I have to wonder if using the word 'amusement' might not open up some of the operations to incurring 'amusement taxes' where they might not at present...

That is one concern. Another is what Ted Rita addressed earlier in this thread.

One of the reasons that Indiana has the draconian regulations is that it one time had next to none. This tragic incident at a now defunct park was resulted in the current attitude in that state concerning anything that remotely resembles an amusement ride
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Indiana_Fun_Park

This is a photo of the incident in Indiana.

Interesting bit of info. that I found about it:

On Thursday, August 11th, 1996, 4-year-old Emily Hunt was paralyzed from the chest down and her 57-year-old grandmother, Nancy Jones was killed after the miniature train ride at the Old Indiana Fun Park derailed and overturned as it approached a curve. The two victims were crushed under the weight of the cars . Upon investigation, the train was traveling much faster than its design speed of 12 miles per hour.

The ride operator claimed to have applied the brakes as the train neared the curve, but it was discovered that many of the ride’s brakes were either broken, missing, or not connected, and that most of the anti-derailment devices were missing. The speedometer was broken, along with the governor, which limits the speed of the train. The track was littered with broken ride parts.

Unbelievably the ride passed two state inspections in the 3-month period prior to the accident – before the safety inspector admitted that he was not qualified to inspect amusement rides. A state review of the park’s own records showed that the train had derailed 79 times in the 2 months prior to the accident, and as many as nine times in a single day.

Yup. That’s why I’m for inspections and regulations.

I was in the amusement industry for thirty years full time, and about eight years part time. I was attending a safety seminar the year after this accident. The entire staff responsible for the inspection dept in Indiana was there, trying to get their NAARSO certifications, which none of them had. https://naarso.com/ Yeah it was scary finding out how little these people knew.

Something similar happened on a backyard 2' gauge operation, Northfield & Cannon Valley Railroad, in 2007, killing a volunteer. The caboose involved was poorly designed and top-heavy apparently. The operation was completely unregulated.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24123

The Indiana accident ride sounds like the Gettysburg of amusement ride operations.

I've mentioned it before, the Chesapeake and Allegheny Live Steamers in Leakin Park in Baltimore came under the authority of state amusement inspectors around 25 years ago, after having kept them at bay while our patron, former Baltimore Mayor and Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer was in office. They were consistently told our monthly public rides were a "demonstration", not an amusement, but some time after Schaefer was gone they came and declared their jurisdiction over us, and that was that. About 10 years previous, Maryland was one of the first states to write a code for miniature boilers, and in their wisdom, the founders of CALS managed to get a seat at the table when the rules were written, so we could live with them. That is probably the best course for any group trying to navigate bureaucratic regulation issues - to become part of the process, instead of a victim of it. It might be too late for some groups, I don't know. it's the nature of bureaucracies to want to regulate anything that even faintly resembles their domain, and fighting this kind of "city hall" might be worse than tilting at windmills.

We also had a derailment on our miniature zoo railroad here in St Louis a few years back and I believe it killed the engineer. Same thing, too much speed heading into a curve.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/multimedi ... 9fa8b.html

So once again we learn that evil government regulations are written with blood ink.

I in theory, can sympathize with the Libertarian & Ronald Reagan Philosophy that the Government is not here to help, but in practical reality I've had it beaten into my head that Corporations and Individuals do not act like the Utopian Characters that are Required for such a philosophy to be practical. My Estate is supposed to be able to sue a corporation that caused my death and that makes things honky dory?

In fact, with my small participation in committees tasked with updating regulations, my experience is that the government employees are trying to do the right thing. They did indeed welcome the experience and point of view of folks in the trenches.

So, as already expressed by a person here actively involved in the process, Please Reach Out To Help the Writing Of Regulations That May Affect Your Interests.

Brian

If your state is thinking about adopting regulations for miniature boilers, if you can find someone involved in state government, try and get them to look at the Maryland regulations. They have been in force for nearly 30 years now, and as far as I know there have been no significant mishaps with any locomotive that meets those standards, and they are standards that a qualified hobby builder can meet.

I do not mind regulations as long as they are smartly developed, properly enforced and do not pose an undue burden. What I think many people are fearful of are amusement inspectors treating a train like a roller coaster and requiring full body harnesses, fully fenced in ROWs and other ridiculous requirements that are needed for true amusement rides but not for a railroad. Those fears come out of uncertainty caused by a lack of any real standards. The proposed ASTM standards should help alleviate those concerns.

Have you ever been to an amusement park? They operate wonderful railroads at amusement parks and don’t have any “ridiculous requirements.” You’re worrying about something that doesn’t actually happen.

I once had an inspector who knew nothing about railroads but inspected roller coasters, elevators and industrial assembly lines drop in to check up on a boiler repair. Yes, it does happen.

And? Did he insist that you install a body harness on your locomotive or other unreasonable requests?