Can anyone identify "Bull. I.R.C.A." ? It is a magazine or journal. I found it referred to in an old academic paper, and none of my colleagues recognizes it. I wonder if it is a trade publication.

I.R.C.A. could stand for the International Railways of Central America which served the banana plantations of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras etc.

Hope this helps.

Could you post the whole citation (and maybe even the author and title of the paper referencing the citation)?

Context (and time period) is essential. Obviously it must be railroad related, but more details would help.

Even today acronyms are context-sensitive. Several years ago I went by the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The marquee said "Welcome ASPRS" -- but I hadn't heard that the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing was in town. Turns out it was the American Society for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery...

It could simply be a bulletin posted by the I.R.C.A. at stations, engine terminals, shops, etc. But, since it operated in Spanish-speaking countries, would have expected such bulletins to be in Spanish, where the initials are F.I.C.A., which is what appeared on its locomotive tenders.

Here are the citations in their context:

Gottfried G. (1968) The distribution of empty transport units in
the railway network. Bull. I.R.C.A. 5, 395-412.
Gratwick J. and Hudson C. (1973) A family of models for
operational planning and control. Rail Int. 4, 1181-1 186.
Gulbradsen 0. (1963) Optimal Planning of Marshalling Yards by
Operational Research. PROC, pp. 226-233.
Hein 0. (1968) The optimum sequence of trains over a bottleneck
region. Bull. I.R.C.A. 5, 485-495.
Hein 0. (1969) An approximation method for determining vehicle
circulation schedules. Bull. I.R.C.A. 6, 429-442.

I don't think it's a banana road!

It appears to be part of the:

Bulletin of the International Railway Congress Association.

Here's a better version of one of your Hein citations::

HEIN, Q.; 'An Approximation Method for Determining Vehicle
Circulation Schedules.' Bulletin of the International
Railway Congress Association, Cybernetics and Electronics
on the Railways, 6, 11, 429-442 (Nov. 1969).

(I found it with a little Googling in a publication from MIT - you might find it useful in the context of your other references:
http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/5149/OR-066-77.pdf?sequence=1)

The main Bulletin started in 1919 and was succeeded by Rail International:
Here's some info from UC Berkeley's catalog.

Author International Railway Congress Association.
Notes Superseded by Rail International
Title Varies: 1919-1924, Bulletin of the International Railway Association; 1925- Bulletin of the International Railway Congress Association
Location(s):

Main Stack TF5.I72
Library has: 1-46, 1919-69//
Shelved at NRLF: v.1-46 (1919-1969)


Judging from the volume numbering, the Cybernetics and Electronics thing is a new series.

Thanks! Actually, the paper you found must be the working notes for the literature survey I was quoting. The author is the same, Arjang Assad.

Just shows the danger of using abbreviations when writing for posterity!

Good catch, my emeritus contact at MIT, and two other colleagues, could not place the abbreviation.