id number placement?

why arent the id numbers placed on the upper part of the car? it seems they would avoid a lot of grief?

newer BCOL's and AOK's have been putting the numbers up high as of late, im sure some other companys have been doing it, but im not sure who.

good question.

You have to consider a few points:

Firstly, when the limits were initally being placed on cars, graffiti covering them wasn't an issue. You're average box car was built between 70's - 90's. It wasn't until the 90's that boxes started getting smashed on. So logically, why would they place them higher up until now?

reading the lmt.'s between lines in the dark would be a much harder task if all limits were higher up, which is a concern for the workers and breakmen.

But now, with buffing cost and the fact that most fleets are heading for fresh paints, the rail companies are starting to do them sselves a favour and cut the cost by repositioning the lmt's

i have been seeing numbers higher up on some cars.Only a few but i am sure slowly but surely this will become a regular thing

VERY WELL STATED FR8OTECH....

...they're placed at eye level...because people that don't paint trains actually use them...

cn, and most of its affiliates have placed reporting marks high for years before the graffiti trend. i think fr8otech said it best. of late new blts have been placing marks high up, probably in an effort to avoid graffiti coverage. fresh paints still have them at eye length...its like the transit authority painting all those trains white back in the day. what the hell were they thinkin?

on a side note, ive seen some companies, (cp, qgry) place marks and limits on the right side of the car...whats up with that. i know icc requires reporting marks be exposed on all 4 sides of the car but until i saw numbers on right side i thought the left side was standard practice.

numbers on the right mean theyre girl cars. dont paint em unless youre a queer.

When the Solid Colds began turning into ARMNs I was hoping they'd learn, and put the numbers up high, but they didn't learn. Now they're filling up fast. I painted one that was so new you could see the chalk lines they used to lay out the numbers.

Originally posted by nelACKson

numbers on the right mean theyre girl cars. dont paint em unless youre a queer.

they're like ear rings

kind of related, i've seen a few new reefer (i think) cars in metal heads with only one ladder, on the right side. what is the reason for this ? also, is it indicative of things to come, i mean are they going to do just one ladder on all new cars ?

Seems like placing them on the door or around the front of the car would be an ideal solution as well. How often can you read the information from bewteen the lines without being right on it? Fr8otech made a good point on the timeline/logistics of it all. Floating the numbers and all over information would make me somewhat happy though. But I paint too big to avoid them all completely anyway. One of the reasons I began painting so large was to make going over stuff easier. I kinda like going around stuff too, but apparently not everyone does. ;)

i agree with fr8otech... but i also think like southernkid thinks and think that they should place them on the front of the box's... where the ridges are and the cars connect to each other... just like there are the markings and #'s up there too...

i havnt seen that at all. but ill be on the look out.

and about the ladder placement, it seems easier to have two ladders on both sides, more convienent for the brakeman but i dont know. i guess maybe its to save money but seems like a lame reason..i dont knwo

But now, with buffing cost and the fact that most fleets are heading for fresh paints, the rail companies are starting to do them sselves a favor and cut the cost by repositioning the lmt's

^^^fr8 oh~

fuckin ey !

that's good news about the new raised numbers on some cars/companies. i haven't run across those yet and although it's not that hard to leave them be it would be nice not to have to worry about it.