When did CAPY disappear?

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

The CAPY (Capacity) formerly stenciled on all freight cars in North America is no longer required. When did this change occur? Does any prototype car owner still put CAPY on their cars? Is that even permitted by interchange rules?

2

Chuck,

When I first saw the title,I thought it was about,the character,in the’‘Funny’s’’ from the newspaper,of year’s ago…LOL…

Cheers,

Frank

3

And I thought I was older than dirt! [(-D]

4

The Capacity line was deemed redundant (the Load Limit is really the key datum) and no longer required. This was painted over on most cars and new cars or repaints do not have this information.

This change occurred in the late 1980s, somewhere around 1987 IIRC.

5

Thanks, Chris.

The only information I could find on the web was this from a Trains article:

CAPY (nominal capacity) is the intended load-carrying capacity of the car, to the nearest 1000 pounds. This is determined by the structural strength of the car’s underframe and the size of the journal bearings of the car’s trucks.

LD LMT (load limit) is the maximum weight of lading that can be carried by the car, to the nearest 100 pounds. This is determined by subtracting the weight of the car when empty from the total allowable gross weight given the size of the car’s journal bearings. The load limit for a car is usually a bit greater than its capacity; the two figures can be equal, but capacity can never exceed load limit.

I had known the difference although I hadn’t noticed the “nearest 1000 pounds” vs the “nearest 100 pounds” before. Still, this article (at http://trn.trains.com/en/Railroad%20Reference/ABCs%20of%20Railroading/2006/05/Freight%20car%20markings.aspx) was dated May 1, 2006 and I knew CAPY had been dropped before that. Your memory of the lat 1980s is probably correct and certainly close enough for modeling purposes.

6

I looked it up, 1985 railroads were given 10 until 1995 to remove/cover it up which was extended to 2 years to 1997. However, like anything and its extremely rare any more, there are still a few cars running around with it.

7

Thanks for the follow up. Your post raises a couple of questions though.

  1. What was the reason for removing or covering CAPY? This is probably a rhetoric question. Only a real bureaucrat would think that simply discontinuing a practice wasn’t enough. “Some clerk somewhere might continue using CAPY instead of LD LMT with disastrous consequences.”
  2. On a more serious note, what was the source of your information? I’m not questioning its authenticity; only wondering if I couldn’t have found it for myself and where I might find similar historic information in the future.

NOTE to MR/Moderator: Clicking on the button to check spelling gives me: "Error response: < html>< head lang=“en”> Error <meta name=“robots” " I’m running IE-10.