closer to this man who's pacing back and forth,
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Speaker 1: John realizes that the man is sort of pacing up
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Speaker 1: to the edge of this cliff. Basically, again, this park
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Speaker 1: sits right on the coastline, but the coastline is way
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Speaker 1: down below.
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Speaker 2: And John realizes this guy is.
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Speaker 1: Pacing back and forth to the cliff and then going
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Speaker 1: back over to the cliff and then.
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Speaker 2: Back and this is a massive drop off.
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Speaker 1: This cliff is like all the way down to the beach,
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Speaker 1: easily a fatal fall if you were to fall off
10:38
Speaker 1: the cliff. And suddenly it clicks for John. This young
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Speaker 1: man is contemplating taking his own life. He's working up
10:45
Speaker 1: the courage to jump off the cliff. At least that's
10:48
Speaker 1: what John is thinking. The young man is so locked
10:50
Speaker 1: in on what he's doing, he's barely even registering the
10:53
Speaker 1: John is here. He's still just pacing, you know, building
10:55
Speaker 1: up the courage again it appeared to jump off this cliff,
10:58
Speaker 1: and so John's standing there really sure what to do.
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Speaker 1: And also there were these other people that were also
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Speaker 1: on the trail that had sort of taken notice of
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Speaker 1: the situation, and there was this crowd forming sort of
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Speaker 1: standing a little bit back of this young man, you know,
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Speaker 1: not wanting to unintentionally, you know, startle him and get
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Speaker 1: him to jump off the cliff.
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Speaker 2: Everyone's just kind of standing there watching.
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Speaker 1: But for John, as he's standing there almost paralyzed, you know,
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Speaker 1: not knowing what to do, He's watching this guy go
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Speaker 1: back and forth. And then it was like everything clicked.
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Speaker 1: Suddenly John understood why he was here. His gut instinct
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Speaker 1: had brought him here to go up and interact with
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Speaker 1: this young man. And so John broke from the crowd.
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Speaker 1: He walked up to this young man who was still
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Speaker 1: pacing back and forth, and he put his arm around
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Speaker 1: the young man and he looked at him and he said,
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Speaker 1: I'll show you how it's done. And then John walked
11:49
Speaker 1: to the edge of the cliff and jumped. And the
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Speaker 1: young man was so shocked by this that he just
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Speaker 1: stood there and he watched as John plummeted down to
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Speaker 1: the beach below and smashed into the ground and died.
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Speaker 1: And this young man, I mean, he's so horrified by this,
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Speaker 1: so shocked that he decided he wasn't going to jump
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Speaker 1: after all. Seeing it happen, seeing John do the thing
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Speaker 1: that this young man was there to do, to jump
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Speaker 1: off this cliff, to take his own life, to see
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Speaker 1: somebody else do it was so awful that he decided
12:20
Speaker 1: not to do it. And so as he's having this revelation,
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Speaker 1: the young man also distinctly felt grateful, grateful to John,
12:28
Speaker 1: you know, for doing what he did, because in watching
12:31
Speaker 1: what happened to him, it showed the young man that
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Speaker 1: in fact, he did want to live. At one am
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Speaker 1: on March third, nineteen forty four, a young train operator
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Speaker 1: named Michelle Polo stood in the kaboo's car of a
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Speaker 1: freight train that was slowly going up beside of a
12:56
Speaker 1: mountain in southern Italy. Michelle's job was to operate the
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Speaker 1: brakes for the back half of the train, and tonight
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Speaker 1: he had to be on high alert because they were
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Speaker 1: traveling under really dangerous conditions. In fact, Michelle was worried
13:09
Speaker 1: they might not even make it to the next stop.
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Speaker 2: So first of all, it.
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Speaker 1: Was raining and snowing outside, so the tracks were naturally
13:16
Speaker 1: very slippery, which meant it was going to be harder
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Speaker 1: for the train to get the traction it needed to
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Speaker 1: go up the mountain. Second, the train's engine wasn't working
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Speaker 1: as well as normal, and that was in large part
13:26
Speaker 1: because the coal the train company had to use was this.
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Speaker 2: Really cheap, crappy kind of coal.
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Speaker 1: Because this is nineteen forty four, World War two is raging,
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Speaker 1: and you know, a coal shortage had been created as
13:38
Speaker 1: a result of that because all the good coal was
13:40
Speaker 1: being shipped off to be used in the war, and
13:43
Speaker 1: so you know, this train company had the bad coal.
