>>1917747>>1917760>>1917789"It depends," but carrying passengers alone doesn't put you under FRA jurisdiction.
The FRA does exercise some but usually not all of its authority on tourist, excursion, and museum (TEM) railroads to varying degrees because they're so disparate in terms of equipment, operations, and the lines they use. Items like
>public grade crossings>at-grade crossings of common carrier rail lines>interchanges with common carrier rail lines>bridges over a public road or commercially navigable waterway>operating close to another railroadwill put you under some degree of FRA jurisdiction. Being completely on your own property ("insular") and/or using 24" track gauge or smaller pretty much exempts you from their reach, that's why a lot of amusement park railroads don't have to fool with FRA rules, although they may still be subject to state laws. Even if the TEM falls under FRA jurisdiction, there are still ways to get waivers and exemptions for various concerns (but I imagine that is a serious hassle). The agency seems to be mostly concerned with air brake equipment. Steam locomotive boiler inspections are covered under their own law, but the FRA is charged with enforcing it.
Even if you built your own railroad that didn't fall under FRA jurisdiction, you'd likely need to follow a lot of stipulations provided by whoever insures you, and some of those would probably be based upon FRA rules and regulations and again, you may be subject to state laws.
