Re: Can a recreational RR work as a freight RR subcontractor?
Author: FUD
Date: 10-16-2024 - 06:02
I think you've captured what's likely happening here. On a side note, in California at least, a museum might want to be careful about using its locomotives that way. It might put any exemption it has for (lack of) emission controls, due to low usage and historical integrity, at risk if it uses things too much, especially on non-museum activities.
"Renting out" its people, if they have appropriate knowledge/skills/other qualifications, should not be an issue. The museum, especially if it's the first time, might want to work with its lawyers and business managers to make sure they have all the bases covered in terms of contracts and employer/employee/tax matters. Having a separate, related but taxable, business entity to handle such matters is pretty common if it's going to be more than a one-off.
I'm assuming (yes, I know how that word parses...) that the "recreational RR" is some kind of museum operation that is not itself a common carrier or industrial railroad. A grey area might be where the "recreational RR" is actually running occasional historic or tourist trains on a common carrier or industrial railroad already, so their people and the underlying railroad's people are familiar with each other; in that case, the railroad might occasionally hire the museum/tourist operator's people for casual labor or specialized expertise (is the railroad trying to reactivate something old?).
The OP might have been a troll, and certainly has not been back with any more information about the situation, but the discussion has been interesting.