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Speaker 1: And then finally, the train was just way too heavy,
13:49
Speaker 1: even though it was only supposed to be carrying the
13:51
Speaker 1: you know, small crew and the freight. The reality was
13:55
Speaker 1: is there were over five hundred stowaways on board, weighing
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Speaker 1: the train down.
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Speaker 2: Again, this is World War two.
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Speaker 1: There are all these people that are trying to flee
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Speaker 1: war torn parts of the world, and one of the
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Speaker 1: ways they would do that is by stowing away on trains.
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Speaker 1: And now Michelle and the other crew they were aware
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Speaker 1: of these stowaways.
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Speaker 2: It was not subtle.
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Speaker 1: They're literally in the cars, they're on top of the cars,
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Speaker 1: and they're just trying to make their way into Italy
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Speaker 1: to get away from, you know, war torn parts of
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Speaker 1: the world. And Michelle and the other crew they were
14:25
Speaker 1: supposed to call security and you know, tell these people
14:28
Speaker 1: to get off the train, but they didn't do that.
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Speaker 1: They felt bad and they sort of felt like, you know,
14:32
Speaker 1: allowing these people to you know, make their escape was
14:36
Speaker 1: you know, a morally good thing to do. But tonight,
14:39
Speaker 1: between the horrible weather making the track slick, and you know,
14:43
Speaker 1: the coal that was not very good and sort of
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Speaker 1: made the engine not work very well, and all this
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Speaker 1: additional weight from the stowaways, it just seemed to Michelle
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Speaker 1: like if there was ever going to be a time
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Speaker 1: that this train could not make it up the mountain.
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Speaker 2: It was going to be tonight.
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Speaker 1: And so the reason he's on high alert is if
15:01
Speaker 1: the train reached a point where it could not go
15:03
Speaker 1: any higher for any of the reasons I've just told you,
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Speaker 1: the train would start to backslide, and that's incredibly dangerous
15:10
Speaker 1: and it would be on Michelle and also the engineers
15:13
Speaker 1: at the front of the train to hit the brakes
15:15
Speaker 1: and stop the slide. And so Michelle, you know, he's
15:18
Speaker 1: on high alert. He's got the lever for the brakes.
15:20
Speaker 1: He's watching for any sign of like you know, the
15:23
Speaker 1: trains slowing down something like that. And they begin to
15:26
Speaker 1: make their ascent up this mountain up ahead, and at
15:29
Speaker 1: first it's going relatively fine, but it was just very
15:31
Speaker 1: clear to Michelle, who knew this train well, that it
15:34
Speaker 1: was struggling to get up the tracks. But he saw
15:37
Speaker 1: up ahead there was this tunnel they would have to
15:39
Speaker 1: pass through before they made the trip the rest of
15:41
Speaker 1: the way up and over the mountain. And Michelle's thinking, great,
15:45
Speaker 1: the tunnel is going to provide us dry, clean tracks
15:49
Speaker 1: where the train. If we just get into that tunnel,
15:51
Speaker 1: we can sort of get some momentum. Get through the
15:54
Speaker 1: tunnel and ride that momentum because we know the tracks
15:57
Speaker 1: are going to be good up and over the rest
15:59
Speaker 1: of the way. Michelle is he's anxiously watching as the
16:02
Speaker 1: train is sort of sputtering its way up towards this tunnel.
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Speaker 1: He knows that's going to be the key. Just get
16:07
Speaker 1: to that tunnel and we'll be able to get over
16:09
Speaker 1: this mountain no problem. And so up they go, inching
16:11
Speaker 1: their way, and he sees the front of the train
16:14
Speaker 1: goes into the tunnel, and right away he feels like
16:17
Speaker 1: the train's gaining a little bit of speed here as
16:20
Speaker 1: more and more of the train is getting onto those
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Speaker 1: dry tracks in the tunnel and they're.
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Speaker 2: Moving right along.
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Speaker 1: But then sort of inexplicably, the train begins to slow down.
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Speaker 1: As the train is again entering into this tunnel. Remember
16:32
Speaker 1: it's late at night. He can't really see what's going on.
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Speaker 1: He can just tell that there's the tunnel the train's
16:37
Speaker 1: going in. But we're slowing down here. And in fact,
16:40
Speaker 1: by the time that the caboose where Michelle was was
16:43
Speaker 1: about to enter into the.
16:44
Speaker 2: Train, the last car here, the train.
