"Along The Blue" #2 | 1 Comments - Click Here :

  I haven't had much time to work on the layout of late, so I don't have any updates. I did however catch up with some of my favorite blogs over the long weekend. A recent post by Trevor Marshall on his blog describes how he is replicating the moves a prototype railroad crew would perform while switching.
  So I thought now would be an appropriate time to post this story about the importance of stopping before coupling. Who knows.... maybe we can save the limb or life of one of our own miniature crewmen ( :
~ Cowboy Up!

Breckenridge Bulletin; Apr 16, 1904;
Accident to J.B. O'Connor.
  Last Saturday Brakeman J.B. O'Connor, while coupling two engines, working on the rotary on its way to clear the road to Leadville, met with a very painful accident and may lose his left foot. While the engines were coaling and taking water at Dickey, two were detached and in coupling up these, Mr. O'Connor used his left foot to push the automatic coupler on the draw head so they would couple together and his right foot accidently slipped as the engines came together, catching the left foot between the bumper coupler and crushing and cutting it very badly.
  The injured man was hurriedly brought to town and Dr. Scott met him at the depot and took him to the Arlington house where the doctor dressed the wound and sent the injured man to the railroad hospital at Denver when the train passed through Saturday night.

Summit County Journal; Apr 16, 1904;
  A very serious accident befell J.B. O'Connor, a C.& S. brakeman, at Dickey, on last Saturday. In attempting to make a coupling, he used one of his feet to move one side of the coupling device. The result was very costly to him. His foot was caught and crushed.
  Dr. Scott took the unfortunate brakeman to St. Lukes hospital, Denver, where the railroad company's chief surgeons will try to avoid amputation. O'Connor resides at Denver, where he has a wife and five children.