( [See page 76, Section 169.] Obstruction of Public Ways. Acts of 1895, Chapter 173. An Act to prohibit the Obstruction of Highways by the Receivers and receivers and ways. No receiver or assignee of a railroad corporation, nor the servants or Railroad agents of such receiver or assignee, shall wilfully or negligently obstruct, assignees not to or unnecessarily or unreasonably use or occupy, a highway, town way or obstruct public street, nor in any case with cars or engines for more than five minutes at one time; and whenever a highway, town way or street has been thus used or occupied with cars or engines, no railroad corporation shall again use or occupy the same with the cars or engines of a freight train, until a sufficient time, not less than three minutes, has been allowed for the passage across the railroad of such travellers as were ready and waiting to cross when the former occupation ceased. For a violation of the provisions of Penalty. this section the corporation, its receivers or assignees, shall forfeit one hundred dollars. [Approved March 27, 1895. Power driving wheel and train brakes. [See page 77, Section 170, etc.] Locomotives and Cars-Safety Appliances. Acts of 1895, Chapter 362. An Act to require Locomotives and Cars used in traffic within the Com. monwealth to be equipped with certain Safety Appliances. SECTION 1. On and after the first day of January in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, no railroad corporation shall use in moving traffic between points in this Commonwealth any locomotive which is not equipped with a power driving wheel brake and appliances for operating the train brake system; or shall run any train in such traffic on and after said date that has not a sufficient number of cars in it so equipped with power or train brakes that the engineer on the locomotive drawing such train can control its speed without requiring brakemen to use the common hand brake for that purpose; and when any such corporation shall have equipped a suffiequipped with. cient number of its cars so as to comply with the provisions of this section, it may lawfully refuse to receive from connecting lines of railroad any cars used in such traffic which are not equipped sufficiently, in accordance with this section, with such power or train brakes as will work and readily interchange with the brakes in use on its own cars, as required by this act. rejection of cars not Automatic couplers. Grab-irons or hand-holds. Proviso. Drawbars of standard height. Penalties. Proviso. Extension of time. Liability to employee. SECTION 2. On and after the date aforesaid, no railroad corporation shall haul or permit to be hauled or used on its lines in moving traffic between points in this Commonwealth any car which is not equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact, and which can be uncoupled without the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars. SECTION 3. On and after the first day of July in the present year, and until otherwise ordered by the board of railroad commissioners, no railroad corporation shall use in moving traffic between points in this Commonwealth any car which is not provided with secure grab-irons or hand-holds in the ends and sides of each car for greater security to men in coupling and uncoupling cars: provided, that this section shall not apply to flat cars which are equipped with automatic couplers such as are described in section two. SECTION 4. The standard height of drawbars for freight cars, measured perpendicularly from the level of the top of the rails to the centres of the drawbars, shall be thirty-four and one half inches for standard gauge railroads and twenty-six inches for narrow gauge railroads, with a maximum variation from such standard height, in either case, of three inches between the drawbars of empty and loaded cars; and, on and after the date last above-named, no freight car, either loaded or unloaded, shall be used in moving traffic between points in this Commonwealth with drawbars which do not comply with the above standard. SECTION 5. A railroad corporation using any locomotive engine, running any train, or hauling or permitting to be hauled or used on its line any car in violation of any of the provisions of this act, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each such violation, to be recovered in an action of tort to the use of the Commonwealth by the attorney-general or the district attorney for the district in which such violation was committed: provided, that nothing in this act contained shall apply to trains composed of four-wheel cars, or to locomotives used in hauling such trains. SECTION 6. The board of railroad commissioners may from time to time, upon full hearing and for good cause, extend the period within which any railroad corporation shall comply with the provisions of this act. SECTION 7. Any employee of such corporation who may be injured by any locomotive, car or train in use contrary to the provisions of this act shall not be deemed thereby to have assumed the risk thereby occasioned, although continuing in the employment of such corporation after the unlawful use of such locomotive, car or train has been brought to his knowledge. [Approved May 9, 1895. EQUIPMENT OF CARS, TRAINS AND LOCOMOTIVES. for such purposes as may appear to be necessary; and may at any time modify its order after a hearing and for cause shown. SECTION 2. The supreme judicial court, on application of the attorney- Remedy. general, may by suitable process in equity compel railroad corporations to comply with any order made under the provisions of this act. [Approved March 27, 1885. Acts of 1891, Chapter 204. 77 An Act relating to the making up and shifting of Freight Trains and the sounding of Locomotive Whistles. recommend SECTION 1. The board of railroad commissioners for good cause shown, Board may on petition and after notice to any railroad company and a public hearing changes in mode had thereon, may recommend to such railroad company such changes as it of making up deems proper in the manner of making up and shifting freight trains or whistling, etc. freight cars, and to the sounding of whistles on locomotives. SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved April 17, 1891. freight trains, EQUIPMENT OF CARS, TRAINS AND LOCOMOTIVES. Brakes and Brakemen. brakemen. 