Arkansas Full Crew Laws - Trains Over 23 Cars - 6 Crewmen - Engineer, Firemen, 3 Brakemen, Conductor

Going through more old e-mail threads. Here's an interesting one from 2004 on Arkansas's full-crew laws, as it pertained to operations on the River Division.

I especially found James Cowles' comments interesting.

CLA
*****
Folks:

I've attached a question that I received recently from a fellow Chaffee native.

This is the first that I've heard of this practice, so I'm presuming that Arkansas had a "full crew" law on the books. The operational possibilities of this from a modeling standpoint are appealing, I think.

If anyone has some insight, feel free to let me know and I'll pass along to the originator.

Regards,

Chris Abernathy
Columbia MO

----- Original Message -----
Chris,

Question for you. I can't remember if I've asked this before or not.

I've been told that the state of Arkansas once required three brakemen for every train coming into their state. That's why many Frisco people who eventually made their way to Chaffee started out down in Hayti. The third brakemen would be added there before going into Arkansas.

Does that sound right to you, can you confirm this?

Mike Mitchell
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Chris,

I think the full crew was made up of engineer, fireman, head-end brakeman, rear-end brakeman, and conductor.

The extra man was the head-end brakeman, IIRC. Someone else may have a better insight to this as the law was changed about the time I started getting serious about trains.

I guess it depends on the era. Some stories in Railroad Magazine seem to point to the fireman having to do his share of aligning switches. This may indicate that even in steam days the head-end brakeman was extra.

The diesel era pushes this even more as it was the 1960's when the full-crew controversy came to a boil. IIRC, the deal worked out included reducing the manpower through normal attrition.

I was hoping someone else would have more info.

Gary McCullah
Farmington, AR
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Chris:

My name is Jim Cowles. My father, J.C. Cowles, was Superintendent of the River Division from 1958 to 1963.

I asked him about this yesterday and he told me that yes, Arkansas did have a "6 man crew" law requiring an extra brakeman on trains over 23 cars and Hayti was the "on / off"
point for the Frisco. In fact, this requirement was part of the Arkansas State Constitution, requiring a voter's referendum to change.

In the early 60's ('62?) he and representatives from the other Railroads doing business in Arkansas met with many local and state officials and succeeded in getting a referendum on the ballot. They thought it had a good chance of passing until they left town (Little Rock?) and saw a brand new sign saying "Fight Communism, Vote against Proposition 1".

Needless to say, it did not pass then. In fact, it was probably another 6 or 8 years before the law was changed.

James Cowles
Low Gap, NC
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Chris,

They are correct in saying that there was an Arkansas State law which requires three brakemen on trains. However that law was repealed some twenty to twenty five years ago.

Regards,

Robert Molloy
Amory, MS