OK boys & girls. Let's discuss the subject and not each other. Actually, I don't think there's much more to directly discuss. Consider the topic a warning on how you handle employees or volunteers.

If the issue is qualification of HOS RR employees, how is this an OSHA matter and not FRA?

Legitimate questions =/= to making digs at low hanging fruit with no proactive solutions. If you had even a modicum of an idea of what goes on elsewhere in the rr industry you'd be protesting what goes on there, not cherrypicking standalone instances of human error to stroke your ego to. Sit down already.


On a more related note, businesses are required to comply with applicable laws of all pertinent regulators. Both OSHA and the FRA can show up at a railroad and enforce their own respective regulations, and sometimes jurisdiction can overlap in some situations. Both OSHA and the FRA have whistleblower protections, and I'm sure in this case it largely depended on who the complaint was initially made with...probably OSHA.

I understand dual regulation since I spent several years as a regulatory analyst for Prudential's now sold to Empower pension operations. Pensions are dually regulated by the Dept of Labor and the IRS and it can be confusing. In some cases relevant sections of the Internal Revenue Code (Title 26 of the U.S. Code) are identical to the codified provisions of the Employee Retirement Security Act (ERISA, Title 29) and in some cases, the same words mean wildly different things-for example the term "Highly Compensated Employee". An individual can be an HCE to IRS, while not being an HCE to the DOL, because in tax law the term is very clear and specific, while to the DOL it is a "facts and circumstances" test.

What I am asking here is since the FRA is responsible for minimum regulatory requirements for Conductors and Engineers, how is it DOL? I suppose specifically what I'm wondering is whether the issue the acted upon is addressed is strictly wrongful termination would the matter be referred to the FRA to address the issue of qualifications or do they just wrap the wrap the whole thing up in one action.

I can confirm that Kelly's departure was in part caused by his constant Strasburg harping.

Sorry to say we got the short end of that stick !!!

IMHO-Ross Rowland

Yes daddy :)

Because it's bad form to engage with bullies.

FRA governs safety in railroad operations and equipment i.e. the conductor certificate falls under that. OSHS covers a lot more ground and picks up where the FRA leaves off as in this case, wrongful termination of an employee as retaliation.

https://www.usa.gov/wrongful-termination

[Edit] The FRA and OSHA aren't necessarily mutually exclusive - they will work together in some cases. Generally, if the FRA doesn't regulate something within the RR workplace, OSHA does.

I'm trying to figure out the timeline. If the actual event happened about three years ago, would I be correct in that this likely happened during Tony Gebbia's time in charge at Strasburg? That would explain a lot.

We need to be careful here. By my count four senior officers have left in the last three years and we don't know who issued the order in the first place or what efforts were made to resolve the issue internally.

A January 17, 2025 article that was published on the front page of the Lancaster Online newspaper:
Strasburg Rail Road ordered to pay $221,114, reinstate fired whistleblower

I'm SURE you have never driven a vehicle over the speed limit nor while talking or texting on your cell phone. :-). . .

As hopefully everyone here knows, I retired from the MOW department of a railroad that runs damn close to Lehman Place.

In my experience two employees would be judged at fault in that incident:

* The MW Foreman (Employee In Charge Of On Track Protection) for not ensuring that a switch that can lead to parked equipment was lined and locked against main line movement.

* The Engineer that fell into the trap that my craft had left.

Guess what! Neither Employee would have been Executed for their mistakes.

I'm expecting that the Gold Standard would include appropriate Coaching to help ALL employees from making a "Distracted" mistake.

Brian Helfrich

FRA and OSHA have a MOU that was published in the Federal Register in 1978 regarding both FRA and OSHA jurisdiction and how it is applied on railroads. This agreement is still current. FRA and OSHA also have an agreement on the investigation of "whistleblower" complaints and how they are handled. See link below.

https://railroads.dot.gov/elibrary/fede ... ad-workers

Mike Ramsey (FRA/Ret)