N.Y. Railroad Law § 71: Duties imposed

§ 71. Duties imposed. It shall be the duty of every railroad

corporation operating its road by steam:

1. To lay, in the construction of new and in the renewal of existing

switches, upon freight or passenger main line tracks, switches on the

principle of either the so-called Tyler, Wharton, Lorenz, or split-point

switch, or some other kind of safety switch, which shall prevent the

derailment of a train, when such switch is misplaced or a switch

interlocked with distant signals.

2. To erect and thereafter maintain such suitable warning signals at

every road, bridge, or structure which crosses the railroad above the

tracks, where such warning signals may be necessary, for the protection

of employees on top of cars from injury.

3. To use upon every new freight car, built or purchased for use,

couplers which can be coupled and uncoupled automatically, without the

necessity of having a person guide the link, lift the pin by hand, or go

between the ends of the cars.

4. To attach to every car used for passenger transportation an

automatic air-brake or other form of safety-power brake, applied from

the locomotive, excepting cars attached to freight trains, the schedule

rate of speed of which does not exceed twenty miles an hour.

5. To provide each closed car in use in every passenger train owned or

regularly used upon a railroad, with such tools as the commissioner of

transportation may require, to be placed where directed by the

commissioner.

6. To provide, in each passenger car, where the line of road shall

exceed forty continuous miles in length, a suitable receptacle for

water, with a cup or drinking utensil attached upon or near such

receptacle, and to keep such receptacle, while the car is in use,

constantly supplied with cool water.

Every corporation, person or persons, operating such railroad, and

violating any of the provisions of this section, except subdivision six,

shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each offense,

and the further penalty of ten dollars for each day that it shall omit

or neglect to comply with any of such provisions. For every violation of

the provisions of the sixth subdivision of this section every such

corporation shall be liable to a penalty of twenty-five dollars for each

offense.