Latest / Crime and Horror / What happened on the one-way TRAIN TO HELL - MrBallen

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What happened on the one-way TRAIN TO HELL - MrBallen · 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
0:09
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 14th, 2024,
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Speaker 1: A woman in her mid-30s named Priya got ready for
0:56
Speaker 1: bed inside of her home in Chahenkalo Village, which is
0:59
Speaker 1: a rural community in central India. Priya put on her PJs,
1:03
Speaker 1: brushed her teeth, and then climbed into bed by herself.
1:06
Speaker 1: She was waiting for her husband, 35-year-old Anand Yadav, to
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Speaker 1: finish his bath and then come in here and join her.
1:13
Speaker 1: And as Priya laid there just waiting for her husband,
1:16
Speaker 1: she couldn't help but feel like their house was so quiet.
1:20
Speaker 1: And in many ways, the quiet of their house was
1:22
Speaker 1: this constant reminder of this really deep sadness in her life,
1:26
Speaker 1: which is, you know, Priya really wanted a kid, but
1:30
Speaker 1: she and her husband had struggled to get pregnant. And now,
1:33
Speaker 1: you know, they're in their mid thirties and it just
1:35
Speaker 1: seemed like time was running out. And, you know, it's
1:37
Speaker 1: like all she wanted was a family and she didn't
1:39
Speaker 1: know if she would actually have one. Now for Priya though,
1:42
Speaker 1: you know, this was not some new revelation, like this
1:45
Speaker 1: pain had been going on for years. And so like
1:48
Speaker 1: she did most nights as she laid in bed waiting
1:50
Speaker 1: for her husband, she just did her best, you know,
1:53
Speaker 1: not to dwell on it. And just think about the
1:54
Speaker 1: other things in her life that were going well, like,
1:56
Speaker 1: you know, her relationship to her husband. You know, they
1:59
Speaker 1: were very happy and a very healthy couple. And so
2:01
Speaker 1: she's sitting there and she's thinking about that and, again,
2:04
Speaker 1: trying to be grateful when the door opens to the
2:07
Speaker 1: bathroom and Anand comes out. But he's not dressed for bed.
2:11
Speaker 1: He's wearing a bathrobe like he hasn't gotten dressed yet.
2:15
Speaker 1: And he's acting kind of funny. And Priya, she's looking
2:17
Speaker 1: at her husband trying to figure out like, what is
2:19
Speaker 1: he doing? Why isn't he dressed? What's going on here?
2:22
Speaker 1: When she suddenly realizes his face is like bright red.
2:26
Speaker 1: Clearly there is something wrong with her husband. And then
2:30
Speaker 1: before she can ask him what's going on, Anand just
2:33
Speaker 1: turns and runs out of their bedroom, just wearing his bathrobe.
2:37
Speaker 1: And so Priya, you know, she gets out of bed
2:39
Speaker 1: and she chases after her husband trying to make sense
2:41
Speaker 1: of what the heck is going on here. She gets
2:44
Speaker 1: outside and she sees her husband is now collapsed on
2:47
Speaker 1: the ground outside. And so Priya really does not know
2:51
Speaker 1: what's happening here. She has no sense of what could
2:53
Speaker 1: be wrong. And so she just runs over to her
2:56
Speaker 1: husband and she rolls him over and she's shaking him
2:58
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 beet red color.
3:03
Speaker 1: And it's almost like he's passed out or something, like
3:05
Speaker 1: he's not responsive. And so really having no clue what
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Speaker 1: else to do, she just rushed next door to her
3:11
Speaker 1: relative's house and She got some family members. They came
3:14
Speaker 1: outside and together they scooped up the non-responsive Anand, threw
3:18
Speaker 1: him in a vehicle, and they rushed him to the hospital.
3:21
Speaker 1: And when they got to the hospital, Priya leapt out
3:23
Speaker 1: of the car, you know, leaving Anand and her family behind.
3:26
Speaker 1: And she bolts inside. She tells the front desk attendant
3:29
Speaker 1: what's going on, that her husband, he's not breathing. He's unresponsive.
