Olsen

This was an action for damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff in error, who was plaintiff in the court below, while working for the defendant to the action on a railroad it was constructing from a point in Alaska, called “Homer,” to its coal mines, distant about seven miles. The road was being built to carry coal from the mines to the ocean. The motive power was a 10-ton engine, which, together with two flat cars, constituted the train on which the plaintiff was riding at the time he was injured. The plaintiff, with other employees, was sent to Homer by the defendant company with its master mechanic, one Starkey, for the purpose of constructing the road, and at the time of the accident had been so engaged about two months. For the first three days he helped Starkey set up the engine, and was then put to work with the grading crew. The character and condition of the road at the time of the accident, so far as then constructed, are indicated by this extract from Starkey’s testimony: “Q. State to the jury the character of the rails that were used on that roadbed — the kind, and character, and condition. A. We had all sorts of rails. Had thirty-pound rails, and…