Terms and Conditions

Effective date: August 4, 2026

These Terms and Conditions govern your use of railroadconsulting.com and any training, quizzes, certificates, dashboards, or notification services offered through it. The site is operated by Thomas Railroad Consulting, Fallbrook, California. By using the site you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the site.

1. Nature of the training

Supplemental Railroad Safety Training is provided by a third party company, Thomas Railroad Consulting. The training and quiz materials on this site are supplemental. They are not a substitute for the safety training, rules qualification, or certification that your employer, your railroad, or any government agency requires of you.

Completing the quiz and receiving a Certificate of Completion does not qualify, certify, or license you to perform any rail duty. It does not make you a certified conductor, engineer, or rail worker of any kind, and it does not satisfy any federal, state, or employer training requirement on its own. Always follow the rules, instructions, and training program issued by your own employer.

2. The quiz and Certificate of Completion

The Railroad Safety and Operating Rules quiz is self-paced. A score of 100 percent across every section is required to earn a Certificate of Completion. Incorrect answers can be retried without limit. Certificates are issued in the name and to the email address entered at registration, so please enter both accurately. We are not responsible for certificates issued to an incorrect name or address supplied by the test taker.

3. Fees

Current fees are:

Certificate of Completion: $39. Payable by an individual test taker after passing the quiz.
Roster addition: $100 per person. Payable by a company to add an employee to its roster. A roster-covered employee receives their certificate at no additional charge once they pass.
Re-test: $100. Restores one further certificate entitlement for an employee who has already used theirs.

All prices are in US dollars. Payments are processed by Stripe, and your card details are handled by Stripe, not by us. We never see or store your full card number. Fees may change at any time, but a change never affects a purchase already completed.

4. Refunds

Everything sold here is a digital product delivered immediately, so refunds work as follows:

Certificate of Completion ($39). The certificate is generated and emailed as soon as payment clears. Because of that, it is not refundable once it has been issued. If the payment went through but no certificate arrived, tell us and we will either reissue it or refund you in full.
Roster addition ($100). Refundable in full within 30 days of purchase, as long as that employee has not yet been issued a certificate. Once the seat has been used, it is not refundable.
Re-test ($100). Same terms as a roster addition: refundable within 30 days if the re-test entitlement has not been used.

Duplicate charges, charges you did not authorize, and charges caused by a fault on our end are always refunded in full, with no time limit. If a technical problem on this site stopped you from completing training you paid for, we will fix it or refund you, whichever you prefer.

To request a refund, email Don.Thomas@RailroadConsulting.com from the address used at purchase and tell us what happened. Approved refunds go back to the original payment method and typically take 5 to 10 business days to appear, depending on your bank.

5. Company accounts and dashboards

Company accounts are set up manually by Thomas Railroad Consulting on request. There is no self-service signup. Once an account exists, the company’s designated point of contact may add employees to its roster and view that company’s own training records.

You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and for all activity under your account. Tell us promptly if you believe your credentials have been compromised. A company point of contact is responsible for making sure they have the right to submit each employee’s name and email address for training.

6. Locomotive Alerts

Locomotive Alerts is a free service that emails you when a touring locomotive is scheduled to reach a city you have selected. It is offered as a convenience and is provided as-is. Excursion schedules are set by the operating railroads, not by us, and they change or cancel frequently. Always confirm directly with the operator before making travel plans. We do not guarantee that an alert will be sent, that it will arrive on time, or that the schedule information behind it is current. You can unsubscribe at any time from the management link in any alert email.

7. Reference material and site content

The Library, Steam Locomotive Registry, Excursion Calendar, Soundboard, and blog are provided for general reference and interest. Rulebooks and reference documents hosted on this site remain the property of their respective publishers and are provided for convenience only. Excursion schedules, locomotive specifications, and historical details are compiled from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date.

Quiz content, course material, page copy, and the Certificate of Completion design are the property of Thomas Railroad Consulting. You may not copy, resell, or redistribute them without written permission.

8. Links to other sites

This site links to third party websites, including retailers and excursion railroad operators. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content, their products, or their privacy practices.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

The site and all training material are provided on an as-is and as-available basis, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, to the fullest extent permitted by law. We do not warrant that the site will be uninterrupted or error free, or that the safety and operating rules content reflects the current rules in force at your particular workplace. Rules differ between railroads and between industrial sites, and they are revised over time. Your employer’s rulebook always governs.

10. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Thomas Railroad Consulting is not liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of this site or its training material, including any workplace injury, incident, or loss. Our total liability for any claim relating to a paid service is limited to the amount you actually paid for that service.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, where Thomas Railroad Consulting is based, without regard to its conflict of law rules.

If a dispute comes up, please contact us first. Nearly everything can be sorted out directly, and we would rather fix a problem than argue about it. If we cannot resolve it between us, any claim relating to this site or these terms will be brought in the state or federal courts located in San Diego County, California, and both sides agree to that venue.

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page shows when they were last revised. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the revised terms.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms can be sent to Don.Thomas@RailroadConsulting.com.