foxxcyber/docsFRA filings & Form 5
The filing deadlines RailCompliant raises for you, how to close them out, and why Form 5 matters even in a year with no service.
Filing a record and reaching the deadline to send it to the FRA are two different obligations. When you complete a Part 230 inspection on a steam locomotive, RailCompliant opens the filing rows that inspection generates and puts a due date on each one.
Where filings appear
Outstanding filings show up in the FRA filings outstanding card on the Compliance Due page, below the next-due schedule. The card's badge shows either how many are open or how many are past deadline. Each row lists the locomotive, the filing, its citation, and the due date; overdue rows are highlighted and their date is shown in red. On a phone each row becomes a card. For a single locomotive, its Compliance tab links to its Form 5, and its audit binder shows whether the filing for each periodic inspection has been closed out.
The deadlines RailCompliant applies
| Filing | Raised by | Due |
|---|---|---|
| FRA Form 1 (31/92-SD report) | a 31-day or 92-day inspection | 10 days |
| FRA Form 3 (annual report) | an annual inspection | 10 days |
| FRA Form 3 | a 1472-service-day inspection | 30 days |
| FRA Form 4 (boiler specification card) | a 1472-service-day inspection | 30 days |
| FRA Form 19 (alteration/repair report) | an alteration or welded/riveted repair | 30 days |
| Written notice of annual inspection | a projected annual | at least one month ahead |
| FRA Form 5 (annual service-day report) | the calendar year | 31 January |
Days run from the inspection date. Each row carries a note reminding you what the filing needs — Forms 1, 3, 4, and 19 are dual-filed: at the place of maintenance and with the FRA Motive Power & Equipment Division Staff Director. The Form 19 note also records the § 230.20(c) distinction: reports on repairs to unstayed portions go to the FRA within 30 days, while stayed-portion repair reports are completed and retained for the life of the boiler but not sent in.
Filings are generated for steam locomotives; diesel and modern locomotives are tracked through Part 229 obligations on the compliance schedule instead.
No filings are raised where Part 230 does not apply: on a line set as insular (§230.2(b)(4)), on a line that runs freight trains only, inside an installation (§230.2(b)(2)), or on track under 24 inches (§230.2(b)(1)). You set both in Settings → Where your trains run. Filings that were already open are kept, not deleted, but they are not listed. If you change the answer back, they show again.
Form 5 — the one that bites
Form 5 is the annual service-day report, due for every steam locomotive between 31 December and 31 January under § 230.18(b). RailCompliant raises one per locomotive per year automatically. Its row has an Open Form 5 → button that renders the printable record: the running service-day counts since the last 31-day, 92-day, annual, and 1472 inspections, the inspections performed during the report year, the total service days for the year, and a signature block for the officer in charge.
A zero-service-day year still has to be filed. If Form 5 is not filed, the FRA may consider the locomotive retired under § 230.18(b)–(c) — and returning a retired locomotive to service requires completing every item of a full 1472 service-day inspection. The printed form says so on its face, and RailCompliant raises the filing whether or not the locomotive turned a wheel.
Service days are counted per § 230.8: any calendar day the boiler carries steam pressure above atmospheric with fire in the firebox — warm-up and cool-down days included.
Marking a filing as filed
Each row ends with a short form. Enter the date it was filed, choose where it went — FRA + local, FRA MP&E, or Local only — and click Mark filed. The filing drops off the outstanding list, and the action is written to the record history like any other change.
Closing a filing records what you did; it does not send anything. The printed and signed copy you mail or deliver is the filed record.