Atomic Train

The film starts in Dallas when a school bus full of children, including the teacher, narrowly escapes being struck by an oncoming freight train.

In Denver, Colorado, Bradshaw Disposal Services, has a Soviet-era nuclear bomb made in Russia to transport, and an employee; John Henry Bradshaw, decides to save money by concealing it on a freight train, which is also loaded with hazardous and flammable chemicals bound from Stillwater, Utah to Denver, including metallic sodium, which spontaneously ignites on contact with water. 300 miles before reaching Denver, the train suffers a brake failure when the engine compressor explodes, and the air hoses fail, becoming a runaway heading for Denver. The lead train engineer, Wally Phister, attempts to re-connect the hoses before they reach for the portable derailer set up by the Denver railway control, but crushes his hand.

John Seger, a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator is notified of the crisis and boards on the chasing locomotive via a helicopter who heads for the runaway, whose driver Ray, is planning to couple up his locomotive to the caboose to try and stop it. Meanwhile, railway dispatchers, Ed and Christina, receives a telephone call from one of the Bradshaw Disposal Systems employees, warning them of a nuclear bomb loaded among one of the railcars. The dispatchers decide to call in the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) to find answers. In the meantime. they call off the derailment, right as the runaway train arrives at the derailer site in Silver Gorge. This allows Seger and Ray to successfully catch and couple up the runaway train.

However, the couplers fail while attempting to slow the train down, forcing Seger to board the runaway. Tucker is thrown off the caboose and onto the tracks and is killed. Once on board, NEST Lieutenant Colonel, Tom Levy, contacts Seger, and tasks him to investigate the runaway's cargo and confirm whether if Bradshaw Disposal Services' warnings are substantiated. Seger eventually locates the smuggled Russian nuclear bomb inside the cargo car, and relays the information to Denver railway control, finally confirming the threat of a nuclear detonation. The city of Denver erupts into chaos.

As the runaway train reaches Jackson Summit, the final peak before reaching Denver, Seger attempts to stop the runaway train by jamming the electrical lock using his crowbar. His efforts were successful but is short-lived. The following rescue train driver Ray, against Ed's orders, speeds forward in an attempt to rescue the crew, but realizes too late of the runaway's slowing. The locomotive crushes the caboose, killing an injured crew member Al Discus, in the process. The force disengages the brakes, causing the train to speed up once again. Meanwhile, Denver residents are struggling to collect their families and then leave town, amid rising chaos; Noris "Mac" Mackenzie, a police officer, responds to a hostage situation.

Realizing that there is no way to stop it, Seger convinces Phister, initially reluctant, to abandon the train before it can speed up too much. The final crew member to be left behind, Stan, though told by Phister to leave the train, climbs back aboard and tries to re-connect the air hoses in an attempt to stop the train, but falls off and dies; the runaway train, now completely unmanned, is speeding down the mountain and is approaching the final derailment site at Millers Bend near Denver. The train derails and becomes a terrific wreck; although the bomb does not detonate, it is highly unstable.

Firefighters and NEST teams struggle to extinguish the fire at the crash site and extract the bomb, but after realizing that metallic sodium is on the train and the chemicals proving too much for them, the firefighters and NEST teams retreat to evaluate a strategy. In the meantime, all firefighting aircraft are grounded. NEST commander Reuben Castillo decides to voluntarily disarm the nuclear bomb alone. However, the misinterpretation of a radio call to a water bombing helicopter leads it to dump its load of water onto the wreck. Water comes into contact with the metallic sodium, which explodes and in turn causes the nuclear bomb to detonate, releasing an electromagnetic pulse that wipes out all electricity in Denver and sending a shockwave that tore through part of the city, killing and injuring thousands; among the dead are Denver railway controllers Ed and Christina, all of the NEST team including Castillo and Levy, and local news reporter Kelly Marx. Seger, who was able to reunite with Megan and his family moments before, managed to survive the blast along with his family, but Grace's boyfriend, Danny, is injured.

With Denver in ruins. John attempts to get his family out of Denver before nuclear fallout reaches the town, but the electromagnetic pulse renders almost every vehicle immobile. After much discussion, John and Mac decide to split up; Mac takes his son Chance, and Seger's daughter, Grace through the coal mines for a quicker route out of town using his working motorcycle. John, and Megan manage to board the bus heading to Eminence along with the injured Danny, but is separated, leaving the former on his own. He eventually finds an old working car from a lifeless man and decides to follow their kids. However, Mac is crippled due to an accident and Chance is left hanging precariously over the deep mining pit while trying to rescue his father. Grace sets out and grabs the wire while finding Seger. With Mac's assistance using the wire, John manages to rescue Chance, but Mac falls to his death.

John, Chance, and Grace manage to make their way to a FEMA refugee camp in Eminence, Kansas, and the family is once again reunited.

The release poster features FM C-liners, of which one exists today, Canadian Pacific 4104, at Nelson, British Columbia.

The actual film uses all Canadian equipment, including the MLW M-420. The two locomotives that attempt to couple to the runaway are in the paint scheme of BC Rail, which has since been folded into Canadian National.

• Rob Lowe as John Seger
• Kristin Davis as Megan Seger
• Esai Morales as Noris "Mac" MacKenzie
• Sean Smith as Chance MacKenzie
• John Finn as Wally Phister
• Mena Suvari as Grace Seger
• Eric Johnson as Danny
• Edward Herrmann as President Fellwick
• Don S. Davis as General Harlan Ford
• Blu Mankuma as NEST Commander Rueben Castillo
• Michael Tomlison as NEST Lt. Colonel Tom Levy
• Jane Perry as Kelly Marx KNFS News pilot reporter
• Henry Lubatti as John Henry Bradshaw of Bradshaw Disposal Systems
• Chris Ellis as Ed Brown Denver Railway Control

• Won the Golden Reel Award (2000) for "Best Sound Editing - Television Mini-Series - Effects and Foley"
• Nominated for Golden Reel Award (2000) for "Best Sound Editing - Television Mini-Series - Dialogue and ADR"

Trimark Home Video (under the label NBC Home Video) released the film in DVD and VHS on September 21, 1999.[2]

• List of disaster films
• Unstoppable (2010 film)

• Atomic Train at IMDb
• Atomic Train at Rotten Tomatoes
• Nuclear Information and Resource Service: "NBC's 'Atomic Train" Explodes Myth of Safe Nuclear Waste Transport"