This summer the West Coast Railway Assn. will be operating our two ex-CPR FP-7s and our open observation car in conjunction with Rocky Mountaineer Railtours out of Prince Rupert B.C. carrying passengers from Alaska Cruise ships on a scenic tour along the Skeena River. We have been told that we need to have properly registered reporting marks and car numbers before we can begin operations. We are a Provincial Railway under the terms of the Province of British Columbia Ministry of Transport listed as a tourist railway. As such we are governed by regulations that are pertinent to our catagory and not the full blown impact of the regulations as applied to a Provincial mainline railway. Given that our equipment will operate on CN, we fall under the Federal regs and as far as equipment is concerned, they are pretty straight forward. However, no one seems to be able to enlighten us as to requirements for reporting marks and car numbers. Any help will be appreciated.

West Coast Railway Heritage Park
gandmferguson@shaw.ca

UMLER is maintained by railinc. Everything that rolls in a train needs to be in the UMLER database - that's how the computer keeps track of tonnage, restrictions, etc. Our reporting marks were generated from our FRA id number. I suspect there must be something similar in Canada?

http://www.railinc.com/

You might consider joining the Railroad Passenger Car Alliance. One of their member benefits is the ability to easily register your equipment using their UMLER reporting marks for a reasonable fee. Once you're in the UMLER, you purchase the actual tags from Signal Computer Consultants in Pennsylvania. They can program the tags with all the information you need for each piece of equipment.

Grant,

Here is the web link for the RPCA Umler program.

Steve


RPCA Umler Website
SZuiderveen@aol.com

First, some historical background: it used to be that when cars were switched by the big railroads they had yard clerks that wrote down the car numbers on clipboards or forms. Today, the yard clerks are gone, and at the big yards, car information (number, reporting marks, and other details) are contained in AEI tags. These are transponders that can be read by a trackside reader when the cars enter the yard. While there is no legal or regulatory requirement to have AEI tags, the big railroads basically require them, and if you don't have them your cars may get lost somewhere. (If your car(s) never leave your railroad, or only run on short lines, you don't need the tags.)

To get AEI tags, you first have to get a registered reporting mark. Many tourist operations just made up marks which aren't valid. RailLinc assigns and maintains the marks. So, that is the first step.

The second step is to get your car(s) entered into the UMLER database, which RailLinc also maintains.

Then you can get AEI tags programmed, and you can put them on your car(s). If you only need one or two a railroad may just give them to you if you ask locally.

As mentioned before, the Railroad Passenger Car Association has a program where you can use their reporting mark and have them enter you into UMLER. That can be helpful as UMLER is a very difficult system to use.

Let me know if you have any questions. I have gone through this process with my group's equipment.

Chris Jacks.

> This summer the West Coast Railway Assn.
> will be operating our two ex-CPR FP-7s and
> our open observation car in conjunction with
> Rocky Mountaineer Railtours out of Prince
> Rupert B.C. carrying passengers from Alaska
> Cruise ships on a scenic tour along the
> Skeena River. We have been told that we need
> to have properly registered reporting marks
> and car numbers before we can begin
> operations. We are a Provincial Railway
> under the terms of the Province of British
> Columbia Ministry of Transport listed as a
> tourist railway. As such we are governed by
> regulations that are pertinent to our
> catagory and not the full blown impact of
> the regulations as applied to a Provincial
> mainline railway. Given that our equipment
> will operate on CN, we fall under the
> Federal regs and as far as equipment is
> concerned, they are pretty straight forward.
> However, no one seems to be able to
> enlighten us as to requirements for
> reporting marks and car numbers. Any help
> will be appreciated.


christrainman@yahoo.com