Operating Rules / Procedures

Good day,

as you may see from the somewhat imprecise subject I chose for this post, I am looking for a little help on concrete terms to base my further research on. Probably, you railroad guys in the States will have something similar to the Federal Aviation Regulatory's FAR rules for pilots and air carriers detailing operational procedures - as in, how to respond to this or that signal, what to regard while switching, how to deal with unsecured road crossings, equipment an engineer must carry with him and so on.

As virtually all the FAR rules are openly accessible for everyone, I presume it is the same with the corresponding rules set by - now, here I go in my ignorance . Which government agency cares about this kind of stuff, and how do they precisely call it? Is it also accessible for non-US railroaders? Does this kind of rule set even exist on a federal basis, or is it operator specific? I understand that the general scenario regarding administrative authority, ownership of tracks etc. is quite different in the USA than it is in Germany, where basically every inch of railway infrastructure belongs to the government-owned Deutsche Bahn that defines the rules for everyone else operating on their network, almost by legislative means. Still, there ought to be something obligatory for every rail operator, I think?

I'd be very grateful when someone could put me on the right track (excuse the pun ) regarding this.

By the way, anyone with a working knowledge of German can have a peek at our Züge fahren und Rangieren (literally Driving Trains and Shunting), the Ril 408, in this file.

Thanks guys, and have a nice weekend -
Andreas

The FRA, Federal Railroad Adminstration oversees railroad operations here in the states. http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/wais ... v4_08.html

those are federal standards, for operating rules google GCOR or NORAC they represent some of basic operating rules.

http://www.railroadcontrols.com/gcor/

or

http://thebecketts.com/images/NORAC%208 ... %20NJT.pdf

The majority of the Züge fahren und Rangieren reads alot like GCOR!

Although I believe it is easier to read and understand (but then again, I am biased since I used to work for Swissair!).

Andreas,

One word I am not familiar with is randweg. If I were to assume I would almost refer to the randweg as to what we call in the US as the ballast or area along the railroad tracks as a means of walking along the train. Is that correct?

Example:

c) Sobald Sie als Zugführer erkennen, dass der Brand nicht gelöscht werden
kann, müssen Sie die Räumung des Zuges anordnen. Dazu müssen Sie -
möglichst in Absprache mit dem Fahrdienstleiter - die Fluchtrichtung festlegen
und für das Anschalten einer eventuell vorhandenen Tunnelbeleuchtung sorgen.
Als Zugpersonal müssen Sie dafür sorgen, dass als Fluchtweg der
Randweg neben dem haltenden Zug benutzt wird.

Regards.

Correct, the Randweg is a theoretical or existing path along the side of the railroad tracks. Basically, walking on the side of the tracks instead of on them, or between them (a route in Germany by definition does not have more than two tracks, if its more you have multiple parallel routes). In the quoted text, it's about keeping the passenger on the path to the side of the tracks in a tunnel, and specifically the one on the side not facing another set of tracks.

Schienenflieger wrote:in Germany, where basically every inch of railway infrastructure belongs to the government-owned Deutsche Bahn that defines the rules for everyone else operating on their network

One should point out that there are non-DB-owned railway tracks in Germany. The only common rules with DB for these are those in the EBO, basically outlining signalling, speed limits etc.