Incident with N&W 475 ( Blue Flag ? )

[NW Mailing List]

General Burnett, Commander of the 38th Turnip Artillery Brigade of PA

I found this document (46 CFR) nearly as irritating to read as (41 CFR 1), the Federal Acquisition Regulation), a document that tormented me for most of my Federal gubbmint service (39 years).    At least I did not find any blindingly obvious contradictions on my first read.   I suppose the saving grace is that the railroad employees had a company rule book that was (generally) easier to follow We must remember that someone thinks the lawyers need to be employed.   I was NOT consulted in this decision.   

Sent from my digital telegraph key
Jim Stapleton

On Nov 8, 2022, at 11:36, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:


Saith Comrade James Nicholaiovich:

>>
" I seem too remember that the rule was that the only person who could remove a blue lamp from a piece of equipment was the person who put it there in the first place. It was a safety measure to protect the person(s) working on equipment. You could not move a piece of equipment that had a blue lamp on it. "
<<

Just who could "take down a Blue" was never specified back when railroads had their own rule books based on common sense.  Then came the FRA into existence, with its lawyers and a bazillion "regulations" courtesy of the Federal Gubbmint.  

When the FRA published its own Blue Signal Regulation (mid-1980s, as I recall,) it specified that a Blue could only be taken down by "a member of the same class, craft or gang" which put it up.  A corollary was that if multiple crafts were working on a track, each "craft, class or gang" would put up its own Blue.  E.g. in Engine House territory, you may have electricians, machinists and pipefitters all working on roiling equipment in a track.  Each of these groups constitutes a different "class, craft or gang."  Each of those groups is now required to put up and take down its own Blue. 

Once this Regulation was published in the Code of Federal Regulations Title 49, all U.S. Railroads had to publish it, and Rule 26 grew from 7 lines of common sense in their rule books, to two and one half pages.

Get all the racy details by downloading Code of Federal Regulations Title 49, or some of its subparts.  Much of what you want to know about today's railroad practices comes right out of that document.  No need to speculate and flounder in the primordial ooze of "someone told me that..." -- just go grab the dern CFR and look up the section dealing with your question !  It really is not that hard to understand, it is just written in lawyer'eese, but you will soon get the hang of it.

-- abram burnett
Sports and Turnips Bar
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