Then I will be out of questions for awhile:
OPSX, SEPX, MTRX - was watching these cars go by and found that they are dated! New 7-79, 2-80, 1-80, 2-79, 11-81. Why?
Curious Me…
Regulations say they have to be, IIRC. The dates you mentioned are in most cases the date the car was built. Other activities such as inspections, rebuilds, repaints etc. are also dated. It will give you something more to look at when your trackside.
work safe
Interesting…is it because a car can change hands many times and the paperwork may not? Or may get lost? Seems like they must have a very good reason for stenciling this on the car itself! And what if it is graffitied over? (graffitied?)
Mook
[?] Could it be that as the car changes hands, that it’s easier for the acquiring company to just add it to the books under its old reporting numbers rather than try to juggle around numbers to make it fit.
I don’t know if the roads use a particular set of numbers for each type of car, but if so, then there are a finite number of reporting numbers that could be used within that range. If they have acquired more cars than numbers, they may just use the previous owner’s reporting numbers.
Heck, I don’t know. I just like to watch the boxcars, gondolas, and the ghost of the caboose going by!
A couple of things are dependent, at leqast in part, on a car’s age, including the per deim or mileage rates that can be obtained for the use of a car.
Also, freight cars have an age limit: used to be 40 years for everything in interchange service and 50 in non-interchange service…some cars types may have gotten exemptions or extensions.
As for having the date covered, it’s probably available in many other places, including the Universal Machine Language Equipment Register (UMLER).
And if we freight-car historians didn’t have dates to go by, how could we possibly determine “phases” of production, trends toward larger cars, etc., etc. Some of us freight-car-freaks gobble information like that up!
(Right now there’s a hot competition to see who can spot the first 2004-built freight car in service…nobody’s won, yet!)
BC
(reigning champion in the new-year freight car competitions)
I’ve noticed there are no visible dates on some newer cars (especially tank cars) and most intermodal cars.
The build dates are always there…you just have to look in the right place. They’re in the Consolidated Stencil, which is a rectangular black box, divided into (usually) three parts
–two vertical parts providing bearing lubrication and brake test information, and the small line along the bottom, which provides the car’s build date (and a rebuilding date, on some occasions). This box generally appears toward the right end of the car side as you’re facing it. I think there’s only one complete box for the multi-unit intermodal cars, but there may be other boxes for the brake information near the additional brake valves.
One thing not mentioned, the cars have scheduled maintainance, due on certain months and years.
The need to know the age of the car becomes apparent.
Bearing lube, althought not a major maintainance chore any more, due to sealed bearings, tank inspections, pressure valves and safety valves all are on a schedule, and must be inspected on certain dates.
That is what the consolidation stencil is for, note the dates on tank car valve test and pressure valve is noted there, as is the scheduled AAR maintainance, (the codes, A, B& E so forth …) car inspectors look at the date built and the code to determine what has to be inspected or tested.
Center sills have to be inspected, things of that nature.
Any major repair is noted, rebuilds and such.
And, at some point in time, the car will be sold or scraped, and its value will be based partly on its age.
After all, you wouldnt buy a used automoblie unless you knew how old it was, and could see a record of maintainance.
Stay Frosty,
Ed[:D]
Got it! Thank you!
The new, built or rebuilt date is on the car because its required by law.
Just like the Federal Government requires a little letter “F” on the front of every locomotive. Look on the sill right behind the front steps.
Your tax dollars at work.
Dave H.
I asked about that F awhile back - still haven’t gotten over the answer - the front has to be marked! Guess I live in the land of Oz, almost, where the front of the engine always looks like the front!
Mookie-
On the Suburban passenger trains I used to run on the CNW, we used a “cab car” (a passenger coach with a complete [almost] set of engineer controls in the cab). This train would operate with the cab-car leading into Chicago.
The cab-car also had an “F” on one end of the coach. So while operating from the cab-car, the front was on one end; while operating from the loco, the front was on the other end!
While doing yard moves, care had to be taken to ensure that the ground crew knew which end of the train the engineer was opeating from, lest an erroneous directional command be given.
Seems like that would be kind of important, particularly for roads like N&W and Southern which ran their Geeps “backwards”, where the “front” might not be intuitively obvious.
Ok - I get the point - guess it is a good safety feature - it is just me looking at an SD70 or a Dash 9 - it is hard to miss the front!
Remember, though, that in the early days of the road switcher/Geep, many railroads ran them long hood forward, and the controls were set up that way in the cab. Thus the F would be on the long hood end of the loco…
And then there were those roads that had controlls on each side of the cab so they could run each direction without the engineer twisting his back. It all started out with the Box Cab Electrics. Many had a cab on each end, but controlls in only one. “F”
[banghead]
See why Mookie asks questions and doesn’t try to answer them!
That’s OK, I would say that everyone here learns something new along the way. NOBODY knows everything there is to know. (At least down here, anyway.)
Besides, it’s fun to see how many responses it takes to get off-topic!!
I think the top one is about 2?
[#offtopic][#oops][#offtopic][swg]