I think John Craft explained it pretty well. The C&TS is interstate, so it is unquestionably under FRA regulation. They can come on the property and look at anything they like. In the case of narrow-gauge track, becasue there have been no applicable rulemakings defining a scale of classes, conditions, penalties, etc, the FRA has only two choices--permit to operate, or shut down under an emergency order. The FRA's authority to issue an emergency order is sweeping:"Authority to enforce Federal railroad safety laws has been delegated by the Secretary of Transportation to the Federal Railroad Administrator. 49 CFR 1.49. Railroads are subject to FRA's safety jurisdiction under the Federal railroad safety laws, 49 U.S.C. 20101, 20103. FRA is authorized to issue emergency orders where an unsafe condition or practice "causes an emergency situation involving a hazard of death or personal injury." 49 U.S.C. 20104. These orders may impose such "restrictions and prohibitions . . . that may be necessary to abate the situation." (Ibid.) "In other words, even in the absence of a more specific applicable rulemaking, the FRA can always intervene to halt operations on railroads under its jurisdiction to stop "an emergency situation involving a hazard of death or personal injury."

There's only one problem with this "out":The EBT has done just that.When its right-of-way was threatened with paving over for a bypass of Rt. 522 in Mount Union several years ago, the EBT took action which was apparently intended (as in, I never heard it from the horse's mouth, but it was a pretty open secret among locals) to see to it that the EBT retained its rights as a railroad to retain its right-of-way and force the Penna. DOT to install a fully-protected dual-gauge rail crossing.In addition, or indeed as part of this strategy, the formal EBT corporation rebuilt the track from its former interchange in Mt. Union (a RR yard on the former PRR main line alignment) all the way to the connection with then-Conrail and now NS Harrisburg-Altoona main line west of town. Ostensibly the reason was to assure rail connection to a planned (and never occupied) industrial park. They also brought in a standard-gauge switcher and parked it in the EBT dual-gauge roundhouse.True, none of this directly involves the Rockhill-Shirleysburg Wye operation. And indeed, they did incorporate the standard-gauge operation as the Mt. Union Connecting Railroad. But it sure sounds to me like the company involved wants to be part of "system" when it suits their needs.........

I found this today when reading the recent posting about CTS:(lifted from http://www.goatbbs.com/cgi-bin/bbs50/webbbs_config.cgi/noframes/read/33538)