There seems to have been some thread drift: 1) the "pilot conductor" better be back in the train advising the train's conductor. The pilot engineer better be in the engine, where all he does is advise the engineer on the territorial characteristics, etc. If the UP steam dep't, by whatever perjorative or saccarine names you wish to call them, aren't following the "FRA rules", I'd turn them in too. Like OPRMS, I have a fair amount of Union Official experiences in this sort of thing too, and I know of one Atk road foreman who got fined about three times for FRA "violations".