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.
About nine times out of ten you can do it without an accident, but the tenth time some one will get hurt and you will get a vacation from 30 days to life. I know it is tantalizing, when you are pulling a fast train and are, perhaps a little late, to be compelled to stop and wait until the other train has pulled out, and its last car passed the end of the platform nearest you, when you could sneak through the station and save a little time, and perhaps no harm be done and no one be the wiser; but don't do it, because the rule says you must not.
If that part of the rule which says, "When two trains are nearing a station from opposite directions at the same time, and only one of them is scheduled to stop, the train making the stop must reduce speed and let the other through the station before it arrives" was complied with, the trouble would be largely overcome.