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Fact #58781

When:

Short story:

Fifty-six year old John Axon is driving a train from Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK, to his home depot at Edgeley, when the automatic steam brake pipe fractures. The cab fills with scalding steam, but after telling his fireman to jump clear, Axon remains aboard to warn signal boxes along the route. Axon is killed when his engine crashes into another freight train, but his courage saves the lives of a train full of children. Folk singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl will immortalise Axon's heroism in his 1958 song The Ballad Of John Axon.