Slight correction: Friction bearings were never banned by the FRA, they are not allowed to be in regular interchange service by the Rules of Interchange put forth by the Association of American Railroads, which is not a government entity: rather an association that sets mechanical and operating standards and does research to advance the causes of American and foreign railroads.

Mike Tillger

The Association of American Railroads occasionally complains about railroads that comply with laws and F.R.A. regulations, but still violate the interchange rules when they want to. Examples have been non-roller bearing and over age cars.

Okay, I suppose there may not be a simple answer to this question, but what is the age restriction on cars in interchange service? I always thought it was 40 years (under AAR), but I am now hearing that cars can have work done on them to extend their service life beyond 40 years. Can anyone set me straight on this? I recently requested donation of a freight car that I thought was due for retirement in 2010, but was told that it would be receiving "extended service" work and would remain active for quite some time yet. How long can a car be kept going in interchange?

Any interchange car given a Rule 88 Rebuild gets a ten year extension as to the ability to interchange it. This is a long and complicated Rule and it must be certified by an Inspector qualified by the AAR. Also it was my understanding that cars built after 1973 were eligible for interchange for 50 years. I got tangled up in this about 15 years ago when my company purchased some boxcars that had been idled for a decade and had them put though a Rule 88 rebuild. They were the first deprescribed short line boxcars.

Recall I was proposing low-tech methods to get them onto flatcars.
Check out this guy, who has a very firm grasp on the idea of moving big things low-tech...
http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog ... _big_rocks

I've heard of him. We've talked over lots of ideas on moving the engines, from heavy cranes, to digging pits and jacking the engines up so a truck/trailer can run unferneath, to repairing the hopper risers and grease the rails and winch the engines onto a trailer, to attaching roller wheels on the engines lifting the engine off the drivers. We're convinced we shouldn't roll the drivers because of rusting up and damaging components. The engines will need a solid workover simply to fix the friction bearings which means lifting the engines and the need to be somewhere a crane can lift them. Whoever wishes to aquire the engines have to know this, even just for static display. No matter how you look at this, the job is huge.