I missed this when it happened but apparently Cal-OSHA has deemed a narrow gauge railroad is an amusement ride and ordered it shut down. The owners would like to get it going again. It seems that this bucks the trend of the FRA showing up and telling amusement operators that they are indeed a railroad. Does anyone know more about this operation?

http://www.theunion.com/article/2010051 ... ofile=1053

This?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Cou ... ion_Museum

Seen on Google Maps here
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=39.25137 ... &t=h&hl=en
Note the woody area dead center, boxed in by New Mohawk Road, Gold Flat Road, Railroad Ave, and Golden Center Fwy.

Looking at it on Google Earth, there are some serious grades there. I'm not clear if the railroad runs all the way around it or merely partially.

It does seem like it doesn't cross any highway. Based on my reading of 49 CFR 209 Appendix A, I would expect the FRA to regard the line as "insular" and thus would touch it with only the lightest regulation. Perhaps Cal-OSHA saw this as an "opening" suitable for them to step in.

CAL-OSHA has been poking about railroad sites for several years now. The law is based on regulating and inspecting amusement park rides, but exempts museums specifically and has some language about "rides completely on the ground" (i.e. railroad track as opposed to a roller coaster)

To a large extent CAL-OSHA is funded by inspection fees, so it is in the interest of the inspectors to inspect more, so they may collect more fees.

They tried to inspect the SPCRR at Ardenwood... We told them we were a museum, they said "prove it" we supplied them with documents proving our status as a museum including ARM member ship and a letter from the California State Railroad Museum.

I suspect that the Nevada County Traction Co could be exempt, but that it just isn't worth fighting over, and this is a good excuse to shut down the operation.

[quote="robertmacdowell"]This?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Cou ... ion_Museum
<snip>

No, this http://tinyurl.com/39nd789

Jim Tatum.

How about this strange thing that shows up in their "image gallery"?



SteamLocomotive.info and SteamLocomotive.com say it's Argent Lumber #5, a Lima 2-6-2 which came by way of a private owner near Cleveland, Ohio (reported in some accounts as Cedar Point & Lake Erie, but not according to Conrad's Steam Loco Directory):
http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomo ... splay=1779
which stunningly lists it as "operational".............?!?!?

not to be confused with nearby Nevada Co. NG #5:
http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomo ... isplay=158

I wondered where that Argent sister went..............

I would like to know under what disciplines other than boiler inspection, Cal-OSHA is qualified to inspect an operating railroad. I don't know of many inspectors at Cal-OSHA that are qualified in Locomotive and train braking systems and track inspections. This would be a better jog for the Cal-PUC who does have inspectors qualified in the railroad disciplines. Strange thing is that the train has been listed for sale, for some time now.

Nevada County Traction Co. was the beginning of narrow gauge restoration in Nevada County. The now-deceased owner of the hotel made it all happen, with lots of help from vigorous local volunteers. They eventually collected a bunch of 3' gauge equipment including the former NCNG engine which was brought back from Hollywood. During this time, 2' and 3' gauge tracks wound through the hotel property, a 2' gauge 0-4-0T from the High Country Railroad ran as well as the 3' Argent Porter with a new 4-wheel tender. I have heard of the operation of this engine as "scary." The 2' gauge steamer went out of service too and the only operations at NCTC became a diesel hauling 2' gauge open cars up the steep loop/switchback railroad. It is a neat run.

The first spin-off led to the creation of the Nevada Co. Historical Society NCNG museum. Immediately adjacent to the hotel property, tracks were briefly connected up a steep and impractical grade. The new museum was prolific and developed well, eventually having some of the equipment from the Wilmunder collection arrive and with a Sacramento Brick Porter operating on the short yard tracks. I am not clear on later events, but I believe the privately-owned equipment was evicted and the remaining group of local historians built a brand new water-tube boilered locomotive (#13 of all things) which has only steamed once TMK. Overall the NCNG museum is a nice static museum, with limited operational possibilities. They have a good site and good volunteers, I hope it continues some decent restoration work and avoids the hokey choo-choo path.
http://www.ncngrrmuseum.org/


The eviction from Nevada City led to the second spin-off which seems to lead to a new museum in Colfax (California, not Wisconsin). This nascent museum is a project of the Placer Sierra Railroad Society and it holds a Railroad Days event every September.
http://www.psrhs.org/

Meanwhile, the Argent engine, tender, and 2 cars are available on D.F.Barnhart (for a mere $279 Grand:
http://trains-trams-trolleys.com/home/3037.htm

I visited the Nevada County Traction Company back in March to look over No. 5 as a favor to someone that was interested in purchasing it. The 3-foot gauge equipment is for sale; the 2-foot gauge (which uses ex- High Country 0-4-0T 9) is what was running when the operation shut down. The Argent engine appears to be in decent shape, and was fired in 2009. It doesn't have a current form 4. It's a neat little engine and I'd love to purchase it myself (dare to dream!).


Jeff Terry

Three more....

Another three...

Last three...

Just to clarify:

The Nevada County Narrow Gauge and Nevada County Traction Company are different groups. The NCNG people were the ones that brought back NCNG 5, and maintain it today. The NCTC let them store it on their property in the 1990s, and then donated the land the current museum was built upon. The NCNG's little 0-4-0T No. 13, not based on any particular prototype, has been steamed up several times and runs very well. I watched it run under air back in March.

I plan to cover the NCNG Museum in my Railfan & Railroad column before the end of the year.

Jeff Terry

is another way of saying, not representative of anything historic that you might recognize. I would like to know more about the engine and how its operational characteristics are working out. To my knowledge the NCNGRM #13 was created primarily to avoid a number of boiler requirements by way of eliminating the pressure vessel from the equation.

If it works, that is great. Still, appearance wise it is not much different from a Chance C.P. Huntington (B-2-B steam outline propane or gas locomotive). Which, by the way, is a great reliable train for parks and other amusements.

I heard somewhere on here that the Ohio Department of Agriculture came and bothered a railroad museum or tourist operation about inspections and they had to get a letter from the FRA proving that they had jurisdiction, hell I would of laughfed in there face and told them to get out before I called the cops, or told them to come back after they have inspected Amtrak.

Such an attitude may cost you dearly.

They may or may not actually have regulatory jurisdiction over your operation, and it's worth questioning whether they have jurisdiction and why ("But we're not an amusement park ride...."), but replying to a request for regulatory review with a "get off my property!" when you are presumably not only inviting the public to your property/operation, but charging for the privilege, is simply asking for trouble. BIG trouble. For example, the short and quick answer to your smart-alecked remark is that Amtrak, as an interstate carrier, falls under Federal rather than state regulatory review. I can only think of one rail excursion operation that routinely crosses state lines, and that operation is run by the states in question.