Re: [CBQ] Diagonal Freight Car Stripe

["James Sandrin via groups.io" <sandmantrains=gmail.com@groups.io>]

God help usI An AI non-answer. I knew it would be just a matter of time, but it is distressing nonetheless.

For those who still believe in and use hard-copy sources of information, this is from the CB&Q equipment list from 1968.  All the cars with the 8-inch diagonal stripe were equipped with Evans DF-2 load restraining devices and some type of belt-rails to secure the loads in place.  Many of the individual cars were specifically assigned to a single shipper, rather than accept a random free-runner car that might not have the preferred equipment.

The number series with said equipment  and the appropriate stripes were as follows:

19825-19839 40-foot mini-hi cubes  Pullman-Standard

23200-23272 XML-5 50-foot  Havelock built

24800-24899 XML-4 50-foot  Havelock built 

10012-10024 60-foot Evans built

10200-10269 60-foot Pullman Standard. 

There may have been a few others that qualify but photos (BRHS collection and  Chuck Zeiler in RR photo Archives) give examples of the car groups listed.

The Curmudgeon...JIm Sandrin

On Wed, 22 Oct 2025 at 09:35, cbqbill1x via groups.io <kybillhusb=gmail.com@groups.io> wrote:

The following is from Artificial Intelligence

A red diagonal stripe about 6 to 8 inches wide across a railroad boxcar is not a standard, mandatory marking with a single universal meaning. Instead, it is most often used by individual railroad companies or private car owners as a non-standard visual signal for internal purposes, such as:

1. Special Service or Equipment
The most common and modern interpretation is that the stripe is a visual indicator of a special feature or restriction for that particular car. This allows yard workers and train crews to quickly identify the car's status without having to read small stenciling. Examples could include:

Designated Service: Indicating the car is assigned to a specific shuttle, yard, or a particular customer's traffic pattern.

Special Internal Equipment: Marking cars that have unique interior fittings, such as specialized loading devices (e.g., specific types of load restraints or cushioning).

Maintenance Status: Signaling that the car is awaiting or has recently received a certain type of maintenance or modification.

2. Historical or Company-Specific Coding
Some historical or regional practices have used colored markings for identification:

Yard Assignment: In some rail systems, different colored stripes were historically used to indicate the yard a car belonged to for organizational and tracking purposes.

Computer Tracking Experiment (Historical): In the 1960s, the Union Pacific railroad used a red dot on some cars as part of an early experiment to visually identify cars being tracked by a new automated computer system (COIN). While this was a dot, not a stripe, it shows that railroads have used distinctive red markings for internal tracking experiments.

Since the marking isn't governed by federal or industry-wide regulations like placards for hazardous materials, its exact meaning would be found in the internal operating rules of the railroad that owns the car.

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