3:32
Speaker 1: He's in the car. And so right away, medical staff
3:35
Speaker 1: came charging out. They went and they got Anand. They
3:38
Speaker 1: brought him inside, and before long, Priya is running behind
3:42
Speaker 1: all the doctors and nurses that are rushing Anand on
3:45
Speaker 1: a gurney through the hospital to an exam room. They
3:48
Speaker 1: get in the exam room, and even though Priya, you know,
3:50
Speaker 1: she's kind of off to the side, she can't really
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Speaker 1: see what's going on, but she can see the doctor
3:54
Speaker 1: who is primarily trying to figure out what's wrong with Anand.
3:58
Speaker 1: And she sees at first he's kind of like doing
4:00
Speaker 1: a couple things to see if he can get Anand
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Speaker 1: to start reacting to him, but pretty quickly, she sees
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Speaker 1: this doctor just kind of sit back And there's this
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Speaker 1: look of pity that comes over his face. And he
4:11
Speaker 1: turns and he looks over at Priya and he tells
4:14
Speaker 1: her that, you know, unfortunately, your husband is dead. Now
4:18
Speaker 1: for Priya, 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? Anand
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Speaker 1: was a healthy guy. He's, you know, 35 years old.
4:34
Speaker 1: He's in the best shape of his life. He's a
4:37
Speaker 1: happy guy with a robust social life. Like, there's no
4:40
Speaker 1: reason he should be dying right now. Like, what in
4:43
Speaker 1: the world happened here? What killed him? Like, that's her
4:46
Speaker 1: question to the doctor. But the doctor said, he's like,
4:49
Speaker 1: I don't know. The only way we're going to be
4:51
Speaker 1: able to figure out what happened here is to do
4:54
Speaker 1: an autopsy, because there's just nothing obvious. And so, sure enough,
4:58
Speaker 1: a couple of days later, the hospital's pathologist was you know,
5:01
Speaker 1: inside of an exam room with Anand's body laying on
5:04
Speaker 1: a table right in front of him. And this pathologist
5:08
Speaker 1: had done countless autopsies. This was, you know, very standard
5:12
Speaker 1: work for this doctor. And so the pathologists, you know,
5:14
Speaker 1: they went into this autopsy really not having any idea
5:18
Speaker 1: what killed this guy. But in their head, they were thinking, okay,
5:21
Speaker 1: maybe it was a sudden heart attack because this sort
5:23
Speaker 1: of seems like that could be it. And so they
5:26
Speaker 1: They made their first incision on Anand's chest, and the
5:28
Speaker 1: first place they went to look was Anand's heart. But
5:31
Speaker 1: after looking at Anand's heart, they determined that no, he
5:35
Speaker 1: did not go into cardiac arrest. He did not die
5:37
Speaker 1: from a heart attack. This death was not connected to
5:40
Speaker 1: his heart. And so the pathologist naturally moved from the
5:43
Speaker 1: heart to Anand's lungs, which is another area that you know,
5:47
Speaker 1: he believed could have something to do with this death.
5:49
Speaker 1: But after checking those out, it was clear the lungs
5:51
Speaker 1: did not have to do with Anon's death. And so
5:53
Speaker 1: after that, the pathologist wound up checking all of Anon's organs,
5:57
Speaker 1: you know, trying to find any sign of what killed him,
6:01
Speaker 1: but there was nothing. There was no indication that this
6:04
Speaker 1: guy should have died. Now, the pathologist was a little
6:06
Speaker 1: bit surprised because they figured, you know, by this point,
6:09
Speaker 1: they would have had the answer of what happened to him. But,
6:12
Speaker 1: you know, it's no matter. They'd done many autopsies before
6:14
Speaker 1: where it required some you know, further looking to figure
6:17
Speaker 1: out what happened. And so they moved on and they
6:20
Speaker 1: made an incision in Anand's throat. And when they opened
6:23
Speaker 1: up Anand's throat, the pathologist just stepped back and gasped
6:28
Speaker 1: because in their entire career, they had never, ever seen
6:32
Speaker 1: anything like this. It would turn out that Priya was
6:35
Speaker 1: not the only one who felt deep sadness around not
6:39
Speaker 1: having a family yet. Anand as well was just really
6:43
Speaker 1: heartbroken over the idea that You know, he was never
6:45
Speaker 1: going to become a father. And so without telling his wife,
6:49
Speaker 1: Anand had gone out and sought out professional help for
6:52
Speaker 1: their fertility issues. However, the type of professional help that
6:56
Speaker 1: he sought was a little bit unorthodox. Instead of going
7:00
Speaker 1: to see a licensed doctor, Anand went to see what's
7:03
Speaker 1: called a tantric, which is basically a practitioner of occult magic.
