Railroad speeding tickets? - Trains Magazine

BaltACD

Semper Vaporo

I have heard of various local law enforcement (police, sheriff, etc.) attempting to issue speeding tickets to Engineers for exceeding local speed limit laws that city/town councils have attempted to set for Railroads, but I guess it produces more expense for the community trying to enforce such than they could possibly make back in fines and it didn't help RR/community relations, nor did it result in the reduction of the speed of trains through the community.

Have always laughed at communities that set speed limits through their berg and then complain about the length of time moving trains block their crossings.

There was a story told on the old NYC of a town in northern Indiana that set a ridiculously low speed limit through their town.  At the same time, they had ordnances that said a train could not block any of the numerous crossings for more than 10 minutes without moving.

The railroad's completely unofficial response was to strictly obey both ordnances.  Of course, that made the double-track main through the center of town a pretty serious bottleneck; so much that there was nearly always at least one train, and usually two, creeping through town and blocking all of the crossings.

The speed ordnance, at least, was quickly repealed.