[note: see below for update]
the Town of Washington Grove is small and quiet. its people generally go about their business without seeking to cause commotion or notoriety.
it was therefore with some surprise that we found a reference to the Town among the opinions of the highest court in the land.
the first of November 1951 was chilly, wet and windy. a cold front moving into the area had put a damper on Halloween antics the night before. the day's intermittent rain would turn to snow by late evening.
late in the afternoon, a work train consisting of two diminutive track-maintenance vehicles was passing at restricted speed along the tracks at the edge of Town on its way back to Gaithersburg. onto the tracks sprang a large dog, a collie well-known in Town for her fondness for chasing cars. the foreman at the controls, a veteran B&O employee named Daniel Jackson, immediately applied the brakes, but to no avail. the vehicles continued on the wet rails and struck the dog. the dog was killed, the track cars were derailed and Mr. Jackson was thrown into the trackside ditch, sustaining severe injuries.
at the time of the incident there were four general circulation newspapers in Washington DC: the the tabloid Daily News, the Evening Star, the Times-Herald and the Washington Post.
all are available on microfilm in the Washingtoniana collection of the DC Public Library.
a recent search turned up coverage in only one paper, the Post.
the story is reproduced below.
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Track Worker Hurt
Daniel T. Jackson, 66, a B. & O. track worker of Boyds, Md., suf- fered lacerations of the face and arm and back injuries when a Collie dog ran onto the train track near Washington Grove, Md. and derailed the motor car in which he and two other men were riding. The dog was killed. |
in 195 the railroad appealed the decision, arguing the the track vehicles were not covered by federal safety standards, and almost five and a half years after the incident the case of Baltimore & Ohio Railway Co. v. Jackson was heard in the U.S. Supreme Court, which held 5-4 for Mr. Jackson.
the complete text of the opinion is available from Villanova Center for Information and Policy.
No. 370.
Argued March 28 - April 1, 1957
Decided May 13, 1957
98 U.S. App. D.C. 169, 233 F.2D 660, Affirmed.
Mr. Justice Clark delivered the opinion of the Court.
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"The respondent was injured over five years ago. For 39 years he had been a Section Foreman of Track Maintenance for Petitioner. He and the crew over which he had supervision were responsible for the maintenance and repair of a section of track between Waring and Durwood [Derwood], Maryland. They used in their work a gasoline-motor-powered track car equipped with belt drive and a hand brake. The car could carry as many as 12 men and their tools. At various times a push truck or hand car was coupled by a pin to the motor track car and was towed by it to the scene of the work. The hand car weighed about 800 pounds unloaded, had a 5-ton carrying capacity, and had no brakes. Sometimes it carried a load of material and other times only equipment and tools. Each of these cars was equipped with four wheels and was capable of being removed from the rails by a crew of men. |
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"On the occasion in question respondent and a crew of two men, pursuant to orders, had hauled about a ton of coal via the motor track car and hand car from Gaithersburg to the Stationmaster at Washington Grove, a station near the scene of their roadbed work on that day. The coal was placed on the hand car which was pulled along the tracks by the motor car. The two vehicles also carried tools, a wheelbarrow, and other equipment, as well as the Respondent and his crew. After unloading the coal they proceeded a short distance beyond the Washington Grove station to work on a section of the westbound track. There they removed the vehicles from the track and worked that section of the rails until about 4 p.m. They then replaced the vehicles on the tracks, fastened them together, and began the return trip to the yards at Gaithersburg. On approaching the Washington Grove station at a speed of from 5 to 10 miles per hour the vehicles struck a large dog and derailed, throwing the respondent into a ditch and causing his injuries. The uncontradicted evidence was that respondent applied the hand brake on the motor track car immediately upon seeing the dog and the cars skidded on wet tracks about 39 feet before the impact. Respondent further testified that the motor track car alone, without the hand car attached, could have been stopped under the same conditions within six to eight feet". |
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. . . |
Mr. Justice Burton, whom Mr. Justice Frankfurter, Mr. Justice Harlan and Mr. Justice Whittaker join, Dissenting.
