Written by Dan Conlin, former Curator of Marine History (April, 2014). It was a split-second decision about the fate of train passengers bound for Halifax. Coleman's action and results were truly heroic. "Hold up the train. Good-bye boys.” Coleman died at Did Coleman really stop Train No. Coleman was killed in the Halifax Explosion in 1917 that claimed the lives of 2,000 and injured 9,000 more. He sent orders to the countless trains feeding freight into the ship filled wharves of North End Halifax as well as routing the heavy wartime passenger traffic passing into the North Street Station and the vital troop trains and hospital trains from the Pier 2 ocean liner terminal. These were the last words of Vince Coleman, the train dispatcher who met his end on December 6, 1917, in the Halifax Explosion. Eileen Coleman's Dress Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, M2004.54.1, Gift of Janette Snooks Coleman's wife Frances suffered serious back injuries. However the message sent by that telegraph key went out on the railway telegraph line and would have been heard by every station from Halifax to Truro: all along the line from Rockingham, Bedford, Windsor Junction, Elmsdale, Stewiacke and so to Truro. A single telegram saved the lives of hundreds on Dec. 6, 1917 — the day two ships collided in the Halifax Harbour, setting off an explosion that decimated the city. The explosion was even heard all the way south in Massachusetts. Vince Coleman Halifax Explosion-Vince Coleman, a railway dispatcher, sacrificed his life in order to warn an incoming train of the imminent Halifax explosion. A sailor came by and said the ship was full of explosives and it was going to blow up. McSweeney said … Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion, December 6, 1917. This is how rail traffic was controlled in 1917. It would be the biggest and most devastating explosion in history until the invention of the nuclear bomb. Vincent Coleman's penMaritime Museum of the Atlantic, M2004.50.103c, YMCA Emergency HospitalM.M.A., Kitz Collection, N-15,034. According to MacMechan, the train was past the point where it could be stopped because it had already passed the Rockingham station, the last station before Richmond. Vincent Coleman's neighbourhoodNova Scotia Archives, Notman Collection. The home that Vincent Coleman had left that morning was only 2000 feet from Ground Zero. The Coleman house was wrecked and then burned by the explosion. Today he is remembered as one of the heroic figures from the disaster. Vince Coleman’s widow, Frances, also survived. The sailor had been sent ashore by one of the naval officers responding to the blaze, one of the few people who knew of her deadly cargo. "People just didn't talk about it and now, 100 years later, people are talking about it and wanting to learn more about it. My father talked about it. The American relief trains did not arrive until two days later. He left his wife Frances looking after their young two-year old daughter Eileen, dressed in a cheerful blue dress handmade by Frances. The Coleman house was wrecked and then burned by the explosion. "When the ships collided, there was a huge fire aboard the ships. Pier 6 and the Richmond rail yards after the explosion.MMA, Charles A. Vaughan Collection, MP207.1.184/47, N-14,020. Fortunately, it was running a few minutes late and was far enough from the explosion so the blast inflicted only broken windows and minor injuries. Once Vince Coleman was told he automatically remembered that there was a train coming from New Brunswick come towards the explosion. 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