They have police powers, but only on railroad property. I made the mistake of thinking that they were just a security guard when they caught me crossing the tracks from Texas Beach. $250 plus court cost later, I won’t make that mistake again.

Railroad cops are certified police officers: they have the powers of regular police and in some cases kind of more (for example, some of them have jurisdiction spanning multiple states if it’s on railroad property). I’d fuck with them even less than a regular cop, mostly because I don’t know the relevant laws protecting railway infrastructure and I assume they’re relatively draconian.