A Boy at the Throttle

After accidentally killing an opponent in the ring, a professional wrestler takes a job at a group home for youth offenders. But when a psychopath wearing a wrestling mask begins butchering the teenage residents, their rehabilitation will become a no-holds-barred battle for survival. Originally filmed in 1994 but completed in 2019.

Their demand for money having gone unheeded, Garibaldi and his gang wreck Number One. Howard, who attempts to interfere, is battered into insensibility. The criminals then place a note in the man's pocket warning the railroad officials to heed their demands in the future.

Helen, the operator at Hobart, warns her friend Anna, the operator at Montville, that Tim Hudson, a notorious swindler, is headed for Montville. Anna later brings about Hudson's arrest when the man, posing as a minister, attempts to swindle the people of the town.

While Hastings, the engineer of Freight No. 3205 is at lunch- in the Lone Point station, Bobby Heywood, the son of an engineer, climbs into the cab of the engine. Having frequently observed his father start his locomotive, Bobby jerks the throttle open. Helen sees the freight speeding down the track. Remembering that Bobby has been playing about the station, the girl surmises what has occurred.

Brent, the night operator has been knocked unconscious by a piece of lumber projecting from a passing freight, and has been rendered temporarily insane. Meantime, a furious storm arises, a track walker discovers a washout and wires a warning to Helen, who sets the danger signal for the Limited which is due in ten minutes.

Under the influence of liquor, Griffin foolishly displays a roll of bills. Wheeler and Walter, yeggmen, see the money and trail the traveler to the station. The men learn the berth he is to occupy. Hastening to a bridge under which the train must pass, they drop to the roof of one of the cars when it appears. Helen, transferred to Burnett, is a passenger on the train. By mistake, Griffin gets into her berth. Because of the man's condition, Helen consents to allow him to keep her berth. The girl takes the one which Griffin's ticket calls for. An hour later, Helen is awakened by a peculiar noise outside the car. Hastily dressing, she sees the window being raised. Wheeler's face appears at the window. The man foils Helen's attempt to shoot him, disarms her and then climbs back to the roof of the car.

King attempts to tighten the brake of a freight car standing near the summit of a steep grade at Lone Point. Suddenly, the brake chain snaps and the train commences to roll down hill. Helen sees King's peril, rides to a point just before a curve, crawls hand over hand across a rope which she has stretched across the track, and snatches King from the car moments before the car is dashed to pieces as it leaves the rails of the curve.

A crooked mine owner attempts to hijack his rival's shipment of ore, but Helen foils his plot by jumping onto the engine and pulling the throttle wide open, eventually exposing the unscrupulous villain.

Sharky, a rival road agent, plots to spoil a trial run to be made on Helen's road that will win a mail contract. He opens a waste valve on the tank of the engine, and, when nearing Lone Point, the water tank runs dry. Helen comes to the rescue by mounting the new gasoline speeder and starting off with the mail for the end of the run.

Jim, determined to ruin a box car brake test, hides inside, removes the flooring, and ruins the brake apparatus. As a result, the box car runs wild, trapping him inside. Before Helen can sidetrack the runaway, it shoots off the track at Elbow curve, overturning as it topples down the embankment. Helen smashes a hole through the side, braves the flames, crawls into the car, rescues Jim and drags him to safety. But her heroism is too late; Jim dies in her arms.

Deering and his gang rifle the station safe and gain possession of some valuable gems; Helen seizes the package and throws it into the river. In order to recover the package, a human chain is formed by the railroad men, which Helen climbs down and attempts to catch the package with her feet. Meanwhile, Deering and his men have boarded a launch, and succeed in grabbing both Helen and the package. Morton takes over a freight train, captures the crooks, and rescues Helen and the gems.

The film is about a woman who experiences frightening visions after visiting an insane asylum where one of the inmates claims to be Count Dracula (here following the Hungarian spelling Drakula). She has trouble determining whether the inmate's visions are real or merely nightmares.

Hanging from a rope over the track, the detective seems certain to plunge to death when the oncoming train splits the knot of the rope which has been tied to a rail and slung over the bridge girder. Helen's presence of mind and nerve in swinging out over the river on the other end of the rope and thus balancing the detective until the train has passed prevents the terrible catastrophe. Later, when pursuing the culprits, Helen once more takes her life in her hands by throwing a lasso from the hand car on which they are pursuing the freight over the brake beam, and then crawling hand over hand to the top of the car.

The new superintendent's first order on taking the post eliminates the men whom he terms old, which costs "Pop" Bates his job as Helen's relief operator. His next declaration is that active railroad work is no place for women, and Helen is also dropped from the service. While Helen is breaking the news to Bob Bates, the new superintendent is hustling about the road yard speeding up the work. "Put more snap into your switching," he tells the men. A minute later, while he is making an inspection inside a boxcar with defective air brakes, a switching engine rams the car. The force of the impact, heightened by the recent orders, throws the superintendent to the floor stunned, and starts the car on the down grade. In the few moments it is speeding along the road and there is consternation among the men for a washout down the road means that it is headed to certain destruction.

To prevent a three mile journey around the mountain the telegraph wires at the construction camp have been strung over the precipice from the station on the mountain top. The operator is discharged when the superintendent suspects him of treachery and Helen is transferred to the station. Later, after the former operator has enlisted the aid of crooked brokers to use his knowledge in ruining the value of the road's stock, he receives an opportunity to get revenge on the superintendent.

Red Stanley's band has successfully robbed the express car and the members are making good their escape when they come upon Helen and her girl chum riding in the woods. The girls are set upon but they succeed by desperate riding in making their escape temporarily and, when danger seems near again, are saved by the approaching railroad detectives searching for the Stanley band. A running fight results in the capture of one of the band, but Stanley and his chief aide escape. Under cover of darkness, as Helen is working alone in the desolate station, the two enter and bind and gag her.

"Red" Byrd and his aides succeed in learning that a large treasure is being shipped on a certain freight car under special guard. They overpower the relief operator at Helen's station and tamper with the signals so that the treasure train stops, while the crew runs ahead to investigate, leaving Spencer alone to guard the treasure.

Chilton, a crooked dealer in antiques, decides on a daring scheme to recoup his finances by defrauding the railroad. A car-load of cheap furniture is shipped with a valuation of $40,000 on it. Blanding, the tool of Chilton and his partner, awaits at Lone Point a telegram giving the number of the car.

Tony, a half-breed Mexican is kicked from pillar to post, but he grasps a chance for revenge on society when he peers through the station window and sees Helen, the operator at Lone Point, opening the express company bag containing a valuable shipment to a local rancher.

#61 in the Hazards of Helen series