Ira Porter Tindale, 26, locomotive fireman, saved an unidentified man, about 55, from being killed by a train, Tampa, Florida, January 15, 1959. At dusk the man, who was intoxicated, staggered onto a railroad track on which a freight train was approaching. The engineer saw the man when the train was within 500 feet of him and sounded the horn. When the man paid no heed, Tindale left the cab and ran along a catwalk to a footboard at the front of the locomotive. Holding to a grab-iron, Tindale leaned forward as the train continued at a reduced speed of nine miles an hour toward the man, who stood astride one rail. When he was a foot away, Tindale swung himself sharply against the man and knocked him from the path of the train. The man rolled 10 feet to between the rails of a parallel track, on which a passenger train was approaching from the opposite direction at 45 m.p.h. Tindale leaped from the moving freight train and ran 35 feet to the man. The passenger train then was 100 feet away and decreasing its speed. Grasping the man by his belt, Tindale pulled him between the tracks when the train was within 35 feet of them. As both trains passed within three feet of them the man struggled with Tindale, who held him on the ground until the trains stopped.
44622 – 4259
44622-4259Obituary
Ira Porter Tindale, 79, of Tampa, Fla., died on Sept. 4, 2012, in Tampa. He was born on March 23, 1933, in Otter Creek, Fla., to Abb and Mildred Marie (Prevatt) Tindale.
Tindale was veteran of the Florida National Guard and was a railroad engineer. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen #216 union in Tampa, the NRA, and the N.W.A. He was a retired wrestler and enjoyed boating, fishing, and scuba diving.
He was buried in Ellzey Cemetery in Bronson, Fla.
(Edited from an obituary published in the Tampa Bay Times on Sept. 8, 2012.)