We all can see and point out errors in these several videos, but we need to keep conjecture regarding cause to ourselves. Albeit serious damage occurred to historic equipment and catastrophic disaster didn't happen, no lives were lost. Strasburg remains "the gold standard" of tourist steam operation, and serious consequences will no doubt follow.

Is the Switch Position Awareness Form (SPAF) not a thing any more?

It Is ABSOLUTELY part of the definition of Restricted Speed to look out for switch improperly lined.

See the General Code of Operating Rules version about eight posts above your post. IIRC NORAC version includes Broken Rail and 15 MPH in Interlocking Limits.

The Rules Examiners would humorously summarize the rule by saying if you hit anything it was your fault no matter what.

Brian

As a retired locomotive engineer/pilot and rules man who has handled many passenger excursions my mind was always on safe operation. While I was running the engine I rarely allowed anybody else except the conductor to be in the cab because it created too much of an un-nessary distraction. Even on some steam excursions I made hosts limit who was in the cab to avoid distractions.

My job as engineer was to safely run the engine and nothing else.

Exprail

Every human is fallible depsite how greatly they value themselves. This can happen to you. That's how complaceny works. It cares not of your skillset, years on the road or ability to memorize a rule. There are two people that make up locomotive engineers; guys who've screwed up and those that will.

Let's view this as a teachable moment and be thankful it wasn't worse.

DC

And Contractors wonder why Railroad Flagmen are REQUIRED when the contractor is working near railroad property.

Where was the Flagman for the excavator?

No question about that. Anyone who's run at all belongs to the "But by the grace of God, go I" club.
There are factors besides situational awareness. Who left that switch there?
You all seem to forget that waving at the passengers is a real thing at Strasburg on these moves. I've seen it every time I was there myself.
On another forum, someone said that the switch target is on the fireman's side there. I just couldn't tell from the videos I've seen to tell either way.
I agree that the engineer carries the vast majority of the blame overall, but what other contributions are there?

The equipment was parked, in storage, not in use. Presumably if it was in use, that switch would have been locked with a MOW lock, and the adjacent track would have been being flagged since they could potentially foul it.

But when it's parked, it's no different than a boxcar in the siding. Line and lock for main track.

(I know is not a big wreck) but do you think NTSB need to be called??

or that only Strasburg Railroad to find what happens??

You may well be correct. I was thinking that the rule only applied to the speed of the movement and that there would be a different, more general rule, about observing the position of switches that would apply.

In either case, the actual speed does not appear to be an issue. They could easily have stopped. They're still at fault, and I'll defer to rules examiner to determine which rule(s) to write them up on.

Although I have written of my various concerns with Steamtown's recent past and present situation; I can say that in the old days; we were constantly reminded from the unfortunate permanently debilitating accident of one employee, who as I recall (from oral accounts, it occurred before I was there) was knocked from the cab as locomotive was entering the "core complex" and there are support beams that create a close clearance hazard there. We were constantly reminded about the potential for sudden death and injury; and the need to ensure proper switch position and the clear and unobstructed view of our route; and as applicable sufficient space to finish the move.

Reviewing the video:

It appears from the video that there is a prominently displayed switch banner on the switch stand, displaying a white aspect at the top. It also appears that it would be directly behind the Amtrak catenary support pole and obstructed when viewed from certain angles.

The track curves to the right; so the boiler barrel is obstructing the engineer's view of the track

Right at 0:01 you see there is hand emerge from the cab window; there is intermittent waiving to the train being passed; at :07 there is another waive which appears to be the engineer's hand.

At about :07, it sounds like there's a voice saying no, and there clearly an somewhat frantic "stop, stop".

Another video; taken from the train sent to me appears to show the excavator placed behind the fouling point on the track and shoved back significantly by the impact; the voices in the train are clearly shocked.


Richard Glueck and co614 are right, while we can see what occurred; drawing causative conclusions at this point isn't warranted.

Our section crews put up red flags and sometimes portable derails to protect unattended track units, as well as lining the switch away and locking out the track if there's no room left.

We of course are still required to operate at restricted speed and expect to find any non-main track switch lined against us.

Engine crew (engineer and fireman) are responsible for checking switch stands, signals, and switch points. Blame is on them 100%. Period.

Yes it’s situational awareness, and assumptions, etc. doesn’t change the facts.

Crazy there was a go-pro on the excavator. The switch stand was clearly visible to the engineer. Restricted speed just means if you screw up it's on you. There is no reason to hit anything in restricted limits. Complacence and not paying attention to details is the culprit. A boiler explosion was narrowly avoided. Thats a big take away from this incident.

It wasn't a GoPro it was the Virtual Railfan camera.