Long Island Rail Road union leaders and Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials finally returned to the bargaining table Wednesday after 40 days, but the session still ended with no deal in sight. With less than three weeks until workers can legally walk off the job, leaders of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and four other labor unions appeared at an MTA board meeting and accused the agency of dodging talks toward the long-running contract dispute for weeks. “The clock is ticking,” fumed Gilman Lang, general chairman of the engineers’ union. LIRR workers are threatening to strike as early as May 16 if the MTA and the unions can’t reach an agreement. Christopher Sadowski “Our members are prepared to strike.” Lang told the board the five unions involved in the dispute, representing around 3,500 LIRR workers, were ready to iron out a deal, but the MTA refused to meet with them. “The only thing preventing that is the MTA’s failure to act,” Lang said.…