From “News & Editorial Comment,” David P. Morgan, editor. Trains, March 1967, pg. 16.
“Heroes never fade away—just ask the Mopac”
The romanticists will tell you that the brave engineer was retired with the steam locomotive, that so-called automated railroading has abolished the breed. Not so. Missouri Pacific’s 49-year-old T. A. Perry Jr. is a brave engineer, and he proved as much aboard a diesel yard engine at Poplar Bluff, Mo., on October 30, 1966. At 12:30 a.m. a four-unit freight locomotive got away from its hostler and came off a service track under full power toward Perry’s switcher. Perry sounded a warning, realized there was no one aboard the runaway, rammed his throttle wide open, and started north up the main, sandwiched between the runaway behind him and No. 67—an 81-car freight—approaching in the opposite direction. (Unknown to Perry, a quick-thinking engine foreman alerted the dispatcher, who radioed 67’s crew to stop and unload.) Once out of town and on tangent track, Perry eased off the switcher’s throttle, let the runaway catch up and couple (at an impact of 20 to 25 mph), then left his engine to climb along the running boards of the trailing hoods (which were doing 40mph) and shut down each one’s engines. Not easy for a man of Perry’s 5-foot, 8-inch, 235-pound size. He got ‘em stopped, just 2 miles from No. 67, radioed for assistance, and returned to Poplar Bluff to finish his yard trick. To Perry’s surprise, Mopac President D. B. Banks sent a congratulatory letter and a $1000 U.S. Savings Bond. Perry appreciated the letter (“That’s so when I tell my grandchildren about it I’ll have something to prove it wasn’t just a tall tale”) but was amazed by the bond. Said he: “I did nothing that any other man would not have done in the same situation.”