7:08
Speaker 1: And this tantric gave Anand instructions for how to perform
7:12
Speaker 1: this ritual, that supposedly guaranteed, you know, if he did
7:15
Speaker 1: it correctly, that he would be able to have his child.
7:18
Speaker 1: Anand clearly believed this tantric, and so after being given
7:22
Speaker 1: the instructions, he went out and gathered the necessary resources,
7:26
Speaker 1: and he took them home, and then on the night
7:29
Speaker 1: that he died, while Priya was in bed waiting for him,
7:31
Speaker 1: and he was in the bathroom, you know, taking his
7:33
Speaker 1: bath or whatever, well, at some point in the bathroom,
7:37
Speaker 1: Anand performed this fertility ritual, and it killed him. Anand...
7:42
Speaker 1: per the tantric's instructions, had taken a living baby chicken,
7:47
Speaker 1: a chick, and attempted to swallow it whole. Apparently, that
7:52
Speaker 1: was all he needed to do in order to have
7:54
Speaker 1: a child, as he so desperately wanted. But when he
7:57
Speaker 1: swallowed this chick, it got stuck in his throat, and
8:01
Speaker 1: within minutes, he suffocated to death. And also, unfortunately, the
8:05
Speaker 1: chick died as well. One morning in late November of 1979,
8:23
Speaker 1: a 64-year-old man named John Perrin walked through a park
8:27
Speaker 1: near his home in East London, South Africa, which is
8:30
Speaker 1: a small coastal town. The park was basically a forested
8:33
Speaker 1: area that ran right along the coastline. So even though
8:36
Speaker 1: John was walking on a trail through all these trees,
8:39
Speaker 1: he could literally hear the ocean waves crashing down on
8:42
Speaker 1: the beach below. And being out here was actually a
8:44
Speaker 1: pretty big deal for John because he didn't come to
8:46
Speaker 1: this park very often. In fact, he pretty much never
8:49
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
8:55
Speaker 1: basically spoke to nobody. He didn't have friends, didn't have family.
8:59
Speaker 1: He basically had this one cousin he spoke to sometimes
9:02
Speaker 1: on the phone, but that was it. This guy was
9:04
Speaker 1: very isolated. But today, something in John had told him
9:08
Speaker 1: to go outside and go to this park and take
9:11
Speaker 1: a walk. It was just like this kind of weird
9:14
Speaker 1: intuition that he couldn't even explain, but he just hadn't
9:17
Speaker 1: questioned it and Here he was doing what his gut
9:19
Speaker 1: was telling him to do. So now he followed the
9:22
Speaker 1: trail through the woods and listened to the ocean down below.
9:25
Speaker 1: And he eventually went around this bend. And when he did,
9:28
Speaker 1: he saw there was somebody on the trail up ahead.
9:30
Speaker 1: It was this young man who John had never seen before.
9:34
Speaker 1: And this young man looked really anxious. He was sort
9:36
Speaker 1: of pacing back and forth on the trail. Like he
9:39
Speaker 1: was trying to maybe build up the nerve to do something.
9:42
Speaker 1: At least that's what John's first impression was. Now to John,
9:44
Speaker 1: this guy did not feel like a threat to him.
9:47
Speaker 1: It just seemed sort of odd what he was doing.
9:49
Speaker 1: And so John was curious. And so he continued walking
9:52
Speaker 1: down the trail closer to this guy to see like
9:54
Speaker 1: what was happening here. You know, remember, John thinks he's
9:57
Speaker 1: here for like some really divine reason in some ways.
