illinoiscentral
SARM Volunteer
Here is a little information for modelers and new content creators.
Reporting Marks;
These consist of the owning railroad's initials (Illinois Central=IC). When a car is not owned by a railroad, there will be three letters followed by an X, the X denoting a non-railroad owner (Quaker Oats Co=QOCX). Below the initials will be the car number that is unique to each car. Below are the following:
Capacity; This is the car's designed capacity in pounds. This is no longer required on cars built after 1985, and most older cars still in revenue service will have this line painted out.
Load Limit; This is the maximum weight a car can carry.
Light Weight; This is a car's weight in pounds when empty.
Cars are periodically re-weighed when repairs are made at a shop, and re-stenciled accordingly, including the shop initials at which work was done.
Build Date; This is the date the car was built. On newer equipment, this is included in the "Consolidated Stencil". (See Below)
Toward the right end of the car you will generally find the following:
Dimensions; This will include the interior and exterior dimensions of the car in feet/inches. It may also include cubic feet for boxcar and covered hoppers, capacity in gallons for tank cars, and ice capacity for bunk reefers.
Consolidated Stencil; This is a black field with a white border that includes dates and initials of shops that perform routine brake and lubrication maintenance on the car. It will also include build and rebuild dates and the type of brake equipment installed on the car.
These began appearing in 1974. Early on this was a single panel but later was expanded to two or three panels.
Automatic Car Identification Plate; -ACI- The ACI system used a track side scanner to read these colored panels. The system was introduced in 1967, and all cars in interchange service were required to be equipped with ACI plates by 1970. In 1977, the requirement was dropped due to problems, mainly dirt, grime, and snow obscurring the colored bars the system read.
Wheel Inspection Dots; These began appearing in March of 1978, when U-1 type wheels made by a certain manufacturer were found defective. All cars of 70-ton capacity or less with 33-inch wheels had to be inspected. Those found not to have suspect type of wheel received yellow dots, those with the U-1 wheel were marked with a white dot. All cars with the suspect U-1 wheel had to have new wheels by December 1978. Cars rebuilt or repainted in 1979 won't have these marks.
You will also find scattered around the car the types of wheels applied, draft gear types, brake rigging arrangements, type of brake shoes, manufacturer, and air brake component locations.
Clearance specifications are indicated by Plate C or Plate D.
Hope somebody finds this helpful,
Cheers,
Woody
Reporting Marks;
These consist of the owning railroad's initials (Illinois Central=IC). When a car is not owned by a railroad, there will be three letters followed by an X, the X denoting a non-railroad owner (Quaker Oats Co=QOCX). Below the initials will be the car number that is unique to each car. Below are the following:
Capacity; This is the car's designed capacity in pounds. This is no longer required on cars built after 1985, and most older cars still in revenue service will have this line painted out.
Load Limit; This is the maximum weight a car can carry.
Light Weight; This is a car's weight in pounds when empty.
Cars are periodically re-weighed when repairs are made at a shop, and re-stenciled accordingly, including the shop initials at which work was done.
Build Date; This is the date the car was built. On newer equipment, this is included in the "Consolidated Stencil". (See Below)
Toward the right end of the car you will generally find the following:
Dimensions; This will include the interior and exterior dimensions of the car in feet/inches. It may also include cubic feet for boxcar and covered hoppers, capacity in gallons for tank cars, and ice capacity for bunk reefers.
Consolidated Stencil; This is a black field with a white border that includes dates and initials of shops that perform routine brake and lubrication maintenance on the car. It will also include build and rebuild dates and the type of brake equipment installed on the car.
These began appearing in 1974. Early on this was a single panel but later was expanded to two or three panels.
Automatic Car Identification Plate; -ACI- The ACI system used a track side scanner to read these colored panels. The system was introduced in 1967, and all cars in interchange service were required to be equipped with ACI plates by 1970. In 1977, the requirement was dropped due to problems, mainly dirt, grime, and snow obscurring the colored bars the system read.
Wheel Inspection Dots; These began appearing in March of 1978, when U-1 type wheels made by a certain manufacturer were found defective. All cars of 70-ton capacity or less with 33-inch wheels had to be inspected. Those found not to have suspect type of wheel received yellow dots, those with the U-1 wheel were marked with a white dot. All cars with the suspect U-1 wheel had to have new wheels by December 1978. Cars rebuilt or repainted in 1979 won't have these marks.
You will also find scattered around the car the types of wheels applied, draft gear types, brake rigging arrangements, type of brake shoes, manufacturer, and air brake component locations.
Clearance specifications are indicated by Plate C or Plate D.
Hope somebody finds this helpful,
Cheers,
Woody