Glen C. Nagle saved Robert A. Oster from being killed by a train, Toronto, Ontario, July 19, 1964. Robert, 5, and a 6-year-old boy were midway the ends of a single-track railroad trestle 55 feet high when a freight train approached at 30 m.p.h. Nagle, 35, locomotive fireman, and the brakeman, who were in the cab of the engine, saw the boys when the train was 1,500 feet away and shouted to the engineer, who applied the emergency brakes. As the train began jerking from effects of the braking, Nagle ran to steps at the front of the engine, followed by the brakeman. Nagle descended the steps and, holding to a handrail, swung onto a narrow footboard at the front of the engine. The train by then had slowed to 10 m.p.h. and was within 35 feet of the older boy, who was 15 feet nearer than Robert. Nagle and the brakeman yelled to the boys to lie down on the ties in the three-foot space between the rail and a timber at the edge of the trestle. The older boy did so, but Robert remained standing near the rail. As the engine passed the other boy, Nagle called to Robert to put out his hand, which he did. Holding to the handrail, Nagle crouched on the footboard, leaned out as far as he could, and grasped Robert by the wrist. Robert squirmed as Nagle lifted him and held him while the engine continued 120 feet farther on the trestle before stopping.
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