It should be noted that the Mojave Food situation superseded the rules. The rules do provide that if you request to eat from the Train Dispatcher or in the case of a yard operation, the Yardmaster or similar employee in charge of the yard, and the employee grants such, you can do it. Without looking at the current Rulebook, I believe you have to request permission to eat up to a certain time limit before the meal starts. Yes, there are also times that a crew will "walk up" to a place, they knew they were going to be stopped at for quite some time and would not tell anyone. However, only 1 crewmember usually did the Dirty Work, as long as the remaining crew memebers remained with the train, you could get away with it. I remember several years ago, while living in New Orleans, BNSF Eastbounds would stop at West Bridge Jct. Tower waiting to go up on the Huey P. Long Bridge if it was blocked. One of the Operators who knew his work extremely well, would take it upon his own to tell the crew that he couldn't take them for over and hour, and if they wanted to get in their assist van and go eat, they could do so, they did have time. One BNSF Dispatcher found out about this and became furious, saying that was her decision, not his, because it was her crew, not his. He argued that they were right at he Eastbound Signal, and could not go any further without his decision. He also argued that they were technically at the Entrance Point to his territory.So in the future, the crews started talking to this Operator on the BNSF Yard Channel. Not another problem happened after that. But that is O.K., he left on 2-1-2007.