Motorman stops train, saves dog on tracks

Time and Tide - and the Mumbai suburban trains -- wait for none, but yesterday was an exception. An alert motorman of a local train in Mumbai did stop a train to save a dog which was about to get run over.

The incident happened at the crowded Churchgate station of the Western Railway in the afternoon. A local train had barely pulled into the station when the motorman saw a dog on the tracks.

He stopped the train and blew the horn but the canine did not budge.

The incessant blowing of the horn attracted commuters, including a PTI correspondent, from other platforms but did not seem to have any effect on the dog who stood on the tracks, facing the train.

It was left to a good samaritan, who was waiting for this train, to get down on to the tracks and lift the dog to safety amid applause from onlookers.

There was a rush to laud the rescuer and also the motorman for saving the dog's life.

The motorman, R P Meena, told PTI that it was all in a day's work for him. When told that he had done a wonderful thing, the railway employee merely shrugged, saying "it is nothing."

Relieved that the drama had ended on a happy note for the canine, the passengers jumped into the train, the 1.43 pm Churchgate-Virar fast local.