Announced in January 2011 - Starting in January, 2012 Amtrak will no longer accept Universal Valves (UC) for your brake system. Only 26 C, D-22 are preferred, ABDW, ABDX, and DB 60, will be acceptable.
DDCT or Damaged and Defective Car Tracking will go active in January 2011. Make sure if you are not using RPCNB or GLR for your Umler work that you update your FUR (Find Us Rail) contact points.
Members who own locomotives need to be aware that CN and NS are enforcing requirement for alignment control couplers. This does not include stop blocks. For more information contact us for their white paper.
RPCNB NEWS
We have a new page Procedural Changes! This affects how you move under RPCX. Please read this information!
Also note the changes on the SOP page.
In moving RPCNB forward, we now have a new web site address. www.rpcnb.com. The site was previously hosted by Great Lakes Railcar to help get RPCNB started. Please update your bookmarks! The new site contains all the data forms, agreements and information from the previous site.
With the new site we also have new email addresses. rpcx@rpcnb.com for Umler/EMIS data and rpcaequipros@rpcnb.com for the RPCA equipment roster. The old email address will still work for a while, but please update your email address books!
INDUSTRY NEWS
As of now CSX will not accept non-rotating end cap bearings. If you do not have rotating end caps (also known as AP bearings), your choices are to move by flatcar or truck or to change the bearings by swapping axles or trucks. CSX also requires an inspection before movement. They will ask who maintains your car, type of bearings, etc. Remember to allow extra time in your movement schedule to allow for this.
On February 14the Umler/EMIS received another update to the system. For the passenger section this update contained unintended consequences. The data element called extended service life was eliminated. This caused the rebuild date to go into error. So far, this error has not been corrected by Railinc. Several Class 1’s see the result of this change causing a ‘conflict’ in the record as a “BAD” Umler/EMIS record. To correct this we have been removing the rebuild date and preserving it in our records.
An additional consequence of this change is evidenced when in one instance a Class 1 then said that the car was over fifty years without a rebuild and must go by truck. The owner presented the rebuild data to the Railroad and the car was allowed to move. We hope that Railinc will correct this soon, but have not had confirmation of this. We will continue to work on this issue.
We also are working with Railinc on the locomotive section. We have opened a “hot ticket” on the locomotive coupler section. Currently this element contains draft gear only other than “loco unknown”. This issue is supposed to be before the locomotive committee soon for resolution. This "hot ticket" has been closed as the the loco coupler type will be dropped. However, you will still have to indicate if you unit has alignment control couplers.
We also have a continuing issue that articulated or draw bar connected cars are experiencing some problems. Some Class 1's requires that the same data for freight articulated car be used for passenger cars. The problem occurs with Umler/EMIS. The passenger section for articulated or draw bar connected currently does not contain the same information as the freight. We are working with the Railroads and the Railinc Data Quality Task Force to resolve this issue.