Show GUT TRAINS AIR HOSE Peter McKenna Causes Soldier Sol-dier Summit Sensation I PLANNING WRECK CHARGED Railroad Men Say That if McKennas Act Had Not Been Discovered a Frightful Accident Would Have Resulted Freiglit Train Might Have CrashcdInto Passenger McKenna Mc-Kenna Says Air Was Leaking and He Cut Hose to Call Attention to Leak Arrested in Salt Lake Peter McKenna a young railroad man was arrested at the Rio Grande Western station yesterday charged with cutting the air hose on a R G W freight train at Soldier Summit early yesterday morning McKenna was coming west on No E which passed the freight in the snowshed at the Summit While time trains were standIng stand-Ing McKenna Jumped off the passenger and walking to the freight disconnected discon-nected the hose and turned the cocks His act was observed by members ot the crews of both trains and created much excitement He rode away on the passenger but was arrested at Salt Lako by Detective Kctchum of the Rio Grande Western and taken to the county Jail by Deputy John Shea In the evening Deputy Henry of Utah county came up and took the prisoner to Provo where he will be tried I was on my way from Colorado Springs to Butte with a frlond of mine named Frank Dunlap said McKenna Mc-Kenna I am a railroad man apd heard the hiss of a leak In the air pipe of the freight The Inspector was coming com-ing up through the shed and I simply disconnected the pipe between two cars and shut off time cocks so he would be sure to see something was wrong I looked at the gaskets in the pipe to see where the leak was amid had just stepped out when the inspector came along and asked me what I meant by cutting the hose I told him there was a leak and then when Frank called tome to-me from the steps of No 5 I got back on the passenger The Inspector and the rest of them around there acted like a lot of crazy men for a while I did not intend any harm and merely did it so the inspector would be sure < to find the leak There was some trouble between McKenna Mc-Kenna or Dunlap and the conductor of the passenger earlier on the trip overtIme over-tIme railroad fare McKenna said last night that the conductor took up Dun laps ticket and did not return any change out of a 20 gold piece tendered him to take the fare out of There were some words exchanged McKenna says but he had no part in it McKenna was formerly a brakeman on the Rio Grande Western but was discharged some time ago lie said last night he was familiar with the grade at Soldier Summit and he knew it would be a bad piece of track for a train to get avay on but still Insisted that he had no thought of harm i suppose I ought not to have touched it he said but It was natural to me knowing there was a leak there to disconnect dis-connect the hose so that the Inspector would be sure and not overlook the leak The railroad men were highly wrought up over the matter one of them going so far as to say the act was equivalent to cutting a rope which suspended sus-pended a man In midaIr If the the train had started in the shape he left It said this railroader It would have run away down grade and smashed right into the rear end of the passenger and would almost certainly have killed half the passengers on the train Deputy Henry said there wag talk of lynching McKenna among the crew on the trains McKenna Is a married man and has a family living at Colorado Springs A charge of attempting to wreck a train which is a felony here will probably be brought against him The Soldier Summit grade is one of the steepest In tho west Extra precautions pre-cautions are taken at the Summit and at Midway switch halfway down The freight yesterday wan to follow No 5 down the hill on the time limit shown by the rules If the cutting off of the air had not been discovered one of two things would have happened either the freight would have crashed Into No 5 before the latter had reached Midway thereby wrecking both trains or elre If No 5 had passed Midway the freight I would have run on to the safety switch and dumped the cars there |