Trooper awarded silver star for stopping runaway train (Update)

Associated Press ^ | 08/07/03 | Staff Writer

[bedolido]

MERIDIAN, Idaho - Idaho State Police Corporal Dwayne Prescott has been awarded the state's silver star for stopping a runaway train earlier this summer.

Prescott received the award today. The silver star is the ISP's second-highest honor.

It happened on June Fifth. The unmanned locomotive started rolling in Boise and continued through western Ada County. The engine blasted through a number of intersections as officers leapfrogged across the valley to stop motor traffic.

Prescott rode his motorcycle along the rail bed to catch up. Once aboard, an engineer on the police radio helped him get it stopped. It was just in time to avoid a collision with another train parked on the tracks in Canyon County.

[bedolido]

Original FR Thread Here

Note: above picture does not represent article

Note: above picture does represent my grand-daughters favorite story

[Mr. K]

just DAMN...~!!

[Who dat?]

The unmanned locomotive started rolling in Boise and continued through western Ada County.

I was always under the impression that the locomotive had some sort of switch or lever that was designed to make sure someone was on board before it could roll off.

That’s my recollection. I had a friend whose dad was an engineer for SP years ago. He took us on a train a couple of times and showed us all the gauges and levers and stuff. But it’s been a long time so I’m probably not remembering something.

[DuncanWaring]

...some sort of switch or lever ...

Yeah. It's called a "Deadman's Pedal". If it isn't being stepped on, the train is supposed to stop.

Apparently they don't always work.

[A. Patriot]

Yeah. It's called a "Deadman's Pedal". If it isn't being stepped on, the train is supposed to stop. Apparently they don't always work.

Maybe it was disabled?????

Had a brick or something else heavy on it???

Just idle speculation.

[ChewedGum]

Yeah. It's called a "Deadman's Pedal". If it isn't being stepped on, the train is supposed to stop. Apparently they don't always work.

What if the engineer had a heart attack and collapsed right there onto the pedal. That would be ironic.

Gum

[CindyDawg]

I thought this was an older article at first. Remember that yard train a year or so ago that took off? I don't know much about trains except that when I travel to reserve a sleeper lol, but maybe they all don't have this pedal.

[tractorman]

Deadman’s pedals were disconnected years ago.

Back in the ‘70’s I worked as a brakeman for the CMSP&P and they were disconnected back then.

One time, in the middle of the night, we actually hit our own train.
We left 80 cars parked on the main line and were backing 20 cars and four locomotives into the yard, or so we thought. Unfortunately, the new kid threw the spring switch the wrong way and sent the train back to me. I hopped on the last car and was riding back into the yard when I saw our train right in front of me.

I gave the new kid a “washout” signal to relay to the engineer, but instead of him relaying it, he threw his flare down and jumped. When I saw that, I jumped too and watched as the front half crashed into the rear half. The impact was so great that it shifted the car bodies of the locomotives off their frames and catapulted the engineer through the back door out onto the catwalk. It took 10 hours to clean up the mess.

That was just one of many incidents.