Doc Edward Morbius ⭕If you ever feel like you've been thrown into a set-up-to-fail situation, be thankful you're not the recently-hired fireman and engineer of SP Special #4139, westbound in the early morning of 19 November 1941, from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, finding your oil-fired steam locomotive spinning out as its own steam and oil lubricated the rails of whilst headed uphill through a tunnel with 96 cars and 3,550 tons behind you, a snapped coupling, automatically-deployed brakes, and 6,400 gallons of oil in your tender that would leave the locomotive still glowing red hot when rescue teams finally arrived.
Oh, and the ICC accident report would blame you despite an unventillated tunnel, poor locomotive design, engine in bad repair, lack of safety equipment, lack of communications equipment, poor training, and impossibly tight technical margins.
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