If you’re shipping by rail even a rudimentary understanding is important to protect your interests and to operate effectively within the rail network. 

Darell Luther

 

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) and subsidiaries Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), and Railinc define a general set of railroad operating practices and administrative rules and regulations in a publication titled, “Guide for Railroads”.  While designated specifically for existing and new railroad operators this guide is also very meaningful for industrial switch providers, trans-load sites and shippers and receivers of product transported by readers of this publication.  The guide also helps provide some insight into railroad administrative rules and regulations that gives a shipper a better level of understanding on how their serving rail carriers keep track of administrative requirements in the rail industry.

 

The guide is 57 pages in length, to condense it to a meaningful level we’ve pulled out and commented on those sections with the most relevance to a private railcar shipper.  The guide is arranged as follows:

  • Assignment of Reporting Marks
  • Industry Operating Requirements
  • Equipment Management/Asset Utilization
  • Damage Prevention
  • Railinc Equipment Characteristics Services
  • Railinc Asset Health Services
  • Railinc Asset Utilization and Compensation Services
  • Railinc Interline Operations and Exception Services
  • Railinc Messaging
  • Railinc Tracing
  • Railinc AAR Services
  • Railinc Enterprise Services
  • Publications

We’ll cover the first six bullets, Assignment of Reporting Marks to Railinc Asset Health Services in this article.

 

Assignment of Reporting Marks (Railcars, Trailers and Containers)

One of the important functions managed by AAR is the assignment of the Standard Carrier Alpha Code (SCAC—also referred to in this document as Reporting Mark or Car Initials) which consists of two to four alpha characters for railroads and four alpha characters ending in the character “X” for private rail equipment, and four alpha characters ending in “Z” for trailers and “U” for containers.  The reporting mark is stenciled on a railroad or private shipper, lessor or lessee equipment.

 

Private Railcars

The requirements for the assignment of all railroad reporting marks are outlined in Circular Letter OT-5.  Circular Letter OT-5 is the process by which a railcar owner or lessee applies and receives permission to bring private equipment on a railroads line.  The controlling entity (owner or lessee) must apply for loading authority and will be required to fill out an AAR Interchange Agreement governing the safe operations of railcars. Applications for the use of private cars with specific railroads should state the name of the controlling entity (owner or lessee), the name of the originating line haul carrier(s), the specific car number(s) and if known, the station(s) and industry(s) at which loads are intended to originate should be provided. Applicants will transmit the applications to the proposed originating carrier(s) who will subsequently notify the applicant of the approval or disapproval of the application. Application approval for shipper provided cars cannot be denied by the carrier(s) except for reasons of safety, mechanical factors or inadequate storage space. Compliance with applicable AAR and governmental mechanical, safety and security requirements, advisories and action items will satisfy the OT-5 safety and mechanical requirement. It’s important to note that the railroads’ use of private cars other than tank cars is not required unless railroad provided cars are not available. Just because you want to put private railcars on a railroad doesn’t mean the railroad is obligated to take your railcars. All applications must be submitted electronically via the Railinc central Internet system

 

Trailers and Containers

The applicant is required to certify that it has a serviceable Trailer-On-Flat-Car/Container-On-Flat-Car (TOFC/COFC) facility and can accept trailers, containers and chassis delivered on flat cars in train service. Such certification must be available prior to the assignment of the reporting mark.  A copy of the AAR TOFC/COFC Interchange Agreement – Trailer-On-Flat-Car/Container-On-Flat-Car (TOFC/COFC) Service and the Trailer/Container Service and Reporting Agreement will be forwarded to the requesting trailer/container owner for execution. The reporting mark will not be assigned until the executed AAR TOFC/COFC Interchange Agreement is received. Applicants requesting the assignment of a reporting mark for containers must submit their request to:

National Motor Freight Traffic Association, Inc., Agent

1001 North Fairfax, Suite 600

Alexandria, VA 22314

Telephone: (703) 838-1810, Fax: (703) 683-1094

E-mail: [email protected]

Web Site: www.nmfta.org

A copy must be provided to the Product Manager, Railinc. Applicants requesting the assignment of a reporting mark for trailers should e-mail their request to: [email protected] or call the Customer Support Center at (877) 724-5462 and ask for the application for a Private Mark.

 

Industry Operating Requirements

Industry Operating Requirements focus on safe and efficient operations of railcars in AAR Interchange Service and are maintained by the AAR Safety and Operations Staff.  Railroads and private car owners are required to subscribe to the AAR Interchange Agreement as part of the OT-5 process and are therefore subject to AAR rules and regulations.

 

These Industry Operating Requirements are governed by two manuals:  the Field Manual of AAR Interchange Rules (Field Manual) and the Office Manual of AAR Interchange Rules (Office Manual). All railroads and private car owners should have up to date copies of the interchange rules that govern the mechanical requirements for freight cars so that they have access to the applicable rules.  It’s sometimes easier to think of the Field Manual as the reference book governing overall mechanical requirements and the Office Manual as the price master for Field Manual requirements.

 

The Field Manual is divided into service sections outlining the required care of freight cars in each section.  These sections include: Rule 1 – defining the general care of freight cars requirements; Air Brake Equipment; Couplers, Yokes, Draft Gears, Uncoupling Levers and Support Brackets; Roller Bearings and Adapters; Wheels and Axles; Trucks; Sills (side, center and underframe devices); Center Plates and Side Bearings; General Repairs and Instructions; Material; Interchange of Freight Cars (mechanical requirements and conditions); Responsibility; Disposition; General Regulations for Billing; and, General Rules. Included in the General Rules section are compliance and enforcement and arbitration guidelines as well as any early warning or maintenance advisory guidelines and operational practices.