16:46
Speaker 1: Had finally slowed down so much that the train actually
16:50
Speaker 1: came to a stop with Michelle and the caboose right
16:54
Speaker 1: outside the tunnel. So you know, ninety nine percent of
16:57
Speaker 1: the train is in the tunnel. Michelle and the Kabbs
17:00
Speaker 1: are outside. The train is now fully stopped. Now, generally speaking,
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Speaker 1: the conductor, who was situated in the very front car
17:07
Speaker 1: of the train was overall in charge of the train,
17:11
Speaker 1: and so in any sort of emergency situation, it was
17:14
Speaker 1: often on the conductor to sort of make the call
17:18
Speaker 1: about what the crew was going to do in response. Now,
17:21
Speaker 1: the train was clearly not backsliding. There wasn't an active
17:24
Speaker 1: emergency here. But Michelle knew that this is wrong. There
17:28
Speaker 1: really wasn't a clear reason they should be stopped here.
17:30
Speaker 1: If anything, again, this tunnel represented their best chance to
17:35
Speaker 1: move quickly and gain momentum and ride up and over
17:38
Speaker 1: this mountain. And so Michelle does not know why they're stopped,
17:41
Speaker 1: but clearly there's some sort of issue. However, Michelle knows
17:45
Speaker 1: from his training that what he needs to do is
17:47
Speaker 1: still be be weary of the break here because for
17:49
Speaker 1: all he knows, you know, maybe there is some issue
17:52
Speaker 1: with the train and it is backsliding, but it's just slow,
17:55
Speaker 1: and so he needs to be ready to hit the brakes,
17:57
Speaker 1: and so what Michelle did is he held the brake
18:00
Speaker 1: and waited for a signal from the conductor. Basically, the
18:03
Speaker 1: conductor would blow a series of whistles that, you know,
18:07
Speaker 1: Michelle would be able to translate that would tell him
18:10
Speaker 1: what to do, whether it was, you know, lock the
18:12
Speaker 1: brakes or come up and talk to me, or any
18:14
Speaker 1: number of different things he might need to do in
18:16
Speaker 1: this situation.
18:17
Speaker 2: And so Michelle, he's just sitting there waiting for the
18:19
Speaker 2: train whistle, but there's nothing. There's just quiet.
18:22
Speaker 1: There's no other sound except for the idling engine, you know,
18:26
Speaker 1: towards the front of the train. And so Michelle he
18:29
Speaker 1: just started to have this bad feeling that this doesn't
18:31
Speaker 1: make sense. There's no good reason why we've stopped here.
18:34
Speaker 1: And so Michelle, operating on gut instinct here, you know,
18:37
Speaker 1: despite not getting any signal from the conductor, no whistles,
18:41
Speaker 1: know anything, he abandoned the caboose, He abandoned the brake
18:44
Speaker 1: station and began walking from the caboose basically up the
18:48
Speaker 1: center of the train, going into the next car. And
18:50
Speaker 1: when he got into the next car, you know, it's
18:52
Speaker 1: totally dark because it's one am. This car is the
18:55
Speaker 1: first car that he's walking into that's in the tunnel.
18:58
Speaker 1: So it's very dark, and he did have a flashlight,
19:01
Speaker 1: but he didn't want to shine it on the people
19:02
Speaker 1: who are sleeping in here because there's hundreds of stowaways.
19:05
Speaker 1: These people have had very bad luck. They just want
19:08
Speaker 1: to get out of the country. And so as quietly
19:09
Speaker 1: as he could, he's walking through the aisle of this
19:13
Speaker 1: next train car, and you know, he doesn't notice anything.
19:16
Speaker 2: Everybody is asleep for the most part, and.
19:18
Speaker 1: He's walking along and as he gets to the next
19:22
Speaker 1: train car, he realizes he's starting to hear a new
19:25
Speaker 1: sound and it's not coming from in the train. It's
19:28
Speaker 1: coming from somewhere outside in the tunnel. It's like this loud,
19:31
Speaker 1: thumping sound. Something is hitting the rocks on the side
19:34
Speaker 1: of the tracks somewhere in the tunnel, and you know, Michelle,
19:38
Speaker 1: he doesn't know what it is.
19:39
Speaker 2: He still doesn't know what's going on. He hasn't discovered.
19:42
Speaker 1: Any sign of, you know, what has actually happened here,
19:46
Speaker 1: and so he just keeps on walking and as he
19:48
Speaker 1: goes into the next car, he continues to hear all
19:50
Speaker 1: these thumping sounds somewhere outside and the train's still not moving,
19:54
Speaker 1: there's no whistles from the conductor. By the time he's
19:56
Speaker 1: about halfway down that next train car, he's now into
19:59
Speaker 1: the second car he's investigating.
