Form 1 NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD Award No. 28759
 THIRD DIVISION Docket No. MW-28381
 91-3-88-3-167
 The Third Division consisted of the regular members and in
 addition Referee Elliott Goldstein when award was rendered.

 (Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes PARTIES TO DISPUTE:


STATEMENT OF CLAIM: "Claim of the System Committee of the Brotherhood that:

 (1) The Carrier violated the Agreement when, without a letter of notice or discussion as required by the October 24, 1957 Letter of Agreement, it assigned outside forces to remove the tool houses at KV Cabin (Kenova, West Virginia), Mile Post 513.6 (Cattlesburg, Kentucky) and Cliffside Cabin (Cattlesburg, Kentucky) beginning February 9, 1987 [System File C-TC-3735/1283 (87-486)].

 (2) As a consequence of the aforesaid violations, furloughed B&B Mechanics K. D. Brown, W. P. Steele, J. Slone, M. Dial, H. Cobb, S. Waggoner, P. Burns and J. C. Comer shall each be allowed pay at their respective rates for an equal proportionate share of the one hundred ninety-two (192) man-hours expended by the outside forces in performing the work referred to in Part (1) above."

 FINDINGS:
The Third Division of the Adjustment Board upon the whole record and all the evidence, finds that:

 The carrier or carriers and the employ*-or employes involved in this dispute are respectively carrier and employes within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act as approved June 21, 1934.

 This Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute involved herein.

This dispute centers around the Carrier's assignment of outside forces to demolish and remove three (3) tool houses-from its property beginning February 9, 1987. As Claim alleging that Carrier violated the Agreement when it permitted contractor's employees rather t demolition and removal work.
 Form 1 Award No. 28759
 Page 2 Docket No. MW-28381
 91-3-88-3-167

 Carrier contended that it sold the buildings in question on the condition that the buyers demoli property. Carrier argues that once the structures were sold, they no longer belonged to the railroad and there is nothing in the Agreement which would give the Claimant's the contractual right to perform the work in question.

 The Organization stated throughout the handling of this Claim, without denial, that the type of its Agreement and had historically been performed by its forces. In fact, we note that this Board in Third Division Award 27112 has recently agreed that the Agreement reserves demolition work of the character involved here to the Carrier's forces. The real crux of this case, in our view, centers on the fact that Carrier defended largely on the assertion that the structures had been sold. We note that the Organization requested in its correspondence during the handling of this dispute on the property that some written evidence of the sale be furnished to clarify the issue in dispute. The Organization argues that Carrier did not furnish any evidence in support of its assertion, and that the failure to produce'such written evidence was fatal to its defense. We agree.

 Given the posture of the case, we can only conclude that while the Carrier asserted that the structures had been sold, no probative evidence to sustain that allegation was ever introduced. Once the Organization established, as a prima facie shifted to the Carrier to support its assertion that it lacked control over the structures because it no longer had ownership of them. Absent such evidence, we must find that t employees, as the Organization claims.

 As a final matter, it is noted that the Organization raised the issue of notice, or lack thereof, for the first time in its Statement of Claim before this Board. Since th our review of the record, the Board is precluded from considering the matter ab initio on appeal. We therefore sustain the' haim based on our determination that the Agree


                            Claim sustained in accordance with the Findings. r


                          NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD

                          By Order of Third Division


Attest:
        ancy J. -Executive Secretary


Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 30th day of April 1991.