Thanks for the candid response. Sounds like you are trying to play by the rules, only to be jacked-around by someone who doesn't quite know whats up from down. Meanwhile Railfest suffers because of it. Why they wanted you to apply before the event is beyond me, unless the matter through up some sort of red flag to them, for whatever reason.
I surely see why you complied with their request, and why you are asking for a waiver of some sort. Worst that can happen is that they say no, but they might make an amendment for low use situations, who knows.
However, as Kelly pointed out, I tend to think they will stick to their original rules for everyone.
One surely has to ask themselves how many operating does does it take to justify the full restoration of a locomotive, cost-wise that is.
Is 10 days a year worth it, thats 150 days for 15 years, then another rebuild??? If you are running a mainline excursion engine, maybe, cause they might pull over 1000 riders on one trip, but for Eureka and other small tourist ops It would hardly be worth the cost, except for the gradification of it all!!! And, that has to be worth something, right!!!
Greg