Nobody was at the controls of the 47-car train rolling south out of Toledo. The engineer had stepped off to line a switch and grabbed the throttle instead of the last brake.
Two of the cars carried molten phenol. A crew on a northbound freight uncoupled their locomotive and went after it.
They coupled on at the back and slowed it to about 12 mph, slow enough for a trainmaster to climb aboard.
It inspired the movie Unstoppable.