ACI Labels

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Circa 1976, Louis Newton left the Planning Department and went to  
Transportation.
Mr. Claytor went outside the company to replace Mr. Newton.  He  selected the
leader of the then-foundering ACI Industries.  Despite the imminent  decline 
of
the ACI system, the new leader was determined to make car  identification  
work.
 
ACI scanners were indeed rare, but Roanoke had two -- one at Park  Street
and one at "WB".  N&WHS member Larry Hill and I were assigned to  determine
why the labels failed to "read".  Standard practice was to get a print  out 
after a
westbound passed the Park Street scanner.  Fitted with a cleaning  rag and a
bottle of Windex, one would locate the cars that failed to scan  passing Park 
Street and the other would clean the label.  Not all cars had  the
ACI label.  Where the ACI label was attached to the curved side of a  tank 
car,
they hardly ever "read".  Some labels were just dirty.   After the westbound  
recrewed
and departed,  the consist passing the Park Street scanner was  compared with 
the
consist passing the "WB" scanner.  As a rule, two or three of the ACI  labels 
cleaned
at Roanoke would "read" passing the "WB" scanner.  The best example of  
"reads"
we captured was on No. 77 --  about 85% of the cars scanned  correctly.
 
And, no, I don't do windows.
 
                                                                  Harry Bundy 
 
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