1874, 372, § 130. SECTION 170. Every railroad corporation shall cause a good and Brakes and sufficient brake to be attached to every car used upon its railroad for the transportation of passengers, and to every car used for the transportation of freight except four-wheeled freight cars used only for that purpose; and shall cause to be stationed on every passenger train trusty and skilful brakemen equal in number at least to one for every two cars in the train, and one such brakeman upon the last car of every freight train, which car must always be equipped with a good and sufficient brake. For a violation of any provision of this sec- Penalty. tion the corporation shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars. Safety Couplers. Acts of 1884, Chapter 222. An Act requiring Railroad Companies to use Safety Couplers on Freight Cars. safety couplers SECTION 1. Every railroad company operating a railroad or any portion Automatic or of a railroad wholly or partly within the state, shall place upon every freight on freight cars. car hereafter constructed or purchased by such corporation, and upon every freight car owned by such corporation of which the coupler or draw bar is repaired by it with intent to use such car, such forms or form of automatic or other safety coupler at each end thereof as the board of railroad commissioners may prescribe after examination and test of the same; and the railroad commissioners may annul any recommendation made by them. SECTION 2. The provisions of this act may be enforced by the supreme Remedy. judicial court on application of the attorney-general. effect. SECTION 3. So much of this act as relates to the examination and test, When to take shall take effect on its passage; and the same shall take full effect on the first day of March next. [Approved May 8, 1884. 78 EQUIPMENT OF CARS AND TRAINS. Examination safety couplers. Acts of 1886, Chapter 242. An Act relating to the Examination and Test of Safety Couplers on [SECTION 1. The board of railroad commissioners shall, in the month of June or July of the present year, and in the month of June or July of every second year thereafter, make an examination and test of the forms of automatic or other safety couplers for freight cars in accordance with the provisions of section one of chapter two hundred and twenty-two of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-four.] SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved May 28, 1886. Acts of 1894, Chapter 59. Repeal of 1886, 242. An Act to repeal the Act relating to the Examination and Test of Safety Chapter two hundred and forty-two of the acts of the year eighteen hunSafety couplers. dred and eighty-six, entitled "An Act relating to the examination and test of safety couplers on freight cars," is hereby repealed. [February 26, 1894. Tools. Trains, passenger cars, etc., to be equipped with certain tools. 1874, 372, § 131. See § 205. Amended. 4. SECTION 171. Every railroad corporation shall equip each of its trains, for use in case of accident, with two guide-plates, two jackscrews, two crow-bars, one pinch-bar, one claw-bar, one spikehammer, two sharp axes, ropes or chains suitable for hauling cars, 1882, 54, §§ 1, [and such other tools and appliances as the board may direct] and shall also equip each car of every passenger train, owned or regularly used by it, including mail and baggage cars, with two sets of tools, consisting of an axe, a sledge-hammer, a crow-bar, hand-saw and pail. All such tools and appliances shall be maintained in good condition for use in case of accident, and shall be kept, one set upon the inside and one upon the outside of each such car, in some convenient place and manner approved by the board: provided, that one set shall be sufficient if so placed as to be accessible from both inside and outside such car. For a violation of the provisions of this section the corporation shall forfeit five hundred dollars. Proviso. Penalty. : *The following Resolve was passed at the recent session of the General Court: Resolves of 1894, Chapter 40. RESOLVE RELATING ΤΟ THE EQUIPMENT OF FREIGHT CARS WITH AUTOMATIC COUPLERS. Automatic couplers. Resolved, That the railroad commissioners investigate, and report to the next general court, what progress the railroad companies operating railroads under the laws of this Commonwealth have made in equipping their freight cars with automatic couplers; what percentage of the cars of said railroads are thus equipped; and what legislation, if any, is necessary to bring about the prompt equipment with automatic appliances of all the freight cars owned by the railroad companies operating railroads under the laws of this Commonwealth. [Approved March 22, 1894. EQUIPMENT OF PASSENGER CARS. 79 Acts of 1882, Chapter 54, §§ 1, 4. An Act to amend Chapter one hundred and twelve of the Public Statutes, requiring Railroad Cars to be furnished with certain Tools, and for further protection of Passengers against Fire. senger cars, etc. See § 205. SECTION 1. Section one hundred and seventy-one of chapter one hundred Amendment of P. S. 112, § 171. and twelve of the Public Statutes is hereby amended by striking out the words" and such other tools and appliances as the board may direct,” and inserting in place thereof the following words: 'and shall also equip each Tools for pascar of every passenger train, owned or regularly used by it, including mail and baggage cars, with two sets of tools, consisting of an axe, a sledgehammer, a crow-bar, hand-saw and pail. All such tools and appliances shall be maintained in good condition for use in case of accident, and shall be kept, one set upon the inside and one upon the outside of each such car, in some convenient place and manner approved by the board: provided, that Proviso. one set shall be sufficient if so placed as to be accessible from both inside and outside such car." appliances. SECTION 4. The railroad commissioners shall have power to require Board may railroad corporations to equip their cars with such other appliances as in require other their judgment shall be deemed necessary for the further protection of life, in all passenger trains used in this Commonwealth. [Approved March 11, 1882. Heating and Lighting of Passenger Cars. Acts of 1882, Chapter 54, § 3. approved safe fire. SECTION 3. Every drawing-room or sleeping car, passenger, baggage, Cars to have mail, and express car, owned or regularly used on any railroad in this Com- guards against monwealth, in which heating apparatus may be placed, shall be provided See 1887, 362. with such safeguards for protection against fire as may be approved in 1891, 249. writing by the board of railroad commissioners. Any corporation violating Penalty, etc. the provisions of this section shall forfeit for each offence three hundred dollars. The provisions of this section shall take effect the first day of November, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two. Acts of 1887, Chapter 362. board. An Act relating to the Heating of Passenger Cars on Railroads. SECTION 1. No passenger, mail or baggage car on any railroad in this Method of heat. ing subject to Commonwealth shall be heated by any method of heating, or by any fur- approval of nace or heater, unless such method, or the use of such furnace or heater, See 1891, 249. shall first have been approved in writing by the board of railroad commissioners provided, however, that in no event shall a common stove be allowed Provisos. in any : such car; and provided, also, that any railroad corporation may with the permission of said board make such experiments in heating their pas senger cars as said board may deem proper. SECTION 2. Any railroad corporation violating any of the provisions of Penalty. the preceding section shall forfeit a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars. SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved June 6, 1887. |