Yesterday on a passing coal train, I noticed that someone had recently washed off certain areas on the sides of the coal gons and applied reflective tape squares. This was obvious because of the dirty runoff below the area and because the tape was sometimes applied right over existing grafitti. Is this some new regulation as a result of one of those car hits train accidents?
Also do private coal gons have RFID tags, I didn’t see any but I’m not sure where they would be?
The FRA has acknowledged that freight trains can be hard to see at night, which contributes to accidents in which automobiles and other highway vehicles run into the sides of freight trains. These are called RIT crashes (run into train). Therefore, the FRA has instituted a new requirement that the sides of all freight cars be equipped with reflectors.
The rules for reflectorization can be found here:
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_05/49cfr224_05.html
it eveb gives diagrams in there somewhere. in PDF files
All cars in interchange service are suppose to have AEI tags. Occasionally they break/fall off, especially, cars subjected to rough service like coal cars. AEI tags are normally mounted horizontally along the cars lower sill, close to one end. The tags are about 2" x 10" and are gray. Althought, they can also be painted over.
Nick
This has got to be incredibly expensive for the railroad industry as a whole. Also will affect private car owners as well. Just my humble opinion, but it seems that the suggestion of installing street lamps aimed specifically at each grade crossing that has no flashing lights would be more practical.
When I worked in the transit bus industry, my shop had to install these decals on the rear bumpers. The reflective stripes, made by 3M, were tough, and reflected light well. The downside to them is that after a couple of years of rain, mud, cold weather, and the hot sun, these stripes fade and must be replaced; otherwise they look cruddy.
So if there are several hundred thousand railroad freight cars in service right now that must have these reflective striping installed on them…I’m imagining that the price tag will easily surpass the $$ multi-million dollar mark $$$ over a 5 year course after labor and replacement costs are calcualted by the “bean-counters”.
I’m not a fan of corporate America, but I do see sometimes why private companies complain. Of course, instead of absorbing the cost, they’ll do it the old fashion way…pass the cost onto the customer.
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UM… Aren’t ALL costs passed on to the customer?
Reflective tape is nice for train crews as well. The easier to see a car - the better.
As far as streetlamps - good luck. What is easier - to get a handful of companies ot apply tape - or to get thousands of municipalities and utility companies to put up streetlamps?
I agree. It seems to me that on the very surface, there is a modest benefit, but there are downsides that are not so obvious. As you point out, the cost of installation will be a small matter compared to the cost of inspection and maintenance. If the reflectors were just being installed at the prerogative of individual companies as time and money allowed, the maintenance could follow the same level of leisure discretion. But these reflectors are an FRA mandated safety device required to protect motorists at grade crossings. I don’t see how a responsible railroad company could allow a train to leave i
Reflectors are great for gons, tanks, baretables - anything that doesn’t stand out. Reflectors can catch a car’s headlights long before a driver can see the actual car.
Can there be added liability? Sure, but when someone wants to sue - they will FIND a reason. Right now they can sue because there aren’t reflectors like trucks have… you just can’t win.
I think a street lamp placed at each passive crossing would be more sensible than trying to maintain pristine reflectors on each side of every freight car. And the railroads might be exempted from liability of keeping the lamp lit. But part of the rationale of reflectors is that they provide an animated visual display if the train is moving, and the movement of this display is considered added value in the purpose of attracting attention.
But there is another way to create a train-animated, reflectorized signal at grade crossings. I have developed this as an alternate approach to the proposal to add reflectors to the sides of all railcars. This alternate approach uses stationary reflectors, at each crossing, which are animated by the visual interference of a passing train. I call these fixed reflectors at grade crossings “T. I. P.” reflectors, with the initials standing for Train Interrupted Pulse.
These reflectors are placed on the roadside, beyond a crossing, as seen by an approaching motorist. The reflectors appear illuminated in the headlights of a vehicle every time it approaches a crossing at night, except that an approaching train will pass between the motorist and the reflector, tending to block the reflected signal. However, the blockage will be intermittent due to the fact that all freight trains have open gaps in their profiles that will allow the transmission of the reflector response.
There are two distinct zones where these gaps occur:
UPPER ZONE: This is the gap between each car, which is about 4 feet wide, starting at the top of the couplers and extending to the top of the cars. In the case of the highest boxcars, this upper zone would be about 10 feet high.
LOWER ZONE: These are the gaps between the trucks, in an area between the bottom of the couplers and the top of the rail. The maximum height of this zone is about 2 feet.
Individua