Equipment Age and Interchange

[dharmon]

If I remember correctly, railcars cannot be used in interchange service after thirty years? Is this still the case?

Does rebuilding extend the life of the cars or is the thirty years from date of original manufacture?

Do locomotives have similiar restrictions? We've talked alot about pooled power, leases, loans and paybacks.......so if railroad A owes railroad B 3000 power hours do they have to send them a locomotive that is less than thirty years old? Or if UP and CSX are pooling power for an intermodal to the west coast, does the loco CSX offers up have to be less than xx years old?

Inquiring minds (but small[:)]) want to know?

[Anonymous]

I believe the limit is now up to forty (40) years in interchange service with an upper limit of fifty (50) years for non-interchange service. I don't have a copy of the AAR Rules handy so, I'm going on my recollection. You may want to check the Rules for confirmation and any exceptions.

LC

[Anonymous]

Totally missed the boat on your loco question.

Anyhow, as I understand it power pooling is done by agreement. It may be done on a case by case basis or as part of a master agreement between the railroads involved, but usually there are specifications as to minimum capabilities of the power to be used, for example nowadays a minimum of 26L brake system and event recorder is required by most railroads. I'm sure there are many other requirements as well.

LC

[CShaveRR]

When age limits on equipment were originally imposed (sometime in the 1970s), it was 50 years for everything. It was later (over a ten-year period) reduced to 40 for interchange service (it never got as low as 30). Now there's talk of bringing it back to 50 and beyond for certain types of equipment; I think TTX flat cars are somehow involved in that.

Rebuilding of cars usually has no effect on their age for this requirement, though I presume that if some components were replaced it might have.

Forty years ago, we were getting into the era of cushion underframes, 86-foot hi-cube box cars, 89-foot flats, and 100-ton coal cars. Most of the interim 85-ton hoppers (C&O and N&W) should be gone already. Tank cars from that era look really small (and old) compared to modern ones...generally they were longer and narrower for the same gallonage.

[edblysard]

From the Field Manual of the AAR Interchange rules effective January 1, 2003.
page 528,

Rule 88,
Section 1, sub section A: Cars built after July 1, 1974 are limited to 50 years of service.
Sub section B: See rule 90 for additional age restrictions on other cars.

page 547

Rule 90
Cars and/or car parts Prohibited in Interchange.

Section A
Rule 1. Cars more than 40 years old as measured from the year of original construction except as otherwise provided for in rule 88.
a. In the case of tank cars with seperate built dates for tank and underframe, the underframe built date will govern for determining prohibition in interchange.
b. Section A.1.a. above will apply to both tank and underframe for AAR Specification tank cars with seperate built date for tank and underframe.

Rule 2. Cars not properly registered in the UMLER file, as required by the AAR UMLER Specification Manual.

3. Special Equipment.
a. Tank cars
(1) Having wood shims between the longitudinal anchorage and underframe.
(2) Tank cars equipped with D-3 single coil side springs or 609-C friction castings.
b. Flat cars
(1) Container pedestals bolted or otherwise removable.

Section B.

(this thing goes on for about 3 more pages describing the parts you can not use to repair railcars with.)
So, cars built before july, 1974 are good for 40 years, those built after that date good for 50.

Have no idea about the locomotive question, think LC has it covered.

Ed

[dharmon]

Carl, Ed, LC...

Thank you very much. Helpful as always.

Dan

[dknelson]

This was very interesting to me since recently I was going through some slides I took in the early 1980s and found a company-service (i.e., not interchange but it was in a main line freight) tank car (C&NW). The side of the car said the tank was built (relying on memory here) in the early 1920s while the frame was built in the late 1930s. This situation was addressed in the rule quoted above. The car looked like the P2K model.
Dave Nelson