Section 7. For the performance of the department’s duties relative to common carriers the commission may appoint or employ and remove such engineers, accountants, statisticians, bureau chiefs and division heads, assistants, inspectors, clerks and other subordinates as are required therefor, and may appoint on such terms as it deems advisable a counsel and attorneys who, in the conduct of litigation and court proceedings, shall act under the direction of the attorney general. Accountants shall be skilled in the methods of railroad accounting and under the direction of the commission shall supervise the method by which the accounts of corporations operating railroads or street railways are kept. The commission shall appoint one or more competent experts to examine the reports required by section eighty-three of chapter one hundred and fifty-nine, and may, whenever in its opinion public interest requires, in connection with any proposed issue of stock or bonds by a railroad corporation or street railway company, employ competent experts to investigate the character, cost and value for railroad or railway purposes of the property of such corporation or company.

There shall be in the department a division of railroad track inspection which shall be charged with inspecting and reporting the condition and safety factor of all railroad track in the commonwealth. Said division shall maintain a continuous up to date cumulative record of all such inspections which shall be available to the public.