Continuity mistake: When Frank asks for their work order, Will says they are supposed to pick up 25 cars. After picking up the 25 cars, Frank notices that the train is too long and asks for their work order again. This time, Will says they were supposed to pick up 20 cars.
Plot hole: According to the channel 8 live report "the railway company is still not commenting." Yet they knew what happened to make 777 unmanned, that Dewey was the driver, his age, that he would face disciplinary action, that it was Ryan scott attempting to board, his age, that he was an ex marine, that he'd just came back from Afghanistan, that Judd Stewart was driving the front loco and his age, the names of Frank and Will and what they were attempting to do. That's an awful lot of accurate, detailed information when the company is apparently not commenting.
Continuity mistake: Colson is blasted in the face with grain when the train car carrying the grain explodes, and his hair is blown about. When he goes back into the cockpit of the locomotive, there is no grain on him and his hair is neat.
Continuity mistake: One of the shots in the scene where the runaway passes the Railroad Safety Campaign shows 777 speed by the campaign train's window. In this shot, the numbers 777 are painted backwards.
Character mistake: Engine #1206 is instructed to take the nearest siding upon hearing the news of the oncoming train. Frank does the maths and determines that they will not fit into that siding. He states the siding being 4011 feet between signals, with about 2500 of actual usable space. Engine #1206 with 25 cars would only equal 1580 feet, giving them more than enough room to clear in the first available siding.The average length of a railroad car is 60 feet. Even if the cars were considered "long", total 25 cars would have fit into that siding.
Factual error: The vigilance system on the locomotive, once unattended for at least a few minutes, would apply the brakes (which in the movie said wouldn't work, which is true) however it would also cut the throttle automatically, so the train wouldn't accelerate.
Factual error: Connie is giving orders to people in the railroad control room like she's in charge. In reality the control director is in charge, and the yardmaster doesn't have any authority over him as he is a higher ranked employee, with higher authority than the yardmaster. While yardmasters do work in the control room to help engineers who finished loading, and left yards reach their destinations, they don't give orders to any of the staff in the control room. They only have authority over the yards they manage.
Other mistake: When the runaway train is about to hit the rail car, the rear bogey on that rail car is not on the tracks.
Other mistake: When 1206 is tracking close to 777, Barnes asks Hooper how far away 777 is from 1206. Hooper replies "one and a half miles, and gaining." Barnes indicates that 1206 just passed mile marker 57. Shortly after, Hooper states that 777 is at mile marker 61. This would make the distance between the two at minimum 4 miles apart.
Continuity mistake: When Dewey and Gilleece are in the rail roller truck, the tailgate of the truck is clean with nothing on it. After the attempt to climb on 777 fails and the door gets smashed off, the tailgate suddenly has some kind of equipment either attached to or exposed off the tailgate in the middle.
Factual error: In several scenes a PA State Police Captain is shown wearing a "Trooper" style campaign hat. Only PSP enlisted ranks (Trooper, Corporal, Sergeant) wear campaign hats. Higher ranks, including Captain, wear round military "service" caps.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie, the controller tells the two guys to move a parked train. The two men are between two trains, and dependent on the shot, the one to the right of them is either moving or not.
Visible crew/equipment: After the train crashes into the horse trailer, there is a scene with Denzel's train talking to dispatch. They are talking about how Denzel's train is too big to fit in one of the sidings. During this scene, the camera is moving around the train looking through the cabin. The head of a crew member is visible reflected in the glass.
Visible crew/equipment: When 7375 and 7376 pull out of the siding in the attempt to slow down 777, Judd Stewart is the only engineer controlling to two engines, he is sat in the front engine (7375). However, when the camera is on the second engine, 7376, a person can be shown sat in the cab of 7376.
Continuity mistake: Near the beginning of the movie, we learn from Dewey talking to Connie that train 777 is pulling 39 cars. At the end of the movie, we see a front view of 777 stopped on the tracks. The tracks extending back from the locomotive curve off to the right and you can see the rail cars all the way back to the blue locomotive 1206. There is nowhere close to 39 cars between locomotive 777 and locomotive 1206.
Character mistake: In the reporting of the scene where the Pennsylvania police shoot at the train trying to hit the red button that would stop the train, the report said they were firing shotguns. They were firing M16 rifles.
Continuity mistake: When the truck with the horse trailer is across the crossing, 777 is way off in the distance with a deer crossing the tracks. The next shot of 777 shows the train a lot closer to the crossing and then in the final shot, it shows 777 way in the distance again, showing the same deer crossing the tracks.
