John,
Thanks for sharing that file and info. Very interesting. I also see the wording of the North Dakota caboose law you presented in bold is similar to the wording of the 1913 Ohio law. In the later sections of the Ohio law, a compliance date in 1919 was noted. What was the compliance date for the ND law?
The 1907 accident splintering the four-wheel dinkey caboose was one of many incidents that pushed railroads to upgrade cabooses with steel center sills and order new cabooses with steel center sills.
Eric Hansmann
Murfreesboro, TN
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of np328
Sent: Saturday, August 6, 2022 1:30 AM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Bobber 2 Axle caboose late usage
Eric,
thank you for bringing this to my attention. I looked at prior data and I was in error on those dates. The wreck I mentioned was in 1907.
Here is an exert from an article I wrote some time ago. (2008)
The inspector who investigated this complaint found as follows, "I find that box cars in an old and worn-out condition, are in general use as cabooses. These cars have no cupolas and crews required to ride in them have no way of watching their train while in motion. It is a fact, that the cars are cold, dingy, and unsafe."(B) This same letter also called attention to an accident in the fall of 1907 at Klamath, WA, where a four- wheel dinkey caboose, being struck by another train from behind, was reduced to splinters. A conductor who was in the caboose at the time was pinned in the wreckage. Very quickly fire from a stove in the caboose spread through the wreckage, burning the conductor to death. This later event led to the Montana "Dinkey Caboose Law". Legislation of the same spread to Washington, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. (C)
The North Dakota Law, House Bill 169 of the 1921 session stated that "Railroads furnish cabooses to be at least 24 feet in length, exclusive of platform, equipped with two four wheel trucks; the center sill to be constructed of steel. (D)
(B) Letter, of Jan. 14, 1908; NP Rwy Co. files, Presidents Subject Files 1387C Minesota Historical Society
(C) Letter, to W. Wallace, NP Div Council, Helena, MT from Attorney General, MT.; NP Rwy. - in files of President Howard Elliott; MHS
(D) Letter, of May 13, 1921; PSF 1387C, NP Rwy. MHS
Attached is the full article sans photos. James Dick - Roseville, MN
