The Spiked Switch (1916)

• 74%
• 1916
• Thriller
• J. Gunnis Davis
• Helen Gibson
• George A. Williams
• Roy Watson

Trent returns to the throttle too soon after his recovery from illness. On the following day Ruth, his daughter, and Hume plan to elope. Trent, with a new fireman, is suddenly taken with a weak spell and when the fireman becomes panic-stricken there is a scuffle which ends with the fireman thrown to the ground while the fast freight speeds on. Trent, a moment later, is overcome, and lies helpless in the engine cab. Flagmen notice that there is something wrong when the express whizzes by without the least attention to signals. Word is sent ahead to Helen to derail the freight to save the passenger, the same trail, on which Ruth and her lover are eloping. But trouble with the switch had caused the construction crew to spike it earlier in the day and Helen finds it impossible to send the express on a siding. The downgrade suggests a plan, and with the aid of an automobile she sends a box car speeding down towards the freight while she rips loose a plank from the top of the box car to prepare for a perilous leap. She braces the plank under the platform on top of the box car and as the flying express speeds by makes the thrilling leap, landing in a tumbled heap at the bottom of a coal car. It is but a few seconds before the train is brought to a stop.