Sidetracked
Lester Crest
- Mission giver
- Lester Crest
- Playable
- Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton, Trevor Philips
- Location
- Davis Quartz, Grand Senora Desert
- Target
- Steal a train using a Skylift.
- Unlocked by
- Planning the Big Score
- Unlocks
- The Big Score
Player notes
Lester Crest texts Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton and Trevor Philips to say that he has secured a Skylift for the train theft required for the obvious approach to The Big Score. One of the crew heads to Davis Quartz in the Grand Senora Desert, where two railway workers are guarding the tracks. He incapacitates them, enters the trackside cabin and changes the points, diverting the next freight train into the sidings.
Once the train stops, Michael or Franklin contacts Trevor if either man arranged the diversion. If Trevor handled the tracks, he contacts Michael instead. Control shifts to the pilot, Trevor in the first case or Michael in the second, already aboard the Skylift. The helicopter approaches the stopped train and lowers its magnet onto the freight engine.
The pilot carries the engine across the desert to Trevor's airstrip at Sandy Shores Airfield and sets it down there. He returns to Davis Quartz, attaches the Skylift's magnet to a flatbed carriage and flies the carriage back to the airstrip. The train engine and flatbed are left at Trevor's airstrip.
Objectives
6 stepsIn the order the game gives them. The unnumbered steps only appear if you go off script.
- 1Incapacitate the railway workers .
- 2Wait for a train to stop in the sidings.
- 3Pick up the freight engine .
- 4Take the freight engine to Trevor's airstrip .
- 5Pick up a flatbed carriage .
- 6Take the flatbed to Trevor's airstrip .
Gold medal
2 requirementsEvery one of these in a single run earns the medal. Replaying the mission later counts.
Time
Complete within 04:30.
Undetected
Steal the train without being detected.
Mission failed if
Any of these fails the mission and sends you back to the last checkpoint.
- ×Wasted
- ×The cops were alerted
- ×Lose the train
- ×Skylift is destroyed
- ×The truck was destroyed
- ×Exceed mission vicinity
- ×One of the crew was killed
Trivia
- ◆In real life, the events of this mission would not be possible. The real Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane can only lift about 12 tons. A large diesel-electric locomotive weighs in the range of 200 tons.
- ◆Also, no practical electromagnet can lift anywhere near that much weight. If it could, the power supply alone would outweigh the helicopter's lifting ability.
- ◆Franklin is the only character who won't fly the Skylift. There are three ways:
- ◆If the mission is started by either Michael or Franklin, Trevor will fly the helicopter.
- ◆If Trevor starts the mission, Michael will fly the helicopter.
- ◆Trevor will respond badly if Michael knocks out the guards, but will be more pleasant if the player picks Franklin.
- ◆If the mission is started as Franklin and failed as Trevor, Michael will be at the cabin instead of Franklin.
- ◆It is not possible to keep the Skylift after the mission is completed (if updated).
- ◆This mission is vaguely similar to The Ballad of Gay Tony mission For the Man Who Has Everything, as it requires one person to unhook a train car and fly away with the train carriage in a Skylift. In TBOGT, the player has to withstand a five-star wanted level, but in GTA V, there is no wanted rating. In TBOGT, there is only one carriage, but there are two that are taken in GTA V. The trains are different, as a subway car is involved in the TBOGT mission, while Freight Train carriages and a cab are involved in the GTA V mission.
Mission data from GTA Wiki, CC BY-SA. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games.
Last verified September 14, 2026