Old railroad laws

[SteamGene]

Found some old Railroad Laws and they are really somthing else, Minnesota code which declares A railroad car is a building. Montana law states that Children can not be employed to run trains. Florida says that trains must stop for a Doctor at any place that he wants to get off. Railroad Trestles in Montana are required by law to have sidewalks for cattle. But Washington State is the best was enforced in the early days and has never been removed from the books, A dog shall be carried on the cowcatcher of all trains. The dog is neccassary to put to flight cattle obstructing the tract. The Walla Walla and Columbia roads were the only ones that really ever complied.

From the Milwaukee Road Yahoo group, submitted by Norman Petroski.

Gene

[Atlantic Central]

In the 1940's Arizona had a law which limited train lengths to 70 freight cars or 14 passenger cars. The SP challenged it in Federal Court and lost.

It was for safety reasons. The state felt trains any longer than this could not be stopped safely or managed well by their crews.

I don't know if it still stands today.

Sheldon

[glennk28]

I recall one--don't know from which state--that at a crossing with another railroad, "Both trains shall stop and neither shall proceed until the other has gone".

I wonder if they're still there?

gj

[Stephen D. Richards]

I recall one--don't know from which state--that at a crossing with another railroad, "Both trains shall stop and neither shall proceed until the other has gone".

I wonder if they're still there?

gj

LOL   Makes as much sense as some of the new laws! 

[Woody Elmore]

I recall reading about an Oklahoma law that forbade shooting at animals from a moving train. Didn't say anything about if the train was stopped.

An 1837 law in New York required locomotives on Long Island to have bells - hmmm... I wonder if that law had any effect?

[Bill Baker]

Glennk28,

That law was in Texas and was still on the books as late as the 1950s. I had a great uncle that worked for the KCS and he showed me the law in an old rule book he had.  If I recall correctly there was another provision that required "if two trains meet on the same track, the first one can't proceed until the other one does"....or words to that effect.

[Conrail Quality]

As recently as the 1970's, Indiana required all freight trains of seventy or more cars to have a fireman. It cost Penn Central alone $22 million a year to comply. With their three different time zones, one wonders whether or not the Indiana legislature lost count of the years and thought PC was opperating K4's.

[Seasaltchap]

Hasn't this recent time change been taken as an opportunity to now put the whole of Indiana on the same time in future?

[SteamGene]

I believe that part of Indiana is in Eastern and part in Central, so they will never all have the same time.  But yes, supposedly, the Hoosiers are being forced, kicking and screaming, into the 20th Century. 
Gene

[Seasaltchap]

It was the coming of the railways in the UK that put the whole country on the same time. Previously every village was a few minutes out on the other because of the inaccuracy of the local village clockmaker's timepiece.

The railways brought what was know as "Railway Time" and that became Official to the whole country, in order to issue schedules; all before everyone recognised GMT.

[Atlantic Central]

Stewart,

I don't when that happened in the UK, or exactly when it happened here, but it is the same story. The railroads needed standard time for schedules, so here, the railroads made up their own system with zones to account for the large size of the country. That system, combined with that of the UK eventually became the world wide system we have today.

For many years the government here had nothing to do with it and it was even called "Railroad Time". Then the bureacrats got involved and we got all these useless things like "daylight saving time".

But, that is generally what governments do, screw up stuff that the people where doing on their own just fine.

Sheldon

[Atlantic Central]

Stewart,

I looked it up, railroad standard time (London Time) was adopted by most of the rail lines in the UK in 1848.

US and Canadian railroads set up and adopted standard time and the zones in 1883. Many people still used their "local" time. Making the train schedules "railroad time". US Government did not make standard time law until 1918.

Sheldon

[terry2foot]

Previously every village was a few minutes out on the other because of the inaccuracy of the local village clockmaker's timepiece.

Seasaltchap,

the above is not correct. The real reason was that each place determined noon time locally by when the sun was directly overhead.


Terry2foot

[SteamGene]

I believe Terry is correct.  By siderial (sp) or sun time, Williamsburg, 20 miles west of me, is about a minute earlier in the day, while Virginia is about a minute later.
Gene

[Hamish K]

In relation to time I believe that both Seasaltchap and Terry are correct. Before railways time was set locally, nominally each place set the time at noon when the sun was directly overhead, so time would vary. As well clocks were not necessarily accurate (or the timesetters relaible) so further variations would occur. Just one example of how the railroad age really changed the world.

Hamish