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"On November 1, 1951, Respondent Jackson, the Foreman of a Baltimore & Ohio maintenance crew, was engaged with two of his men in railroad maintenance work near Washington Grove, Maryland. At quitting time, the three men lifted a motorized track car and a push truck onto the tracks, coupled them together by hand, and boarded the motor car for their return to the section house about one mile away. It had been raining lightly and the tracks were wet. The motor car and push truck ahd [sic] traveled about 195 feet when Jackson, who was operating the motor car, saw a large dog about to cross the tracks in front of the car. He threw out the clutch and applied the hand brake with both hands. The brakes grabbed, the wheels locked and the vehicles slid "about 20 feet" on the wet tracks before striking the dog and overturning. Jackson was injured. |
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"The motor track car on which Jackson and his crew were riding was a four-wheel maintenance-of-way vehicle weighing about 800 pounds. Powered by a gasoline motor and controlled with a throttle, clutch and hand brake, it was typical of the more than 60,000 vehicles of this type currently in use on american railroads to carry maintenance crews from section houses to places along the railroad where work is to be performed. The push truck was an even simpler vehicle. It consisted of four wheels, a chassis, and a flat wooden platform, and could be pushed along the tracks by hand. |
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"At the time of the accident, the push truck was attached to the rear of the motor car by a simple non-automatic link and pin device, and carried no load except a few tools. Jackson testified that the use of a push truck in conjunction with a motor track car was customary; that neither vehicle carried an unusual or excessive load; that each was provided with the usual equipment of such vehicles; and that the hand brake of the motor car was in proper working order at the time of the accident". |
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. . . |
the dog was owned by Anne Haskett, of Washington Grove. when called and asked about the incident, she shared the following:
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"Our dog Sandy was a big female collie. The kids named her after the dog in Little Orphan Annie. She came from one of the farms that used to be along Emory Grove Road. |
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"She used to chase cars along with another large dog in town. Dogs were allowed to roam freely in those days. |
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"But dogs are not very smart some times. Whether the two dogs were just crossing the tracks, or she was chasing the handcar, we don't know. Although she loved chasing cars we had never seen her trying to chase anything on the railroad before. It would have been quite foolish. |
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"The dog was killed in the collision. We heard that the man on the handcar was severely injured, and the railroad had to retire him. |
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"When the police came they were very nice, and said they would dispose of the dog for us, so I didn't have to go down to the tracks and look at her body. At the time we had a new baby, just three weeks old. Our other children were a little older. |
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"Sandy was lovely, but not too well behaved. But when she was chasing something, if I called her she would come back to me. We have had and lost other dogs since then, and cats, too. |
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"Later on the railroad sent around a couple of men, and we talked with them. Although it was our animal, we weren't there when it happened, so we didn't really have any further information for them. |
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"At the time we lived on Maple Avenue. We have moved within the Grove several times since then". |
Mrs. Haskett still lives in Washington Grove and is frequently visited by the Pacer Farm cats.
dog/train incidents need not have a tragic ending.
the following incident took place near milepost 3 on the CSX Pope's Creek Secondary and was reported in the weekly "Animal Watch" column in the Washington Post on 24 February 2000:
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Spaniel Stymies Freight Train
Bowie, Routes 450 and 197, Feb. 8. A brown cocker spaniel that wandered onto railroad tracks blocked the passage of a freight train at routes 450 and 197. Prince George's County Animal Management Division dispatcher received a call from a CSX Transportation dispatcher about the 13-year-old animal. The dog, which was wearing a white T-shirt with the words "St. Maarten" on it, finally rose and moved around after train employees gave it a PowerBar to eat. An Animal Control officer took the spaniel to a veterinarian's office, where it was learned that the dog suffered from arthritis and neurological problems. The next day, the dog was taken to the Prince George's County Animal Shelter, where it was claimed by its owners. |