 

The Office Manual is divided along the same sections as the Field Manual providing up to date pricing and specific rules requirements.

 

Equipment Management/Asset Utilization

UMLER

The AAR is the keeper of the database called UMLER (Universal Machine Language Equipment Register) that contains the physical characteristics of nearly every piece of rail equipment in North America (Canada, USA, Mexico).  The rail equipment numbering over two million pieces of equipment covers rail cars, trailers, containers, chassis, locomotives and end-of-train devices.  This information is used in equipment distribution, route planning, determining power (locomotive) requirements for trains, reporting airbrake testing and in Automatic Equipment Identification (AEI) management.

 

National Car Grade System

This section is also where the railcar grading system rules are described. There are two criteria used for the grading of the interior condition of box and gondola cars covered under AAR Field Manual, Interchange Rule 1, Section 6, Car Classification.

 

The first criterion requires a physical inspection of empty box and gondola cars when on a shop, repair or cleanout track. The car is inspected, cleaned as required and reported to the AAR in the appropriate format as to condition.

 

The second criterion uses waybill information to identify any cars transporting municipal garbage waste that is assigned the STCC 4029114.  This STCC generates codes that indicate that the car is contaminated and this condition prevails for the life of the car. Shipments that are reported with potential contaminants or toxic substances with Standard Transportation Commodity Codes listed in AAR Car Service Rule 14 (in AAR Circular OT-10) generate a Car Grade ‘K’. The ‘K’ grade can only be removed by physical inspection and reporting to TRAIN II®.   It’s important to note that a ‘K’ graded railcar can be restricted when moving across commodities and should be removed by qualified car cleaning or railcar shop facilities if the car is going to be removed from municipal garbage waste service.

 

Also using waybill information are covered hopper cars that are loaded with specific ruminant protein commodities as defined in the Appendix to AAR Car Service Rule 14 – Contaminating Commodities will generate a Car Grade of N.  This car grade significantly restricts cross commodity use of these cars due to this restriction.  Unless you’re going to leave the cars in ruminant protein until they have no additional useful life you’ll be severely restricted as to their future use.

 

Damage Prevention

The AAR thru TTCI provides training on loading railcars on a fee basis.  The intent is to properly load railcars so that transportation of commodities and unloading operations is safe and minimizes damage to the commodity.  This section also provides for inter railroad freight claims settlement.

 

Railinc Equipment Characteristics Services

The Railinc Equipment Characteristics Services responsibilities include maintenance and upkeep of UMLER, the Comprehensive Equipment Performance Monitoring System (CEPMS) and Early Warning/Maintenance Advisories (EW/MA). UMLER is the database of all rail related equipment maintained by Railinc. The CEPMS focuses on gathering information on wheel sets, bolsters and side frames to determine and anticipate failure rates. EW/MA focuses on component failure notifications to negate derailments caused by or those that are more prevalent from certain types of components. If you’re a railcar owner or lessee it’s important to pay attention to the information the AAR provides to you on these data points so that you can plan for appropriate and timely railcar repairs while keeping the necessary number of railcars in service.

 

Railinc Asset Health Services

Asset Health Services refers to Railinc products that focus on physical rolling stock, such as railcars and locomotives. Products within this category relate to the health of rail equipment operated in interchange service, which may include rail equipment characteristics, pooling and distribution of empty rail equipment, and rail equipment health information. Key products in this category include:

  1. Car Repair Billing and Data Exchange, a method to keep track of railcar repairs at the component level and to share repair billing information with responsible parties.
  2. Locomotive Repair Billing, a method to keep track of locomotive repairs at the component level and to share repair billing information with responsible parties
  3. Damaged and Defective Car Tracking, a method of either settling on railcars that have been destroyed or those that are defective and no longer meet AAR interchange rules and require repair to be brought back into compliance.
  4. Equipment Health Management System, EHMS takes alert data from wheel impact load detectors (WILD) detectors after it is analyzed and categorized by TTCI’s sophisticated software/database system. It puts the data into four categories:
  • Window open level—advising that some degradation of wheel roundness has started
  • Opportunistic level—giving equipment owners a chance to schedule repairs before they start causing damage
  • Condemnable level—telling shops that wheels need to be replaced
  • Final Alert—telling carriers and car owners that high stresses are being place on rails requiring immediate action

EHMS manages the communication of this information to all equipment owners and provides the mechanism for reporting repairs, completing the cycle.

  1. Equipment Health View consolidates equipment health information gathered thru the numerous Railinc data systems and gives a car owner an in-depth mechanical health status of a piece of equipment.

 

Conclusion

The rail industry is governed by a very complex set of rules and regulations.  It’s important to note that these rules and regulations are a result of much trial and error, testing and reactions to situations that required a more finite set of management criteria.  The application of the rules and regulations are governed by those that understand them the best. If you’re shipping by rail even a rudimentary understanding is important to protect your interests and to operate effectively within the rail network.

 

Darell Luther is president of Forsyth, MT-based Tealinc Ltd., a rail transportation solutions and railcar leasing company. Darell’s career includes positions as president of DTE Rail and DTE Transportation Services Inc., Fieldston Transportation Services LLC, managing director of coal and unit trains for Southern Pacific Railroad and directors’ positions in marketing, fleet management and integrated network management at Burlington Northern Railroad. Darell has more than 24 years of rail, truck, barge and vessel transportation experience concentrated in bulk commodity and containerized shipments. To obtain a copy of the entire Guide for Railroads, contact Darell at (406) 347-5237 or e-mail at [email protected].

 

 

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