[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 246 (Friday, December 21, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Page 75697]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-30870]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Railroad Administration

[Docket Number FRA-2012-0077]


Petition for Waiver of Compliance

    In accordance with Part 211 of Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations 
(CFR), this document provides the public notice that by a document 
dated August 28, 2012, the Orrville Railroad Heritage Society, Inc. 
(ORHS) of Orrville, OH, has petitioned the Federal Railroad 
Administration (FRA) for a waiver of compliance from certain provisions 
of the Federal railroad safety regulations contained at 49 CFR part 223 
(Safety Glazing Standards--Locomotives, Passenger Cars and Cabooses). 
FRA assigned the petition Docket Number FRA-2012-0077.
    ORHS has petitioned for a permanent waiver of compliance for three 
passenger cars, numbered RPCX 101 (named ``William B Baer''), RPCX 102 
(named ``HH Wade''), and RPCX 103 (named ``Robert S Bixler''), each 
manufactured as a coach car by The Budd Company. RPCX 101 (a 60-seater 
built in 1947), RPCX 102 (a 56-seater built in 1947), and RPCX 103 (a 
68-seater built in 1946) have operated since 1985, 1986, and 1986, 
respectively. They are on lease for passenger excursions that are 
limited to regional railroads, namely Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad, 
Columbia and Ohio River Railroad, Ohio Central Railroad (Genesee and 
Wyoming), and the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway. The cars typically 
operate between 1,000 and 2,000 miles per year on about six weekends at 
speeds 45 mph or less, mostly on single-track rail lines through areas 
largely rural in nature. When not being used, these cars are stored at 
the ORHS Pine Street Yard in Orrville, OH, on the Wheeling and Lake 
Erie Railway.
    There are no end windows except for end doors. No Type I or Type II 
FRA-certified glazing is currently installed in the cars either in end 
windows or side windows. However, all windows, end and side, are \1/4\-
inch panes of Duplate ASI PPG Safety Glass. ORHS states that barring 
one incident of vandalism on RPCX 101 in the spring of 2010 when the 
car was in storage--resulting in one cracked window--there has been no 
accident or injury attributed to window glazing of these cars came 
under their present ownership in 1985. ORHS states that besides the 
prohibitive cost (approximately $33,600 for RPCX 101; $32,200 for PRCX 
102; and $33,800 for RPCX 103) involved in retrofitting the cars with 
FRA-certified glazing, side-lining the cars for this purpose will be 
catastrophic because most of its revenue comes from the operation of 
these cars on steam and diesel powered excursions. Therefore, ORHS is 
requesting this relief.
    A copy of the petition, as well as any written communications 
concerning the petition, is available for review online at 
www.regulations.gov and in person at the U.S. Department of 
Transportation's (DOT) Docket Operations Facility, 1200 New Jersey 
Avenue SE., W12-140, Washington, DC 20590. The Docket Operations 
Facility is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except 
Federal Holidays.
    Interested parties are invited to participate in these proceedings 
by submitting written views, data, or comments. FRA does not anticipate 
scheduling a public hearing in connection with these proceedings since 
the facts do not appear to warrant a hearing. If any interested party 
desires an opportunity for oral comment, they should notify FRA, in 
writing, before the end of the comment period and specify the basis for 
their request.
    All communications concerning these proceedings should identify the 
appropriate docket number and may be submitted by any of the following 
methods:
     Web site: http://www.regulations.gov/. Follow the online 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Fax: 202-493-2251.
     Mail: Docket Operations Facility, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., W12-140, Washington, DC 
20590.
     Hand Delivery: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Room W12-140, 
Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except Federal Holidays.
    Communications received by February 4, 2013 will be considered by 
FRA before final action is taken. Comments received after that date 
will be considered as far as practicable.
    Anyone is able to search the electronic form of any written 
communications and comments received into any of our dockets by the 
name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, 
if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). 
You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal 
Register published on April 11, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 
19477-78), or online at http://www.dot.gov/privacy.html.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on December 17, 2012.
Robert C. Lauby,
Deputy Associate Administrator for Regulatory and Legislative 
Operations.
[FR Doc. 2012-30870 Filed 12-20-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P