Skip...u hit the nail on the head.

Slow or not......trespassing is trespassing.

I'm not sure but I think Amtraks speed thru there was 35 or 40 and either 20 or 25 for freight. None of my books cover that area.

Yes the RR's pay taxes. They are an entity of their own since the breakup of Conrail and others.

At grade crossings are a whole different animal...there are volumes of rules covering all aspects of an at grade crossing on a public highway. These rules apply to contruction, public access and even the operation of the T&E crews (Train and Engine) that operate over these. Any public access point would have to be in bulletins and on the employees timetable/rules book.

Most locos have a camera just for that reason and a black box so they know what the crew was doing when they took the bend blowing at speed and the car was on the tracks. We can be charged w/delaying a train if found not operating at track speed, oe worse over it.

All railroads are a heartless employer and have numerous lawyers that write these obsessive rules.

One of our 40 year guys was taken out of service (fired in our terminoligy) for 30 days cause he was seen crossing around a car that was on the tracks tied down (parked) and they said he was less than 25 feet when he did it.

There are stories of their own employees being on their property to take care of personal business (like putting a time claim in or a vacation request) and they slipped or fell and as they weren't actually performing service for the carrier, the carrier had them arrested for tresspassing.