Railroad Accidents, Their Cause and PreventionRichards, R. C. (Ralph Coffin)
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Railroad Accidents, Their Cause and Prevention
Richards, R. C. (Ralph Coffin)
Railroad accidents
When you are making your station stop, don't jerk your train, after it
has stopped, or is about to stop, and while the passengers are getting
off, as they surely will commence to do so as soon as (if not before)
the train is stopped. Don't pull up or back up a few feet to get to
the standpipe or coal chute, because if you do, some one is liable to
get hurt, as the following did:
Dr. H. Q. Johnson, passenger, injured at Dale, Sept 6; train No.
603, stopped at station platform and then started to move ahead
again. Dr. Johnson stepped from platform onto steps of coach and,
as he did so, brakes were set to emergency and train stopped
suddenly; he was thrown against the edge of vestibule.
Helen Kennedy, a child 2-1/2 years old, with its parents, was on
train No. 73, bound for Stratford; had gotten up for the purpose
of getting off at Henderson, March 26. Train stopped and as
passengers were on the platform it was backed up without notice,
and this child was thrown, and her arm went between the car
platforms, badly bruising and cutting it, just missed taking it
off.
And when you are pulling into a station and intend to take water and
are going to run by the pipe a few feet, don't use the emergency brake
to stop with, because, if you do, some one is liable to get hurt.
Nearly every one has been on a train when this has been done contrary
to Rules 42 and 43, and if you enginemen could hear some of the
uncomplimentary remarks that are made about you and the company on
such occasions, you would feel like thirty cents. And when it is
raining to beat the band, stop your trains so that the passengers can
get off opposite the station building and avoid getting wet, do not
pull them by a couple of hundred feet just because the locomotive is
thirsty. Pull up to the tank after the passengers get on and off, so
says Rule 24, and the women, and men, too, for that matter, will think
you are a dandy and vote for you the next time you run for school
trustee; and perhaps, by so doing, you may prevent your best girl
spoiling her dress.
And when you are running an engine you want to know that its
grease-cups are screwed on tight and that its brake-shoes are not
cracked, if you do not want to have cases like the following:
Fred. C. Mitchell, while waiting for a train on station platform
at Lucian, Feb. 1st, was struck and fatally injured by a
grease-cup plug from engine No. 206.
Chas. C. Wilson, standing on the platform at Newton, June 30th, to
take passage on a train; brake-shoe on engine No. 716, running
through the station at 60 or 65 miles an hour, broke, and part of
it struck him on the foot.
One of the rules most frequently disregarded is No. 11, prohibiting a
train on the double track pulling through a station while another one
is standing there unloading passengers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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