Cabinet 4: Rules & Regulations
H. S. Dewhurst, The Railroad Police. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1955.
In 1950, there were 9,000 railroad police throughout Canada and the United States safeguarding 225,000 miles of road and 400,000 miles of track operated by some 400 individual railroad companies. Added to this responsibility, there were some 500 million passengers and billions of dollars worth of freight transported. Problems encountered by rail police then and now include the malicious attempts by some to derail trains; theft and pilfering; threats from extortionists; and damage done to individuals or rolling stock by juveniles, aggressive troublemakers, or, as often recorded, disgruntled ex-employees. Nowadays, policing is controlled, unlike the scenario in the film Emperor of the North (1973), where a sadistic Shack (Ernest Borgnine) forcibly removes hoboes from his train. Lee Marvin as ‘A Number One’ is his main adversary.