Is this a hard and fast rule… can never be broken… or is this a fluid situation where cars can be overhauled etc and get an extension?
My guess as why the 40 year rule exists is that some railroads were interchanging old cars that were on the verge of falling apart like the Blues Brothers’ car at the end of the movie (maybe not quite that bad).
The 40 years only applies to cars built before a particular date in 1974. They can be rebuilt per AAR Rule 88 to extend their interchange life. I have heard there is a 50 year limit for cars built after that date, but I cannot find anything in the AAR Interchange Office Manual.
UP still has R-70-15 reefers in service. They were built in 1965.
And as long as they operate on the UP they are fine.
I would presume that the rule was based on a frame/fitting fatigue estimate as of the date it was proposed - which was probably reasonable considering both the economics and the metallurgy of the time, for cars in ordinary service. It’s probably too short a time for cars that mostly sit on sidings waiting for suitable loads (multi-truck flat cars come to mind) and might be 'way too long for cars which never stop moving (unit coal service, anyone?)
Note that there are aircraft flying which are well over forty (the entire B-52 fleet, for openers) - and they can keep flying as long as they’re airworthy. Others, with design defects or unusual loadings, have been retired (or destroyed in airframe-failure crashes) long before their fortieth anniversary. Flying hours and aircraft pressurization cycles count for far more than calendar age. I would think that similar criteria cold be applied to railway cars with non-standard use patterns.
Just for grins, how old are the frames of some of the GP-whatever rebuilds still in service?
Chuck
CFR 49, Part 215.203 (Restricted Cars) mentions a 50 year limit from date of original construction.
Jeff
You’re correct about the FRA rule (49 CFR 215.203). The rule isn’t an absolute prohibition on use of a freight car after 50 years. But, in order to do so, the railroad has to get FRA approval and the car has to have special stencilling. This is a big issue with tourist / museum railroads that occasionally operate demonstration freight trains with old freight equipment, old cabooses and old freight cars which have been converted into passenger cars (for example, old gondolas with passenger seats) since, under the rule, a car originally designed as a freight car is always a freight car. This issue was discussed at the recent ARM /TRAIN conference in Chattanooga.
Thanks for the information. I have been wondering about that for a while now.
Here is 49 CFR 215. In case anyone is interested, here is the section of 49 CFR that deals with the FRA.
I would not be surprised if there were some on CSXT. If there are any in the ARMN 764000-764099(?) series, they are R-70-15.
UP still has a sizeable fleet of PCF reefers (anything ARMN 7######), all built in or before 1971. Some of the FGE reefers were built over 40 years ago (ARMN 900000, 910000, 990000 series, if I remember correctly). There is probably a significant amount on CSXT. I would guess the ARMN rebuild was a Rule 88 rebuild.
As a matter of fact, there shouldn’t be any of the original PFE reefers that aren’t pushing 40 (and most of them are older). And the last “Salad Shooter” I saw had some of these cars on it.
I remember that there was no age limit in the very early 1970s, when I hired out. A 50-year rule was put in force by 1974 or so, with the limit dropping two years for every year until they reached 40. The 50-year maximum applied to cars in non-interchange service (I wonder whether they had visualized the mergers that would allow non-interchange cars to roam across half the country!).
But I know that the rule has been modified to lengthen the service life of some cars, due to protests by, among others, TTX, I wish there were single source for accurate information on how long which cars can be used.
The 40 year rule applies to all cars built prior to July 1975 and haven’t had a 10 year life extension completed. Cars built after July 1975 are automatically good for 50 years. Once a car reaches their life expectancy they can still be used but cannot be interchanged with another carrier. Many cars built prior to 1975 that are still in good condition will go thru a life extension prior to their 40th birthday when it makes economic sense. Others will be scrapped or remain online providing service to industries where they do not need to interchange. Once cars reach their 50th birthday they are often downgraded to MOW service.
TB Garland
NS Locomotive Engineer and former Car Management Supervisor
Well, let me muddy the waters a little.