10:01
Speaker 1: He doesn't really know what it is. He thinks his
10:03
Speaker 1: gut intuition has brought him here. You know, maybe it's
10:05
Speaker 1: this guy. And so he's walking down the trail, sizing
10:09
Speaker 1: up what he's doing. And as he gets closer to
10:11
Speaker 1: this man who's pacing back and forth, John realizes that
10:15
Speaker 1: the man is sort of pacing up to the edge
10:17
Speaker 1: of this cliff. Basically, again, This park sits right on
10:21
Speaker 1: the coastline, but the coastline is way down below. And
10:25
Speaker 1: John realizes this guy is pacing back and forth to
10:28
Speaker 1: the cliff and then going back over to the cliff
10:30
Speaker 1: and then back. And this is a massive drop off.
10:33
Speaker 1: This cliff is like all the way down to the beach,
10:36
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
10:41
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 that
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, not really sure what to do.
11:01
Speaker 1: And also there were these other people that were also
11:03
Speaker 1: on the trail that had sort of taken notice of
11:05
Speaker 1: the situation. And there was this crowd forming, sort of
11:08
Speaker 1: standing a little bit back of this young man, you know,
11:11
Speaker 1: not wanting to unintentionally you know, startle him and get
11:14
Speaker 1: him to jump off the cliff. Everyone's just kind of
11:16
Speaker 1: standing there watching. But for John, as he's standing there,
11:19
Speaker 1: almost paralyzed, you know, not knowing what to do, he's
11:22
Speaker 1: watching this guy go back and forth. And then it
11:25
Speaker 1: was like everything clicked. Suddenly John understood why he was here.
11:29
Speaker 1: His gut instinct had brought him here to go up
11:33
Speaker 1: and interact with this young man. And so John broke
11:36
Speaker 1: from the crowd. He walked up to this young man
11:38
Speaker 1: who was still pacing back and forth. And he put
11:41
Speaker 1: his arm around the young man. And he looked at
11:44
Speaker 1: him and he said, I'll show you how it's done.
11:47
Speaker 1: And then John walked to the edge of the cliff
11:50
Speaker 1: and jumped. And the young man was so shocked by
11:54
Speaker 1: this that he just stood there and he watched as
11:56
Speaker 1: John plummeted down to the beach below and smashed into
11:59
Speaker 1: the ground and died. And this young man, I mean,
12:02
Speaker 1: he's so horrified by this, so shocked that he decided,
12:08
Speaker 1: He wasn't going to jump after all. Seeing it happen,
12:10
Speaker 1: seeing John do the thing that this young man was
12:14
Speaker 1: there to do, to jump off this cliff, to take
12:16
Speaker 1: his own life, to see somebody else do it was
12:18
Speaker 1: so awful that he decided not to do it. And
12:21
Speaker 1: so as he's having this revelation, the young man also
12:24
Speaker 1: distinctly felt grateful, grateful to John, you know, for doing
12:28
Speaker 1: what he did because in watching what happened to him,
12:32
Speaker 1: it showed the young man that in fact, he did
12:35
Speaker 1: want to live. At 1 a.m. on March 3rd, 1944,
12:49
Speaker 1: a young train operator named Michel Palo stood in the
12:53
Speaker 1: caboose car of a freight train that was slowly going
12:56
Speaker 1: up the side of a mountain in southern Italy. Michel's
12:58
Speaker 1: job was to operate the brakes for the back half
13:00
Speaker 1: of the train. And tonight, he had to be on
13:03
Speaker 1: high alert because they were traveling under really dangerous conditions.
13:07
Speaker 1: In fact, Michel was worried they might not even make
13:10
Speaker 1: it to the next stop. So first of all, it
13:12
Speaker 1: was raining and snowing outside. So the tracks were naturally
13:15
Speaker 1: very slippery. which meant it was going to be harder
13:18
Speaker 1: for the train to get the traction it needed to
13:20
Speaker 1: go up the mountain. Second, the train's engine wasn't working
13:23
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
13:29
Speaker 1: this really cheap, crappy kind of coal. Because this is 1944,
13:33
Speaker 1: World War II is raging, and, you know, a coal
13:36
Speaker 1: shortage had been created as a result of that because
13:39
Speaker 1: all the good coal was being shipped off to be
13:41
Speaker 1: used in the war. And so, you know, this train
13:44
Speaker 1: company had the bad coal. And then finally, the train
13:47
Speaker 1: was just way too heavy. Even though it was only
13:50
Speaker 1: supposed to be carrying the small crew and the freight,
13:54
Speaker 1: the reality was is there were over 500 stowaways on
13:57
Speaker 1: board weighing the train down. Again, this is World War II.
