Western Railroad Discussion > FRA reflective striping requirement

I didn't read the memo, so maybe this works, but I though the requirement was for side sill striping, not vertical stripes on the body of the car. I know it's a phase in requirement, but this car is labeled as being built 6/05. You'd think they'd build it to specs.

So does this meet the FRA requirements?

Steve Carter
MSVRR Northern Division

---

I deal with several cars that have their stripes applied in this manner. Most of the ones I've seen, have been applied to older cars.

Gary

Yes also I saw a large quantity of tank cars with the vertical stripes too.

Ac4400cwgevo

The sloppy haphazard way in which striping is being applied to many cars makes me not ever want to photograph a freight car again! The logic of placing striping vertically in odd sized pieces totally escapes me. The whole thing is a sad joke anyway. It will cost the industry millions to comply and I doubt it does any good. People stupid enough or impaired enough to run into a train without reflective striping will probably run into it with it. I went through this in the trucking industry. We spent tens of thousands of dollars to stripe our older trailers that did not come with tape applied at the factory, and the only people that have ever crashed into them did so in broad daylight.

The FRA regulation was written in a weird manner ... it allows for vertical as well as horizontal striping. It also has different "minimum area" requirements for yellow striping versus white (less square footage required for yellow), which creates a "Catch 22" down the road if a car with yellow striping has one pice of white applied in a repair.

I haven't seen any "odd sized" striping. They are using the same sized stripes,
but the end ones use two stacked (so it's twice as tall). Most cars that can have
vertical ones have had them applied that way. Obviously cars like flatcars can't
have them vertical. I do see a few horizontally, but not too often. I've also
noticed that they do sometimes have to fit them around existing lettering, so
they might not be exactly in the same place on every car (even if it's the same
group of cars)

i think the reflective tape might be a life saver in some cases. i have seen crossings in the middle of no where and you come up on a train there at night ( especially the all black IC units) and the crossing as have no warning bells or lights. the tape will at least catch and reflect the light back to warn some people there is a train there and should maybe slow down and stop. but then again maybe it will give more power to the lawsuits they have on the railroads after an accident.
i like the tape idea it shows some sort of effort to safe guard the dumb and blind people out there who do not see trains at night

junctiontower Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The sloppy haphazard way in which striping is
> being applied to many cars makes me not ever want
> to photograph a freight car again! The logic of
> placing striping vertically in odd sized pieces
> totally escapes me.

If you think about it, it makes sense for the striping to be vertical. A solid yellow stripe, such as on UP's diesels, will not give the illusion of movement when illuminated. These vertical stripes will be more of an attention grabber at a grade crossing, as you will see them parading by -- similar to the way a moving Mars light caught your attention more than a stationary headlight did. Also, these don't appear to be "haphazard" at all -- the longer striping denotes the ends of the car, with the shorter striping in the center portion.

Makes sense to me...

Carl

Vertical stripes are to be placed on the cars when contructed or when being shopped. They will phase in over a number of years. Stripes on the both ends are to be 36" tall, those inside are to be 18" and are placed 10' apart.

For the curious, the regulation, all 49 pages of it, is available in PDF form here:

http://www.fra.dot.gov/Downloads/reflector%20final%20rule.pdf

The document includes diagrams showing how the "retroreflective sheeting" is to be applied. The regulation is 49CFR224, but it hasn't made it onto the GPO Access page yet.

CarlLaFong Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> junctiontower Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The sloppy haphazard way in which striping
> is
> > being applied to many cars makes me not ever
> want
> > to photograph a freight car again! The logic
> of
> > placing striping vertically in odd sized
> pieces
> > totally escapes me.
>
> If you think about it, it makes sense for the
> striping to be vertical. A solid yellow stripe,
> such as on UP's diesels, will not give the
> illusion of movement when illuminated. These
> vertical stripes will be more of an attention
> grabber at a grade crossing, as you will see them
> parading by -- similar to the way a moving Mars
> light caught your attention more than a stationary
> headlight did. Also, these don't appear to be
> "haphazard" at all -- the longer striping denotes
> the ends of the car, with the shorter striping in
> the center portion.
>
> Makes sense to me...
>
> Carl

Why does it matter if the striping shows movement? Either way, if you run into it, you're dead. I don't understand why they didn't just adopt the same standards we use on semi trailers. The red and white stripes show up just fine and don't look totally stupid. And once again I will ask the question. What are people doing driving through crossbucks without stopping? I don't need to see the train to know I should stop. If these people want to splatter themselves all over the side of a freight car, my sympathy goes to the people that have to clean it up.

junctiontower Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why does it matter if the striping shows movement?
> Either way, if you run into it, you're dead. I
> don't understand why they didn't just adopt the
> same standards we use on semi trailers. The red
> and white stripes show up just fine and don't look
> totally stupid. And once again I will ask the
> question. What are people doing driving through
> crossbucks without stopping? I don't need to see
> the train to know I should stop. If these people
> want to splatter themselves all over the side of a
> freight car, my sympathy goes to the people that
> have to clean it up.
>
>

The truth of the situation is that people DO drive at night and approach railroad crossings without even slowing down, much less stopping. And occasionally trains are stopped on the crossings and very hard to see.

Arranging the stripes in a pattern that enhances motion when the train is moving seems wise to me. My first experience with the effectiveness of this occurred in Kansas 10 years ago when I was driving on a road parallel to, but at least 50 yards away from, a UP track (ex-MKT?) and the stray light from my headlights picked up a black-white checkerboard pattern on a coal train.

The biggest problem I see with the retroreflective striping requirement is maintenance, especially concerning taggers.

In any event, the stripe pattern shown in the pictures is definitely compliant with the FRA spec.

Most freight cars I've seen with the striping are done like this - vertically...

I don't think there is anything haphazard about it - I think it is precisely specified in the regulations.

trails2rails Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Most freight cars I've seen with the striping are
> done like this - vertically...
>
> I don't think there is anything haphazard about it
> - I think it is precisely specified in the
> regulations.
>
>

My experience is just the opposite, thus the question and the photo. On this whole train, 3 cars were striped vertically, all with same LAFX markings. In between was a freshly painted BNSF 2 bay hopper with yellow horizontal side sill stripes. Long ones on the ends, short ones in the middle.

So based on previous comments, the question comes to mind (besides who cares), did BNSF get it wrong? Or is it left to the discretion of whoever's applying the tape, to decide the orientation? I guess I'll have to read that document.

Steve Carter

Well, regardless of the what the rocket scientists at the FRA mandated, I say the sensible way to do it would be horizontally down at eye level along the frame. And why must it be yellow? If red and white is good enough for millions of semi trailers, why isn't it ok for freight cars?

junctiontower Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If red and white is good enough for millions of semi
> trailers, why isn't it ok for freight cars?

I believe the purpose of this, as explained in the regulatory research, was to provide colors that would be recognizable as a train, rather than being the same as a truck. Least common denominator, maybe, but there probably are some doofuses (doofi?) out there who'd get confused....