The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) had jurisdiction over the rates and operations of railroads, terminals, wharves and express companies. This series consists of the transcript of a hearing, about 1900, before the Railroad Commission of Texas. The hearing concerned the use of "doubleheaders," which is the running of a train with two engines, on Texas railroads and focused on the safety issues of such a practice. Railroad employees objected to the use and were especially concerned over the safety of the crew in the second engine. Railroad companies defended the practice, citing the use of doubleheaders on many railroads outside Texas, denying that safety problems were any greater than on single engine trains, and pointing to the greater pulling power and increased efficiency of larger trains. This was a formal hearing before the Railroad Commission with Chairman John H. Reagan (1891-1903) presiding. The typed transcript is over 500 pages long and consists entirely of witness testimony. The witnesses were sworn in and responded to questions under both direct and cross examination. The many witnesses included engineers, brakemen, conductors, officials of railroad unions, freight agents, and general superintendents and other officers of railroad companies. Pages are missing from both the beginning and the end of the typed transcript. There is no formal title page, conclusion, or date. An inventory of the records was conducted to provide a brief description of the contents of each box including the dates and types of materials and a notation of any filing arrangement that may be present. This finding aid describes one series of the Railroad Commission of Texas records. See Railroad Commission of Texas: An Overview of Records (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/20078/tsl-20078.html) for more records series.
