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EssayonSources In writing this book I have relied mostly on primary printed and archival materials, especially the many railroad and engineering journals and proceedings. There is little secondary literature that focuses directly on railroad safety but much that discusses railroad technology, management, and operating practices that had an effect on safety. A germane modern literature also exists on the economics of safety, risk assessment, and regulation. This essay describes the primary sources I consulted as well as the most valuable secondary and contemporary materials. Archives The most valuable collection on railroad safety is undoubtedly the Pennsylvania Railroad Collection at the Hagley Museum and Library. Not only does it have the records of the company’s safety department from its inception into the 1960s, but it is a rich source on other aspects of safety, including accident reports, rail and wheel technology,signaling and train control,and much else.A second set of Pennsylvania records at the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg is similarly valuable. The Philadelphia & Reading collection at Hagley contains information on accidents,operating practices, and medical care. Other collections were far less rich, but some contained important material on particular topics. The Delaware & Hudson materials at the New York State Archives contain small amounts of detail on that company’s safety and medical work. Also at the state archives are the records of the New York railroad commission, but they contain little that was not published. The University of Connecticut at Storrs has early records of the Providence & Worcester that discuss construction and operating problems as well as the much larger New York, New Haven & Hartford collection, which yields small amounts of material on grade crossing problems, bridges, and rails. The records of the Union Pacific at the museum in Omaha reveal the concern of that company’s top executives with safety problems around the turn of the twentieth century and are a rich source of photographs. The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is also a mine of photographs while the Lehigh & Hudson River records there document safety work on a small, impoverished carrier.At Cornell University the New York & Pennsylvania collection contains small amounts on early accidents and operating practices, but the Benjamin Johnson papers are a valuable window into the life of an engineman and air brake instructor on the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1880s. Also at Cornell, the papers of Floyd Helmer contain diaries of W. C. Hartigan, who was a superintendent of motive power on the New York, Ontario & Western in the 1890s and reported details of many minor 421 422 EssayonSources train accidents. I used the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy records at the Newberry Library in Chicago for insights into early decision making on air brake purchases while the Great Northern–Northern Pacific collection at the Minnesota Historical Society includes materials on early problems with steel rails. The train robbery related records at the Bancroft library at Berkeley are a window into that topic while the Sierra Railroad collection contains only tidbits on accidents, operating practices, and engineering. The Virginia & Truckee records were of little value for my purposes. Stanford University’s Letcher Railroad Collection is also a valuable trove of information on early conditions on the Southern Pacific. There are also Master Mechanics’ files from that company at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento that I found useful for information on early operating conditions, while the museum also contains large numbers of photographs . I found little helpful material in the Lackawanna records at Syracuse University . Railroad records at the National Archives are beneficially discussed in David Pfeiffer, Records Relating to North American Railroads: Reference Information Paper 91 (Washington: National Archives, 2001). The records of the Interstate Commerce Commission at the National Archives (RG 134) are disappointing. The commissioners ’ minutes are largely a record of decisions while the files of the Bureau of Safety were mostly discarded, and the manuscript of the commission’s hearing on automatic train control could not be found. However, Formal Docket 568 contains information on the carriers’ efforts to postpone the original Safety Appliance Act. There are also useful inspection records of the Bureau of Locomotive Inspection. See my “Research Note,” Railroad History 175 (Autumn 1996): 132–34. Locomotive inspection reports and accident photographs from that bureau are in the Museum of American History archives at the Smithsonian. Also at the National Archives are the records of the U.S. Railroad Administration (RG 14), which while thin help document its safety work.The...

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