St. Paul,  June 26,1933

Mr. Bernard Blum:

Referring to the failure of the machinery at Trout Creek coaling station.

The machinery is designed to handle 50 ton coal cars and we are using 70 ton cars. At the time the change was made we considered it advisable to overload the machines and get full value of the life of the timber. We had very little trouble with the Great Northern type dock and I see no reason for making a change in the use of 70 ton cars at Trout Creek.

Several years ago we placed safety dogs on the gears to avoid accidents and the one at Trout Creek failed to work. However the cost of any accidents have been far less than the savings by use of 70 ton cars.

File returned.

M F C,

Bridge Engineer

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