14:01
Speaker 1: There are all these people that are trying to flee
14:04
Speaker 1: war-torn parts of the world. And one of the ways
14:06
Speaker 1: they would do that is by stowing away on trains.
14:10
Speaker 1: And now Michel and the other crew, they were aware
14:13
Speaker 1: of these stowaways. It was not subtle. They're literally in
14:16
Speaker 1: the cars, they're on top of the cars, and they're
14:18
Speaker 1: just trying to make their way into Italy to get
14:20
Speaker 1: away from, you know, war-torn parts of the world. And
14:23
Speaker 1: Michel and the other crew, they were supposed to call
14:26
Speaker 1: security and, you know, tell these people to get off
14:28
Speaker 1: the train, but they didn't do that. They felt bad
14:31
Speaker 1: and they sort of felt like, you know, allowing these
14:33
Speaker 1: people to, you know, make their escape was, you know,
14:36
Speaker 1: a morally good thing to do. But tonight, between the
14:40
Speaker 1: horrible weather making the track slick and, you know, the
14:43
Speaker 1: coal that was not very good and sort of made
14:45
Speaker 1: the engine not work very well and all this additional
14:48
Speaker 1: weight from the stowaways, it just seemed to Michel like
14:52
Speaker 1: if there was ever going to be a time that
14:54
Speaker 1: this train could not make it up the mountain, it
14:57
Speaker 1: was going to be tonight. And so the reason he's
14:59
Speaker 1: on high alert is if the train reached a point
15:02
Speaker 1: where it could not go any higher for any of
15:04
Speaker 1: the reasons I've just told you, the train would start
15:07
Speaker 1: to backslide. And that's incredibly dangerous. And it would be
15:10
Speaker 1: on Michel and also the engineers at the front of
15:13
Speaker 1: the train to hit the brakes and stop the slide.
15:16
Speaker 1: And so Michel, you know, he's on high alert. He's
15:19
Speaker 1: got the lever for the brakes. He's watching for any
15:22
Speaker 1: sign of like, you know, the train slowing down, something
15:24
Speaker 1: like that. And they begin to make their ascent up
15:27
Speaker 1: this mountain up ahead. And at first it's going relatively fine,
15:30
Speaker 1: but it was just very clear to Michel, who knew
15:33
Speaker 1: this train well, that it was struggling to get up
15:35
Speaker 1: the tracks. But he saw up ahead there was this
15:38
Speaker 1: tunnel they would have to pass through before they made
15:41
Speaker 1: the trip the rest of the way up and over
15:42
Speaker 1: the mountain. And Michel's thinking, great, the tunnel is going
15:46
Speaker 1: to provide us dry, clean tracks where the train, if
15:50
Speaker 1: we just get into that tunnel, we can sort of
15:52
Speaker 1: get some momentum, get through the tunnel and ride that
15:55
Speaker 1: momentum because we know the tracks are going to be good.
15:58
Speaker 1: up and over the rest of the way. And so Michel,
16:00
Speaker 1: he's anxiously watching as the train is sort of sputtering
16:03
Speaker 1: its way up towards this tunnel. He knows that's going
16:06
Speaker 1: to be the key. Just get to that tunnel and
16:08
Speaker 1: we'll be able to get over this mountain, no problem.
16:10
Speaker 1: And so up they go, inching their way. And he
16:12
Speaker 1: sees the front of the train goes into the tunnel.
16:16
Speaker 1: And right away, he feels like the train's gaining a
16:18
Speaker 1: little bit of speed here as more and more of
16:20
Speaker 1: the train is getting onto those dry tracks in the tunnel.
