If you aren’t confident in your knowledge of one of the following subjects, go back to the relevant lesson in the course to give it a review.

• Blue Signal: A clearly distinguishable blue flag or blue light by day, and a blue light by night.
• Rolling Equipment includes locomotives and cars, whether or not coupled to make a train.
• A blue signal worker is any railroad employee who is assigned to inspect, test, repair, or service railroad rolling equipment, or their components, including brake systems.
• Members of train and yard crews are excluded from blue signal protection when assigned certain work on equipment that is part of the train or yard movement they have been called to operate (or have been assigned to as “utility employees”).
• No more than three utility employees may be attached to one train or yard crew at any given time.
• Train or yard crew must be assigned a controlling locomotive that is under the actual control of the assigned locomotive engineer of that crew.
• Both switches of each crossover must be lined against movement through the crossover toward that rolling equipment.
• To meet the definition of effective, a locking device must be:
  • Vandal resistant
  • Tamper resistant
  • Capable of being locked & unlocked only by the class, craft or group of employees for whom the protection is being provided
• In many cases, we would say that if blue signals are available, they must be used.
• When the blue signal regulations were originally implemented about 1976, it was quickly ascertained that there were problems associated with shop areas.