On Wednesday, the FRA issued an emergency order requiring the use of face masks when engaged in railroad operations. There are exemptions, and the rule does not preempt local or state mask mandates. Here is the full text of the order:

https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.dot.gov/files/2021-02/Signed%20EO%2032%20%28Face%20Masks%29%20-%202.24.2021.pdf

At least it has this provision on page 11....

Layers upon layers of regulations. They feel as though they have to do something!

When we pick up this year for our St Patty's Day trains and assuming I get a brakeman slot on one of them, I'll do what I've always done; mask up when I'm in the car or around anyone else.
When I'm on the ground or in a vestibule or empty car with nobody else around, the mask gets pulled off, ready to put it back on the moment anyone comes near.
I need to read this memo to see the specifics on that, but I strongly suspect what I do is what you're most like to see.
Sure, many tourist RRs are FRA-complaint, but I sort of doubt you'd see the same behaviors on masks with a tourist/non-profit operation as you might see on a Class I.
Then again, I just watched a crew change on the BNSF the other day and nobody had masks on...

Everyone we know who has a camper or RV is using it right now for any longer distance travel, to avoid having to use public facilities and the resulting need to continually wear face masks. I have been told that public transportation is currently running at about 15% of normal passenger volume, in my area.

PC

I hear reports from friends in the Washington, DC area that MARC and VRE ridership appears to still be WAY down, with just handfuls of passengers getting off at the end of the day at end points.

How did you even make it to page 11 to find that? And people say that government regulations aren't written using common sense.

Agree with it or not, this is nothing for museum operations to just totally blow off. There are some pretty heavy fines that can be levied against both the operation and individuals.

This is ultra important to remember even with outdoor activities where you may be working with just one or a few other folks, such as M-O-W work, signal crews, etc. That's the most logical spot that FRA inspectors will be actively looking violations, as it's easy to sit in the weeds with a telephoto lens and binoculars.

Very important to remember. I was a conductor doing a shove move after the last train of the day. Came around a curve in a pretty remote place to find a friendly man with a large red flag standing by the ROW. Pretty much the last time and place I would have expected such a test... which was the whole idea. (Engineer responded quickly to my request to bring the train to a stop within 5 car lengths... we both got to work another day! Ha).

Notice on Page 10 of the regulations:

Prolonged periods of mask removal are not permitted for eating or drinking; the mask must be worn between bites and sips.

PC

That's why active railroaders call it "hiding in the bushes" when either supervision or the FRA are out doing "efficiency testing". I've long thought it really should be called "proficiency testing", since they are checking to see if a crew is proficient in their knowledge and exercise of the rules. Sometimes you get lucky and the supervisor isn't even trying to catch a crew committing a violation, just checking a box for their quota of tests (rumor was T&E supervisors at CSX had to do at least 200 efficiency tests per month when I was there). One time I was stopped at an absolute interlocking signal. The dispatcher radioed us that he could not get the signal to work in a very formal way (a dead giveaway of an efficiency test, since the supervisor would also be listening on the radio to the exchange, testing the dispatcher at the same time), giving us permission past the stop signal, by the rule number, yada yada. I start to pull the train ahead at restricted speed, and about a quarter of a mile straight ahead I see the train master put the flashing banner on the track by the platform of a commuter station. Doesn't get any easier to pass the test than that.

They're using drones to observe us with, now, and use the evidence to hang us with.

My switch crew got dinged for going in between cars with not enough distance between the separated cars... complete with photo stills from the drone video footage for proof.

You don't even see the officials anymore, but they see you.

"Prolonged periods of mask removal are not permitted for eating or drinking; the mask must be worn between bites and sips."

And the virus hysteria continues unabated.

Get used to it, folks. Unless enough citizens decide they have had enough of the insanity (highly unlikely), and they conclude that they have no problem with the government telling them how to live their lives at all times, mask wearing requirements will become PERMANENT.

"But what if I'm outdoors?"
"But what if there's no one else around?"
"But what if I've been vaccinated?"

You are not, under ANY circumstances, allowed to ask those questions.

"If it saves just one life....."