(1) The FRA 50-year rule mentioned in previous posts (49 CFR 215.203) applies to all freight cars except those used in (and stencilled for) maintenance of way service (the MOW exclusion is in 215.3(c)(3); the MOW stencilling requirements are in 215.305). In other words, it doesn’t matter if a 50+ year freight car is used only on the owning road. Its use (other than in MOW service) is still prohibited unless the railroad complies with the FRA approval and stencilling requirements.
(2) There is no Federal rule for passenger equipment similar to the 50 year rule for freight equipment (go figure). AMTRAK, of course, has its own proprietary requirements for the cars it will handle in its trains, but they aren’t industry or government regulations.
(3) I don’t have the AAR interchange rules at hand. But I suspect that the AAR “40 year rule”, like the FRA “50 year rule”, only applies to freight equipment.
(4) The AAR interchange rules permit railroads to make bilateral agreements between themselves that depart from the rules. For example, if UP and CSX agreed to use some 40+ year cars on a UP-CSX interline move, it would not be prohibited by the AAR rule (but the rule would still apply to interchange with carriers other than UP and CSX). The Federal “50 year rule”, on the other hand, can’t be avoided by a bilateral agreement.
Probably more than anyone wanted to know
Is this to help car manufacturers?
Is the concern over metal fatigue and metal corrosion?
Andrew Falconer
At least the class 1s have fewer interchanges with all the mergers in the last several decades:)
True for interchanges between the “Big 7” but I wonder with the proliferation of shortlines and regionals during the mega-merger era if the average freight car actually goes through more interchanges than ever…
My guess would be “no”, at least for most types of freight cars. Also, the freight cars that are interchanged to most short lines (although not so much regional roads) are usually interchanged under arrangements where the short line is invisible to the shipper on the billing documents, and the Class I road is responsible for car supply. In these cases, there would likely be little problem in getting an agreement whith the short line for interchange of 40+ year cars, if the Class I road wanted 1to use them in the service.
Some times the easiest explaination is the best. I wonder it the 40 year rule was instituted to eliminate the possiblity, albeit a small one, of anything with friction bearing trucks and not roller bearing trucks finding its way out on the mainlines?
nope, I don’t think so. Plain bearing trucks were no longer in production when the rule was made and many cars had been upgraded with roller bearing trucks. The plain bearing exclusion was a separate rule if I remember correctly.
tdmidget’s probably right. The reason i brought up friction bearings was not long ago I watched a film shot in the late '60s called “Railroad Man.” In the film one train crew has to deal with a good old fashioned friction bearing “hot box”, with flames shooting out and everything, so there were some friction bearing equipped cars still out there at the time. If Cshavers correct in saying the road he worked on adopted a 50 year rule on cars in 1974 it seems to me it get back to friction bearings again. How important is this in the general scheme of things? Not very, at least not to me. Interesting discussion, though. By the way, CSX won’t haul ANYTHING with friction bearings on it, get back to their no antique railroad equipment rule. If you buy an old caboose somewhere, don’t expect CSX to haul it. Better look for a good trucking company.
I don’t have any specific guidelines or books for reference, just an accumulation of knowledge over the years.
From what I know the first interchange rules were developed when the ban on interchanging cars with truss rod frames and model “K” brakes took effect in 1934 or '35.
I also recall reading here or in the magazine the 40 year rule being developed in the '60’s as a result of the large fleet of outside braced wooden walled grain boxes the Great Northern Railway had. If I recall correctly, it wasn’t that the cars caused derailments, it was more a case of lawyers from other roads looking at the cars from a distance, and it made them queasy.
The 50-year rule came in in 1974 as mentioned above.
Bruce
EDIT: Roof walk removal and roller bearing replacement were government mandated safety changes, required whether cars were interchanged or not, if they were in revenue service.
I might be wrong, but I thought a car could be “rebuilt” and put back in service after it reached it’s 40-year limit?? I’d think the issue would be that the cost of tearing a car down and building it back up would cost so much that it would be more economical to just retire the car and buy a new one.
p.s. I know the CN/DMIR still has some ore cars in service from the forties, but are buying new ones so they can be used in “all rail” trains (vs. running from the taconite plants to the ore docks).