Are You FRA 224 Compliant ?

GOOD idea, but will not be applicable on many "period" layouts.

Very cool and they look great but not for me.

Dave

While it is a nice idea, and I can certainly appreciate it, I will not be having these on my layout.

If we did not have so many Darwinian elimination-eligible candidates, we would not even need these things in the first place!

Personally, I miss the earlier days when most freight cars were more colorful and relatively graffitti-free and carried the "fallen flags" logos! even in the early 1970's, I remember more colorful boxcars that looked more like our 6464's! At least we can replicate those long-gone days on our own layouts!

Well???

when all the old guys get done here..... 

I bought these. I think they are needed on any modern layout. Of course that means they are for users that have modern equipment, and older equipment still running today.

Trouble is I bought the yellow color for both my G scale, and my O scale layouts. So, now I need the white versions too.

and BTW, yes, I'm an old guy too.

Hey, we old guys are not so bad! LOL! Did NOT mean to rain on the parade!

here's a quick sample on the end of the front porch of my SD70ACe in one gauge.

That looks great on the cars. I will be adding some to my fleet. Hopefully before some inspectors show up!! 

Tinplate Art posted:

If we did not have so many Darwinian elimination-eligible candidates, we would not even need these things in the first place!

do you really think these reflective stickers will help those people? Someone does.

I like how they light up in a dark area when my headlights hit them. I don't think they'll help some, who just don't look. Maybe their phones should lock up when they see something, so they can't text?

Hopefully, those reflective tapes will help reduce the carnage!

No I will NOT BE FRA compliant. I stop at 1998- the death of Conrail ( now GoneRail)

Like Clint Eastwood said, "A man's got to know his limitations."

Before the advent of FRA 224, I worked a line that had a fatality at a "crossbuck only" crossing at night. The person didn't see the slow moving train that was in the process of crossing and ran into the side of it before they could get stopped. Yes, the driver should have been more attentive... but seeing reflective tape moving across the darkness ahead would have been a tremendous help and might have saved that life.

Working for the prototype, I always thought FRA 224 was great rule, ESPECIALLY the reflective stripes on the ends of the cars. Do you realize just now LITTLE light most RR lanterns throw? When I first started RR-ing, the old Star (I think) brand lanterns we used MIGHT be good for a couple cars visibility when riding the end of a shove down a dark track looking for a joint. Unfun. Those reflective stripes increased making a visual on your joint car a LOT further.

I also think the safety yellow or orange colored reflective striped vests being worn now are great. It made it SO MUCH easier to keep visuals on the ground crews, even in daylight and for sure at night.

Still, though, none of my modeling interests are modern, so I wouldn't have any use for decal/whatever sets of the reflective stripes or figures in safety vests.

Andre

Andre: ALL good points!

It's a great idea but at my age I doubt I could even get them on straight. I also run freight cars from the 40's thru the 70's. I like the more colorful cars like billboard reefers and the cars from the 70's.

its not just because I may be old.

Dave

The BURLINGTON NORTHERN and the SOO LINE applied Retro-Reflective graphics and sheets to their cars and cabooses back in the 1970's. The BN employees also applied reflective paint for the logos on box cars.

Andrew