North American freight cars
Whose car is that?
Look up a reporting mark, or a mark and a car number such as TILX 123456. See who Wikipedia lists as the owner, and what the rest of the stencil is telling you.
Browse by letter
4,092 marksRead a stencil
- CAPYCapacityCAPY is the car's nominal capacity, a rounded design figure, not the legal load limit.
- LD LMTLoad limitLD LMT is the maximum weight of freight the car is allowed to carry, in pounds.
- LT WTLight weightLT WT is the empty weight of the car, in pounds, from the last weighing.
- BLTBuilt dateBLT is the month and year the car was built, often with the builder's initials.
- COTSConsolidated stencilThe consolidated stencil gathers brake and inspection information into one panel. The boxes changed over the years.
- ACI / AEIACI labels and AEI tagsACI was a color-bar label the industry abandoned. AEI is the RFID tag that identifies the car to wayside readers.
- DOT / AAR specTank car specification stencilThe specification stencil, such as a DOT-111 or DOT-117 code, identifies which tank standard the car was built to.
Coming later
A photo of the car, then the same card
The next pieces are a stencil scan — a photo in, a car card out — and a cross-site index of public photos for a car number. Photos will be credited and linked. A thumbnail will be kept only when the source license allows it. This version is the mark list, the stencil guide, and the page for each car number.