A Machinist's Heroic Sacrifice (Colour Litho)

A machinist's heroic sacrifice. Due to a sudden backfire, the train driver Jean Coquelin, who was driving a train on its way to Saint Malo, was hit by fire. Overcoming the pain, he had the strength to put his badly burned hands on the brakes and managed to stop the convoy before a catastrophe happened. Having stopped the train, on which there were 500 passengers, the Coquelin threw itself from the locomotive. Eighty colleagues offered flaps of leather to save him. But in vain. On the eve of the operation, the heroic driver for a heart failure died. Illustration for Courier Sunday, 24 November 1957.