Does anyone know when the North American railroads were no longer required to document a freight car's Capacity (CAPY) on it? My own personal observation was that some time around late 1987, or 1988, I started to notice that the CAPY line of a car's dimentional data was being painted over, leaving only the Load Limit (LD LMT) and Light Weight (LT WT). I thought that along with the CAPY being painted out, the AAR code was removed also (e.g.: XM, XL, HT, GB, etc.). Eventually, even the reweigh station and date were removed, so all you see is the LD LMT and LT WT. I ask, since I have some Atlas 33000 gallon tankers painted ACFX, and they have a repainted date of 5-80. However, there is no CAPY on the car. Tank cars used to have CAPY and LT WT, but this changed to LD LMT and LT WT at some point. And my guess would be when CAPY's were no longer needed on the cars. I will most likely, remove the data, and back date it with a CAPY and LT WT so it looks appropriate on a Conrail train in 1984. Thanks for the help.
I really don't have an answer for you. So, why am I posting. Well, I have an idea and let's see if it pans out. I suspect that with the advent of the computer and car tracking the necessity for this information printed on the car is obsolete. The computer is cabable of keeping all required data in it's primary memory banks. I was sitting beside the 1:1 foot scale railroad when a crew member threw an old manifest list out of the window. I walked over picking it up and giving him a wave. I was surprised to learn that a considerable amount of information is recorded per each car. Load type, weight, origin, destination, reference to MSDS and more. We have several rails here on board and I'm sure that when they get some free time they will jump in to answer your question. This should stir the pot enough to get the job done...grin!
I think it was the advent of UMLER more than anything else that resulted in removal of a lot of data from the cars. As the data which was displayed was subject to change, you would end up with the need to repaint that data outside of the scheduled painting of the car and letters on it. With the introduction of UMLER, all that data that might change (especially the mechanical servicing information) could be moved into an electronic format where it would be centrally located and able to be shared among the railroads, allowing for only 1 set of records to be maintained instead of each railroad having to have its own records of every car it saw and needing to rely on having correct information stenciled or written on the side of the car (which can get defaced by various means) to ensure the car was in proper interchange condition. I think that train lists for a long time prior to the advent of computerized lists have had the data spoken of as that data is pertinent to the crew anyway and they needed to have a way to determine the train's length and weight after setouts without having to contact someone at the office to do the calculations for them. In addition, the HazMat information is a fairly recent thing as prior to the mid-1990s that information was not required to be in the hands of the crewmembers, only on hand at the office and at the yard.
Carrying capacity is still given on many cars to which it applies (open/covered hoppers come to mind)... it's over on the right side of the car now. I used to know when it all changed... but differential equations and mechanics of materials has displaced that stuff now
"My own personal observation was that some time around late 1987, or 1988..." Taking a quick look through both the N&W Color Guide and the Southern Railway Color Guide seems to bear this out, with cars painted into the narrow letter scheme the first couple years after the merger showing the CAPY while cars repainted in the mid- to late-80s did not. One apparition that I found of a Southern hopper had the CAPY line painted out in 1979 even though new cars delivered in 1982 still had them.
