Dick,
I wouldn't want to be in your shoes and torn between the regulators and their (obviously) conflicting regulations.
In my opinion, the Railroad should do what it has determined to be best for itself. I would hate to see the 483 go, but the overall health of the company is paramount to any of the minutae posted here. Without a viable Company there are no trains, tracks or tourists.
If I were faced with your choices, I would have posted, in my office, in big red letters: "It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission"... and jut go from there.
Rick Steele