The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-26
IT WAS AN HEROIC DEED.
BRAKEMAN GRIFFIN AND CONDUC-
TOR PIERCE OF THE r. G. w.
Save Passenger Train from Des-
truction-At the Risk of Their
Lives Convey Burning Oil Car
to Safe Distance Where 1t Ex-
p1Odes.

Not a few instances are on record
which go to show that in the ranks
of railroad men heroes stand. The
pages of history are emblazoned with
the deeds of intrepid and gallant men
who have upon crimson fields of battle
picked up the deadly shell with the
suffering fuse burnt almost to it's
base and hurled the deadly thing
where it might harmlessly spend it's
fury. Yet there are men in the railway
service today who in heroism are the
peers of those who handle the muir
derous shell, inhale the cannonS smoke
and in whose ears whistle the ominous
music of the shrieking bomb. An i'm
cident which happened here at home
illustrative of this came to light a few
days ago. The hero was only brake
man, but he was hero all fhe same.
Some weeks ago train No. II on the
Rio Grande Western pitched over Sol
diers Summit coming west-nothing
unusual in that. 1t was a heavy train,
the grade is a four per cent. all the
way to the foot of the mountain and
the entire crew, fore and aft, were all
at their respective posts, while wheels
were heating and a train of sparks
was ground off from the brakeshoes-
nothing unusual in that, either. The
train was nearly half way down the
mountain, when the hind man, Brake
man Mike Griffin, sees a wreath of fire
crawl up and lick the bottom of a car
near the head end. Through long SER
vice he readily divines the cause and
the danger attending. An oil car had
taken the flame from a tiny rivulet of
dripping oil upon the redhot brake
shoe. Destruction. if not death, had
come upon the valuable and heavy
laden train. ".
To think was to act. A signal to the
head man and thence to the engineer
stops the train. Buckets of water are
thrown upon the flame, but it is only
adding fuel to the flame. Something
must be done, and done quickly. A
little way below is the Midway safety
switch, and the train is quickly cut
with a view of making a. drop of the
now deadly car. Passenger train No.
2 is also there on the siding close by,
that as we'll. The moment is a, critical
one. When all is ready for the drop"
the car must be ridden in and the
brake set; otherwise it will roll back
again down the steep incline.
Conductor Pierce volunteers to ride
it in Brakeman Mike Griffin is heard
to say: you are a man with a fam
lily and would be missed; here goes"
He mounted the burning car, kicked
off the brake TO ride it in to safety or
to eternity-which? All evidence
leaned to the latter, as the flames had
communicated to the naptha within
the tanks, and they were belching
forth a roar betokening but short i'm
prisonment. The nervy brakeman staid
by it and set the brake. Having so
done, he lost no time in fleeing from
the vicinity, and none too soon, for in
a few moments the burning Oil event
UP" with terrific roar and portions
of the car went with it for hundreds
of feet.
Griffin by taking his lifelin his hands
saved the lives and limbs of the occu-
pants of the passenger train, who re-
manned equally in ignorance of their
danger and their preserver
The management of the Rio Grande
Western, however, took cognizance of
the incident and presented, both Con-
ductor Pierce and Brakeman Griffin
with a substantial recognition of the
signal service they had rendered and
also made the boys feel happy by
words of praise and commentator.