Railroad Museum of Virginia- ACI Tags/AEI Tags

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

John,
The AEI Tags are located on each side of the car.  When looking at the side 
of the car, the AEI tag is mounted on the right side.  This is for all types 
of cars and engines.  The information contained on a AEI tag is only for 
identification purposes.
The contents of the car is carried on the waybill in the car inventory 
system that each railroad uses.
The AEI system works very well.  On rare occasions in double track, when 2 
trains are passing the scanner at the same time, the scanners get some parts 
of the 2 trains confused.  When this happens you use the previous scanner or 
the next scanner to fix the consists.  Then a trouble report is called in, 
and a maintainer will readjust the scanners.

Don

---Original Message ----- 
From: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 8:13 AM
Subject: Re: Re: Railroad Museum of Virginia



>I was aware of the ACI system and it's eventual demise, but I don't know 

>anything about the replacement.  Gordon, could you elaborate on the 

>microwave system?  What is the 'visible' evidence of it (I.e. trackside 

>sensors, funny-looking warts on the car side, etc)?  Does it only identify 

>the car, or is it writable so it can identify the contents?  Thanks.

>

> It's amazing that no one expected dirt buildup on the labels would impact 

> the optical readers (or what is more likely, the persons who did suspect 

> it weren't listened to!)

>

> John Samples

>

> From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org

> Date: 2006/11/01 Wed PM 10:07:23 CST

> To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Subject: Re: Railroad Museum of Virginia

>

> Viewing this caboose brought back memories to me.  If one looks closely to

> the right of the "NW" one can see a painted-over ACI (Automatic Car

> Identification) label.  Many of you can remember seeing these colored 

> labels

> on both sides of equipment in years gone by, or in old photos from that 

> era.

> In this Sylvania developed system, each stripe was coded in red, blue 

> and/or

> white.

>

> Reading up from the bottom, the first stripe was a "start" stripe, and the

> next four stripes represented the reporting marks (0550 as assigned by the

> AAR for the N & W as best I remember), the next six stripes represented 

> the

> equipment number (518666 in this case) and the penultimate stripe was a

> check digit that was a mathematical derivation of all of the other 

> numbers.

> The last stripe at the top was a "stop" stripe.

>

> The stripes were retroreflective, meaning that they reflected a light from 

> a

> scanner straight back into the scanner.  Each wayside scanner used a fast

> vertically rotating (1750 rpm as best I remember) wheel with multi-faceted

> mirrors on its periphery that reflected a internally generated beam of 

> light

> to scan the label from bottom to top several times even at high train 

> speeds

> past the scanner.  The light was reflected back into the scanner where

> sensors detected the red, blue or white codes and converted these into the

> reporting marks and equipment number.  This information could be used by a

> railroad to determine the identification of each piece of equipment in a

> train.

>

> Although initial tests verified the technical proficiency of the system

> before it was mandated by the AAR, after about 1-1/4 million cars had been

> equipped, experience revealed that the read rate in service was less than

> expected because of dirt buildup on the labels as well as occasional label

> damage.

>

> I served on an AAR Technical Task Force to see what could be done to 

> improve

> this optical system.  We considered several possible solutions without

> sufficient success.

>

> The AAR then formed a Task Force for New Concepts in ACI.  I served on 

> this

> committee also, and we considered all known systems for equipment

> identification, finally narrowing the search to a system using microwave

> scanners to interrogate passive responders on the equipment.  This is the

> system that was subsequently adopted by the AAR, and is currently in use,

> having replaced the optical system after tens of millions of dollars had

> been spent on the latter.

>

> A little bit of history for those who have wondered about these colorful

> labels.

>

> Gordon Hamilton

>

>

> ----- Original Message ----- 

> From: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> To: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 9:48 PM

> Subject: Re: Railroad Museum of Virginia

>

>

>> Picture attached: Norfolk & Western C31P caboose 518666 in

>> downtown Portsmouth, VA.

>>

>> Jerry Kay, Portsmouth

>>

>>

>

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