Theresa N. Kenney v. Boston & Maine

The deceased was head brakeman on the train. The accident happened in Merrimack. The defendant's line was double-tracked and ran nearly north and south. The train was proceeding south on the westerly track at about two o'clock in the morning of August 19, 1939, when it stopped for the movements later to be described, near the close of which the accident happened. It was a dark night. The train crew had to leave two cars and take on another at Merrimack. With this in view the train was brought to a stand with the locomotive just north of a block signal situated over 1,400 feet north of the Merrimack Station. South of the block signal, at a distance of 465 feet and on the west track, was a switch that gave access to a siding running northwest from the main track. This was known as the McElwain Siding. South of this switch, 241 feet, was the north end of a bridge carrying the two main tracks over a stream. This bridge was 119 feet long. South of the south abutment of the bridge, a distance of 631 feet, was the north end of the Merrimack Station, which extended south a distance of 57 feet. South of the south end of the station, in the west track, 535 feet distant, was a switch giving access to the Excelsior Siding. Along the west side of the tracks, north and south of the bridge, the shoulder was more or less beaten, but there was no evidence that this ""path"" was ever used except by the section men employed by the defendant and by a single workman at the Excelsior Factory who lived at Reed's Ferry one and a half miles north of the station. There was no house in either direction from the station for a mile and a half. The bridge was in the woods, and it had no walkway. Under the circumstances of the travel on foot in the vicinity, it could not be found that a walkway was reasonably required.