Each periodic inspection shall include the following:

(a) All mechanical gauges used by the engineer to aid in the control or braking of the train or locomotive, except load meters used in conjunction with an auxiliary brake system, shall be tested by comparison with a dead-weight tester or a test gauge designed for this purpose.

(b) All electrical devices and visible insulation shall be inspected.

(c) All cable connections between locomotives and jumpers that are designed to carry 600 volts or more shall be thoroughly cleaned, inspected, and tested for continuity.

(d) Event recorder. A microprocessor-based self-monitoring event recorder, if installed, is exempt from periodic inspection under paragraphs (d)(1) through (5) of this section and shall be inspected annually as required by §229.27(c). Other types of event recorders, if installed, shall be inspected, maintained, and tested in accordance with instructions of the manufacturer, supplier, or owner thereof and in accordance with the following criteria:

(1) A written or electronic copy of the instructions in use shall be kept at the point where the work is performed and a hard-copy version, written in the English language, shall be made available upon request to FRA.

(2) The event recorder shall be tested before any maintenance work is performed on it. At a minimum, the event recorder test shall include cycling, as practicable, all required recording elements and determining the full range of each element by reading out recorded data.

(3) If the pre-maintenance test reveals that the device is not recording all the specified data and that all recordings are within the designed recording elements, this fact shall be noted, and maintenance and testing shall be performed as necessary until a subsequent test is successful.

(4) When a successful test is accomplished, a copy of the data-verification results shall be maintained in any medium with the maintenance records for the locomotive until the next one is filed.

(5) A railroad's event recorder periodic maintenance shall be considered effective if 90 percent of the recorders on locomotives inbound for periodic inspection in any given calendar month are still fully functional; maintenance practices and test intervals shall be adjusted as necessary to yield effective periodic maintenance.

(e) Remote control locomotive. Remote control locomotive system components that interface with the mechanical devices of the locomotive shall be tested including, but not limited to, air pressure monitoring devices, pressure switches, and speed sensors.

(f) Alerters. The alerter shall be tested, and all automatic timing resets shall function as intended.

[45 FR 21109, Mar. 31, 1980, as amended at 58 FR 36614, July 8, 1993; 60 FR 27905, May 26, 1995; 66 FR 4192, Jan. 17, 2001; 70 FR 37939, June 30, 2005; 77 FR 21344, Apr. 9, 2012]