Photo of Air Brake Badge Plate

[NW Mailing List]

Would someone tell this non-railroader just what was/is purpose of these badge plates, and what information they provided, and to whom?

Many thanks in advance.

Brian Gilleran
Herndon, VA

> On Dec 17, 2022, at 4:00 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> Fearless Leader of the Turnip Drum and Bugle Corps of Southern PA.  
> 
> Thank you for all the detailed information on the placement of these plates.   Those under most freight cars would probably be covered with paint and lots of "road grime".   On a model they would be unseen and just a rectangular plate.    However, it might be an interesting detail to add to one (or both) of my wife's prized 1.6 inch scale PRR H21a four bay open hoppers.  The plate would measure 1.63 in x 0.675 in.   That is large enough to be seen if a rivet counter was looking for it. 
> In my other modeling scales, 1:12 and 1:32, the plate would be small enough that it would be insignificant.  
> 
> I found the "2020 Field Manual of the AAR Interchange Rules" online that covered brake systems. Learned more than I wanted (or needed) to know about the subject.    I noted many references to umler records.  The original system you described was replaced in 2009 by a complete suite of products for the railroads providing "data as a service" and "software as a service".    Since the new system providing the functions of the old UMLER records database has nothing in common except the data, it was renamed "umler", probably so "old heads" could easily relate.   
> 
> I did not see anything in the new rules that prescribed having a physical plate or adhesive label on a car with the graphic depicted on the old cast plates. 
> 
> Regards
> Sent from my digital telegraph key
> Jim Stapleton
> 
> On Dec 17, 2022, at 11:44, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> Herr von Schtaplemann, Excellency:
> 
> At this late date (41 years after the fact,) I have no explicit memories which would answer your question.  But my guess is that the piece of equipment which "sourced" the badge plate was a hopper (which news-hacks and journalism majors like to call a "coal car,") and this for two reasons:
> 
> 1.  On hoppers, badge plates were located out in-the-open, under the slope sheet, near the  triple valve and reservoir where they could be easily seen.  On other types of equipment the badge plate was almost always located under the carbody, near the triple valve.  And since I was not in the business of going underneath cars on a routine basis, I probably spied the plate on a hopper.
> 
> 2.  The plate has just a tiny bit of black paint remaining on it on it, which may suggest it was mounted on a hopper.
> 
> I do not know if badge plates are any longer required under the AAR Interchange Rules or FRA air brake regulations.  At the time I was winding down my career, 12 years ago, I was seeing some TTX equipment (the trendy word is now "intermodal," but I don't speak trendy) which had cheezy printed stick-on's pasted to the car sides to fulfill the whatever badge plate requirements were in effect at the time. 
> 
> For at least the last 25 years, all car specifications and maintenance items have been logged in the AAR (Association of American Railroads) "master computer" (as it is called) in Washington.  This includes complete mechanical specifications dating from the construction of the car, any renewals or betterments, maintenance items like change-out of wheel sets or bearings, replacement of grab irons, replacement of an air hose, re-weighing of a car  and re-stenciling of the light weight, change-out of draught gear or coupler, replacement of a knuckle, date the air brake system was last shop-tested with a single car test device, date the service and emergency sides of triple valve changed out, replacement of an angle cock, brake chain, carrier iron,  and so forth.  The reason these records are so well kept is that railroads get paid for doing maintenance work on foreign-road equipment.  Billing for repairs is processed through the AAR, and that data input drives the UMLER database.  The UMLER records on some cars may be ten or more pages in length.  UMLER, as I recall, stands for Universal Machine Language Enriched (?) Record, and is an off-the-shelf program used in many industries. 
> 
> In a world where every shop track has a desktop PC which can very quickly pull down the UMLER records and specifications for any car anywhere in North America, you can see why a car-mounted cast steel badge plate may no longer be a necessity.  
> 
> Sorry, but this is the best I can do.  Hope it helps.
> 
> Ciao.
> 
> -- abram burnett
> Occupy Turnip Patch ! 
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