16:24
Speaker 1: And they're moving right along, but then sort of inexplicably,
16:27
Speaker 1: the train begins to slow down as the train is, again,
16:30
Speaker 1: entering into this tunnel. Remember, it's late at night. He
16:33
Speaker 1: can't really see what's going on. He can just tell
16:35
Speaker 1: that there's the tunnel, the train's going in, but we're
16:38
Speaker 1: slowing down here. And in fact, by the time that
16:41
Speaker 1: the caboose, where Michel was, was about to enter into
16:44
Speaker 1: the train, the last car here, the train had finally
16:47
Speaker 1: slowed down so much that the train actually came to
16:51
Speaker 1: a stop with Michel and the caboose, right outside the tunnel. So,
16:55
Speaker 1: you know, 99% of the train is in the tunnel.
16:59
Speaker 1: Michel and the caboose are outside. The train is now
17:02
Speaker 1: fully stopped. Now, generally speaking, the conductor who was situated
17:06
Speaker 1: in the very front car of the train was overall
17:09
Speaker 1: in charge of the train. And so in any sort
17:12
Speaker 1: of emergency situation, it was often on the conductor to
17:16
Speaker 1: sort of make the call about what the crew was
17:19
Speaker 1: going to do in response. Now, the train was clearly
17:22
Speaker 1: not backsliding. There wasn't an active emergency here, but Michel
17:26
Speaker 1: knew that this is wrong. There really wasn't a clear
17:29
Speaker 1: reason they should be stopped here. If anything, again, this
17:32
Speaker 1: tunnel represented their best chance to move quickly and gain
17:36
Speaker 1: momentum and ride up and over this mountain. And so
17:38
Speaker 1: Michel does not know why they're stopped, but clearly there's
17:42
Speaker 1: some sort of issue. However, Michel knows from his training
17:46
Speaker 1: that what he needs to do is still be be
17:48
Speaker 1: weary of the brake here because for all he knows,
17:50
Speaker 1: you know, maybe there is some issue with the train
17:52
Speaker 1: and it is backsliding, but it's just slow. And so
17:55
Speaker 1: he needs to be ready to hit the brakes. And
17:57
Speaker 1: so what Michel did is he held the brake and
18:00
Speaker 1: waited for a signal from the conductor. Basically, the conductor
18:04
Speaker 1: would blow a series of whistles that, you know, Michel
18:08
Speaker 1: would be able to translate that would tell him what
18:10
Speaker 1: to do, whether it was, you know, lock the brakes or,
18:13
Speaker 1: come up and talk to me or any number of
18:15
Speaker 1: different things he might need to do in this situation.
18:17
Speaker 1: And so Michel, he's just sitting there waiting for the
18:19
Speaker 1: train whistle, but there's nothing. There's just quiet. There's no
18:23
Speaker 1: other sound except for the idling engine, you know, towards
18:26
Speaker 1: the front of the train. And so Michel, he just
18:29
Speaker 1: started to have this bad feeling that this doesn't make sense.
18:32
Speaker 1: There's no good reason why we've stopped here. And so
18:35
Speaker 1: Michel operating on gut instinct here, you know, despite not
18:38
Speaker 1: getting any signal from the conductor, no whistles, no anything,
18:42
Speaker 1: He abandoned the caboose. He abandoned the brake station and
18:45
Speaker 1: began walking from the caboose basically up the center of
18:49
Speaker 1: the train going into the next car. And when he
18:51
Speaker 1: got into the next car, you know, it's totally dark
18:53
Speaker 1: because it's 1 a.m. This car is the first car
18:56
Speaker 1: that he's walking into that's in the tunnel. So it's
18:58
Speaker 1: very dark. And he did have a flashlight, but he
19:01
Speaker 1: didn't want to shine it on the people who are
19:03
Speaker 1: sleeping in here because there's hundreds of stowaways. These people
19:06
Speaker 1: have had very bad luck. They just want to get
19:08
Speaker 1: out of the country. And so as quietly as he could,
19:10
Speaker 1: He's walking through the aisle of this next train car. And,
19:14
Speaker 1: you know, he doesn't notice anything. Everybody is asleep for
19:17
Speaker 1: the most part. And he's walking along. And as he
19:20
Speaker 1: gets to the next train car, he realizes he's starting
19:24
Speaker 1: to hear a new sound. And it's not coming from
19:27
Speaker 1: in the train. It's coming from somewhere outside in the tunnel.
