This story was published July 9, 2013.

FARNHAM — Locomotive engineer Tom Harding was likely the last person at the controls of the runaway train that rolled into downtown Lac-Mégantic Saturday morning, causing untold death and destruction.

But though Harding himself has remained silent, a new picture is emerging of the Farnham man as a hero, whose bravery may have prevented an even greater catastrophe from engulfing the small town about 200 kilometres down the track.

According to Yves Bourdon, an executive of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, which owned and operated the train that was carrying crude oil through the Eastern Townships, Harding was asleep at a hotel in Lac-Mégantic when he heard the explosions.

Bourdon said Harding jumped on a rail tractor and managed to pull the pins to release nine tanker cars that would otherwise have added fuel to the flames, risking his own life: “When he heard the explosion and heard what had happened, he released the couplings and pulled off nine wagons,” Bourdon told radio station 98.5 FM Tuesday morning. “If not, if those nine wagons had stayed there, there was a possibility with all the heat that was there and all, of other explosions and also fire,” Bourdon said.

It’s the latest version of events that brought some comfort to Harding’s friends and neighbours in Farnham, still absorbing the news on Tuesday that one of their own was at the head of the ill-fated locomotive, as they also stopped to question whether the same kind of accident could happen in Farnham. In this town criss-crossed by train tracks, where more than 100 tanker cars filled with oil now sit parked at the entrance, everyone seemed to know Harding or his late father, who was a train conductor for Canadian Pacific before MMA took over this part of the railway.

“I wouldn’t want to be in Tom Harding’s shoes,” said Claude McKenzie, who owns a bistro in Farnham, 65 kilometres southeast of Montreal. “He must be asking himself a lot of questions and feeling really bad. He’s a good man. He doesn’t deserve that.”

McKenzie and others pointed their fingers rather at the company, which they said let its trains and tracks slide into such a state of disrepair that were it not for the lack of slope in Farnham, the same kind of accident could easily have happened there. A train derailed in downtown Farnham just a few months ago, McKenzie said — luckily it was empty and travelling slowly.

“When you see their equipment and the tracks, it’s all rusting; there are piles of earth and junk around the train station, which is falling apart,” McKenzie said. “How does Transport Canada allow this company to keep operating? It’s a tragedy and it could easily happen here.”

The Farnham train station — at the intersection of railway lines running east/west across Canada and north/south from Canada to the United States — has seen better days. Built in 1950 and designated a “historic place” in 1994, the paint is peeling and cement windowsills are cracked and in some cases the cement has fallen out altogether, while some of the windows are boarded up.