20:02
Speaker 2: He realizes that in addition to the.
20:03
Speaker 1: Odd thumping sound and the lack of movement and lack
20:06
Speaker 1: of anything really going on in this tunnel, he also
20:09
Speaker 1: realizes that the car itself that he is in is
20:12
Speaker 1: very quiet. Remember, there's basically dozens of people in each
20:16
Speaker 1: of these cars kind of laying on each other, sleeping
20:19
Speaker 1: as they make their way into Italy. And so for
20:21
Speaker 1: the first time, Michelle turned on his flashlight and he's
20:24
Speaker 1: aiming it at the ground right in front of him,
20:26
Speaker 1: and he turned and began to scan all the stowaways
20:30
Speaker 1: sleeping in this car, and what he saw was so
20:33
Speaker 1: horrifying he dropped the flashlight, turned and ran out of
20:37
Speaker 1: the tunnel. It would turn out Michelle was right to
20:40
Speaker 1: be concerned that this train might not be able to
20:43
Speaker 1: make it up this mountain by the time the train
20:45
Speaker 1: sputtered into that tunnel, despite the fact that, yes, the
20:49
Speaker 1: conditions were much better in the tunnel for the train
20:51
Speaker 1: to maintain speed and momentum.
20:53
Speaker 2: Despite that, the.
20:55
Speaker 1: Other factors were too much to overcome. The train was
20:58
Speaker 1: too heavy from all the stowaways, and the coal was
21:00
Speaker 1: quite bad, so the engine was not as powerful as
21:03
Speaker 1: it normally would be, and so even though the tracks
21:05
Speaker 1: were not slick, it was just too much, and so
21:07
Speaker 1: the train ground to a halt inside of the tunnel.
21:11
Speaker 1: And so what needed to happen as soon as the
21:12
Speaker 1: train came to a stop like that is the conductor
21:15
Speaker 1: and the crew at the front of the train they
21:18
Speaker 1: needed to basically jumpstart the train. They needed to put
21:21
Speaker 1: as much coal as they could into the furnace to
21:24
Speaker 1: get this engine churning enough that it could pick up
21:27
Speaker 1: speed again and continue their journey. They basically needed to
21:31
Speaker 1: rev the engine, if you will, and really fire this
21:33
Speaker 1: engine up and get it going. But in order to
21:36
Speaker 1: do that, they had to put a huge amount of
21:39
Speaker 1: this coal into the furnace to make that jump start happen.
21:43
Speaker 1: Because again, this coal is not high quality, it doesn't
21:46
Speaker 1: burn as well, it's not as efficient, and so basically
21:48
Speaker 1: what could have been accomplished with two times the amount
21:51
Speaker 1: of coal, you needed like ten times the amount of
21:54
Speaker 1: this bad coal to do the same thing. But one
21:56
Speaker 1: of the byproducts of burning this type of coal, really
21:59
Speaker 1: coal in general, but especially this cheap kind of coal,
22:03
Speaker 1: and especially this much of this cheap kind of coal
22:06
Speaker 1: is it produces a ton of carbon monoxide, and that
22:11
Speaker 1: filled this tunnel. Michelle was outside of the tunnel. His
22:15
Speaker 1: caboose was the one car that was not in the tunnel,
22:19
Speaker 1: but everybody else on this train was suddenly being exposed
22:24
Speaker 1: to a huge amount of poisonous lethal gas, and it
22:30
Speaker 1: killed virtually everybody on this train very quickly.
22:34
Speaker 2: Those thumping sounds that.
22:35
Speaker 1: Michelle was hearing were the sounds of people's bodies after
22:39
Speaker 1: they had died, rolling off the train and falling to
22:42
Speaker 1: the ground. When he walked through the train car and
22:44
Speaker 1: looked around, the reason it was so quiet is everybody
22:47
Speaker 1: in these train cars were dead. Out of the approximately
22:50
Speaker 1: six hundred stowaways and crew who had been on board
22:54
Speaker 1: this train, five hundred and twenty one were found dead.
23:06
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
23:08
Speaker 1: you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember,
23:11
Speaker 1: we have hundreds of videos for you to binge right now.
23:14
Speaker 1: But if you're looking for a recommendation for me of
23:17
Speaker 1: that one video that's worth your time, well it's this
23:20
Speaker 1: one right here, so give it a watch, all right,
23:23
Speaker 1: until next time, see ya.