Another ACI question for the forum: What were the rules for how often ACI scanners had to be placed? I presume there had to be one for any interchange location (railroad to railroad). I had been looking to get that facet properly modeled on my layout. I just need to know how many I need. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.
Interchange was one location. They could be found at both ends of a major yard for purpose of arrival and departure times (dwell) of cars through the yard. They were located at the Powder River basin coal mines to show cars in and out.
Gidday, This may be “too much” information, but???..
http://www.archive.org/stream/proceedingsofann711970amer/proceedingsofann711970amer_djvu.txt
If you drag the cursor, on the right hand side, down about half an inch from the top, you should find this…
"Report on Assignment 6
Study the Economics and Operational Characteristics of
Automatic Car Identification to Develop Data for
Evaluating the Optimum Location of Scanners
7 7 -622-2 t
T. D. Kern (chairman, subcommittee), R. W. McKnight (vice chairman, subcom-
mittee), R. S. Allen, D. E. Brunn, P. C. Fxjller, T. J. Mattle, R. McCann,
R. L. McMurtrie, M. B. Miller, R. L. Milner, W. B. O'Sullivan, J. F.
PARTRroGE, G. A. Payne, A. L. Sams, R. J. Schiefelbein, J. H. Seamon, J. J.
Stark, Jr., C. L. Towle, L. E. Ward, D. R. Wheeler.
FOREWORD
This report is designed to assist a railroad to implement an Automatic Car Iden-
tification (ACI) system from its conception to its use as an operation/control tool as
part of a total management information system. Major areas of investigation include: ........."
Cheers,the Bear.
ACI (just as its successor, AEI) had no requirement on where or even whether to place scanners. It was entirely dependent on the whims of the individual railroad management as far as whether they used it or where the scanners were located. Some of the ones I’ve seen were about 20-30 miles outside of major yards to scan trains going in and out of the yard. By putting them 20-30 miles out it gave time for lists to be updated and prepared prior to the train stopping in the yard.
ACI had waaaaay fewer scanners than AEI (and there are thousands of them).
That answers the primary question. For my operations, I think I need 4 of them. One coming into town, as I have a small sorting siding; one at another sorting yard; one at an interchange; and one exiting town. Please let me know if this doesn’t work. My next question is this: Were are ACI scanners aluminum in color or did the color vary depending on the railroad. Thank you again for your assistance.
Usually they were seen just outside of the entrance/exit of a classification yard. I remember seeing one on the SOO Line about 20 miles east of a classification yard. They were expensive equipment back in the 70’s, and a lot of car reading was still done by folks on the ground.
All the ones I have seen were in an aluminum painted box(they were usually steel so that they could withstand ‘target practice’. The actual scanner was mounted in the bottom and a 45 degree angle mirror at the top reflected the signal down to the actual equipment.
Jim