Court Opinion

ID: 9829336
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 19:13:56.215412+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:00.158235
License: Public Domain

*249ON REHEARING.
Appellee has, in his motion, given much valuable information as to how a locomotive is constructed, and explains that “taking water” does not mean taking it into the boiler of the engine but into the tank of the tender, and that the tank might be full of water and the boiler empty. All of which information might have assisted this court, perhaps, if it had come in the shape of-evidence instead of being embodied in a motion for rehearing with no facts to form a basis for it. The fact remains, not only that water was taken just before the explosion, but that after the water was taken the last time the engineer tested the water and that the gauge cocks were all right with which he tested it. We feel confident in saying that the test was made of water in the boiler, and not that in the tank, and it must be presumed that the engineer tested the water properly. That test took place a few minutes before the explosion.
It appears from the evidence that “injectors are used to put water from tank to boiler,” and we gather from the evidence that the engineer just before the explosion told appellee to put on the injector which could have been for no purpose except to fill the boiler. We will presume that he obeyed the engineer. It was his duty to supply the boiler with water. It was testified that it was only under extraordinary conditions, whatever those may be, that an injector was used by the engineer.
The statement is made that the fireman “might sporadically test the gauge cocks and the engineer might test them, but still in a few moments longer the engineer failing to do so again, the danger line might be reached and the accident occur.” That is merely theorizing without proof to sustain it.
The engine was properly equipped with a fusible plug, which under the evidence would have melted before the explosion, if the water had been too low, and would have put out the fire, or at least have given warning of the condition of the water. The fuse was melted, but whether by reason of low water or by reason of the explosion is not known. We adhere to our opinion that the evidence fails to show that the explosion was caused by the water in the boiler being permitted to get too low. Appellee may have a case if the facts are fully developed, but he has failed to make one under the facts contained in the record. The motion is overruled.

Affirmed.