19:30
Speaker 1: It's like this loud thumping sound. Something is hitting the
19:33
Speaker 1: rocks on the side of the tracks somewhere in the tunnel. And,
19:37
Speaker 1: you know, Michel, he doesn't know what it is. He
19:39
Speaker 1: still doesn't know what's going on. He hasn't discovered any
19:43
Speaker 1: sign of, you know, what has actually happened here. And
19:46
Speaker 1: so he just keeps on walking. And as he goes
19:48
Speaker 1: into the next car, he continues to hear. all these
19:50
Speaker 1: 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. He realizes that in addition
20:03
Speaker 1: to the odd thumping sound and the lack of movement
20:06
Speaker 1: and lack of anything really going on in this tunnel,
20:08
Speaker 1: he also realizes that The car itself that he is
20:11
Speaker 1: in is very quiet. Remember, there's basically dozens of people
20:16
Speaker 1: in each of these cars kind of laying on each other,
20:18
Speaker 1: sleeping as they make their way into Italy. And so
20:21
Speaker 1: for the first time, Michel turned on his flashlight, and
20:24
Speaker 1: he's 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 horrifying,
20:34
Speaker 1: he dropped the flashlight, turned, and ran away. it would
20:38
Speaker 1: turn out Michel was right to be concerned that this
20:41
Speaker 1: train might not be able to make it up this mountain.
20:44
Speaker 1: By the time the train sputtered into that tunnel, despite
20:48
Speaker 1: the fact that, yes, the conditions were much better in
20:50
Speaker 1: the tunnel for the train to maintain speed and momentum,
20:53
Speaker 1: despite that, the other factors were too much to overcome.
20:57
Speaker 1: The train was too heavy from all the stowaways, and
21:00
Speaker 1: the coal was quite bad, so the engine was not
21:02
Speaker 1: as powerful as it normally would be. And so even
21:04
Speaker 1: though the tracks were not slick... It was just too much.
21:07
Speaker 1: And so the train ground to a halt inside of
21:10
Speaker 1: the tunnel. And so what needed to happen as soon
21:12
Speaker 1: as the train came to a stop like that is
21:14
Speaker 1: the conductor and the crew at the front of the train,
21:18
Speaker 1: they needed to basically jumpstart the train. They needed to
21:21
Speaker 1: put as much coal as they could into the furnace
21:24
Speaker 1: to get this engine turning enough. that it could pick
21:27
Speaker 1: up speed again and continue their journey. They basically needed
21:30
Speaker 1: to rev the engine, if you will, and really fire
21:33
Speaker 1: this engine up and get it going. But in order
21:36
Speaker 1: to do that, they had to put a huge amount
21:39
Speaker 1: of this coal into the furnace to make that jumpstart 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 10 times the amount of
21:53
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. Michel 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. Those thumping
22:35
Speaker 1: sounds that Michelle was hearing were the sounds of people's
22:38
Speaker 1: bodies after they had died rolling off the train and
22:41
Speaker 1: falling to the ground. When he walked through the train
22:44
Speaker 1: car and looked around, the reason it was so quiet
22:46
Speaker 1: is everybody in these train cars were dead. Out of
22:49
Speaker 1: the approximately 600 stowaways and crew who had been on
22:54
Speaker 1: board this train, 521 were found dead. Thank you so
23:06
Speaker 1: much for watching. Let me know what you thought of
23:08
Speaker 1: today's episode in the comments below. And remember, we have
23:11
Speaker 1: hundreds of videos for you to binge right now. But
23:15
Speaker 1: if you're looking for a recommendation from me of that
23:17
Speaker 1: one video that's worth your time, well, it's this one
23:20
Speaker 1: right here. So give it a watch. All right, until
23:23
Speaker 1: next time, see ya.