BN Woodchip Cars Question

[FRRYKid]

Does anyone know where I might find pictures of BN Woodchip Cars in the 587000-587199 series from when they were new in the mid to late 1970s? I have tried all the photo sites that I have run across including rr-fallenflags.org and railcarphotos.com. The pictures I find on those sites are more modern. I am trying to figure out if the cars were ever equipped with ACI labels or not. Thank you for your assistance with my inquiry.

[jrbernier]

  There should be lots of pictures at this site:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=BN&rid=587000

  Search on 'BN Grouped by Range' and scroll down to your # range...

Jim

[FRRYKid]

Unfortunately, all of those pictures still are too modern for the time frame in question. However, I am starting to suspect that those cars never received ACI labels. (I have added that site to my bookmark list for prototype pictures, though.)

[cv_acr]

The question here is what exact year were the cars actually built?

The ACI system was discontinued in 1977.

[FRRYKid]

The car was built in 1975.

[jrbernier]

  The ACI label system(Kar-Trak') was started in 1967 and all cars were to be labeled by June of 1970.  Most railroads found serious issues with the system and many of the wayside 'readers' never got installed.  By Feb 1978 the program was stopped and there was no longer a need to apply the labels.  Yhe DM&IR was one of the testing railroads(IIRC, the PRR was also a tester).  They system work great on the DM&IR's ore hoppers.  Issues not caught on the DM&IR tests were:

• Placement  - Low mounting(lie on a flat car) tended to collect dirt/grime.
• Slush - Winter operation made this issue even worse.  The only cars the D&IR usually ran in winter months were the taconite ore hoppers with the pellet extensions.  Again, the high mounting saved the labels from the 'slush' issue.

  Your 1975 car should have them, but looking at pictures, I can see either faded areas or 'paint over' on many of the wood chip car photos that I have looked at.  BN may have been very aggressive about removing the labels, or never put them on due to the cars being in local service.

  If you are modeling the 70's - Yes they were on most cars, but many of the photos one finds on the Internet web sites are taken much later.  One of the 'urban myths' one hears is that the railroads killed the project as the 'government' could see what they are doing!  Of course, a few years later BN started testing what is now the AEI system(RFID technology).

Jim

[FRRYKid]

jrbernier

  Your 1975 car should have them, but looking at pictures, I can see either faded areas or 'paint over' on many of the wood chip car photos that I have looked at.  BN may have been very aggressive about removing the labels, or never put them on due to the cars being in local service.

After reading your comment, I looked a little closer at some of the photos and saw what you were referring to, which answered the question of placement.
Now the other problem: Duplicating the brake wheel assembly (or at least get something close). That appears to be a unique assembly. Of course that is a different issue. For that one, I will have to take a "brake" and figure it out later.