Abstract: An employee was operating a 20-ton American diesel electric locomotive crane as a switch gear locomotive. The employee lowered the crane's boom to pass under a 13.2-kilovolt overhead power line as the locomotive was pulling a loaded railcar. The overhead power line had been installed 2 months earlier and had been flagged. After the locomotive passed the power line, the employee raised the boom because of another railcar, which was in front of the locomotive and which contained a large tank. The storage yard where the employee was working had a slight incline, so the crane could not push and pull both cars at the same time. The employee moved the locomotive backward to move away from the incline, and the crane's boom contacted the overhead line. The employee, who had been concentrating on ground level activities and who had forgotten about the overhead line, never left the cab of the crane. He was not injured. The boom became entangled in the power line, and the electric utility company owning the line had to remove it.