What is Umler? U. M. L. E. R. stands for Universal Machine Language Equipment Register. This is a computer program, created for the Association of American Railroads and administered by AAR's subsidiary company Railinc, that maintains a database of information on essentially all rail cars and locomotives moving on the general railroad system in North America. If your car is in Umler, railroads anywhere can access the database and find out more about it, including handling restrictions, etc.

Umler is currently being re-written to take advantage of new computer and data base capabilities. The name Umler will remain, just no longer being an acronym for what it originally stood for. The new system is called EMIS, for Equipment Management Information System. Many parts of EMIS are already active.

What are reporting marks? Reporting marks are the letters preceding a car's numbers that are stenciled on the side of each rail car. They consist of two, three or four letters. In order to be legitimate, reporting marks must be assigned by the AAR and the assignee must also sign the Interchange Agreement. Traditionally, private car owners that are not railroads have reporting marks ending in the letter "X".

Why do cars need to be registered? There are two reasons. The first is operational functionality. Reporting marks and numbers along with the physical properties, when registered in Umler, help provide data on car(s) handling restrictions, ownership and history. The second is that there simply are not enough field personnel anymore to look at a piece of rolling stock and determine where and when it can go. And even if there were, most of them don't know the A end of a passenger car from the B end, let alone where it can go. Having the dimensional and performance characteristics in the computer, when computers are now making up the trains, makes shipments more accurate and safer for all.

Who is RPCX assigned to? They RPCX reporting mark is assigned to the Railroad Passenger Car Numbering Bureau, Inc. (RPCNB), a wholly owned subsidiary of Railroad Passenger Car Alliance (RPCA).

What is an AEI tag? An AEI tag is a small plastic box containing electronic equipment. It is mounted in a specific location, one on each side of every car. When the car passes a special scanner, the tag broadcasts the car's identity and orientation to the scanner. This has become the principal means of identifying cars and reporting car locations on America's railroads.

How do I get them? New and used tags are available from the railroads themselves and from a variety of other companies. Secondhand tags, including programming, are available for about $20 per tag. Two companies we have done business with now require the rolling stock to be in Umler before they will program and ship the tags. This is part of their Quality Control process to ensure that the data is correct. The older model tags are no longer allowed to be reprogrammed. Tags will require replacing every 5 years.

How do I mount them? Location of the tag is very specific. As a rough guideline, if you mount the tag as lowest possible on the car body, directly above the inboard wheel of the right truck (as you face the car) you should be within the window prescribed for the tag mounting. A bracket can be welded to the car body (and needs to be, if the car body is not metallic, since it acts as an antenna) or the tag can be pop riveted directly to the car body (paint will not affect tag performance), but most car owners don't want to drill holes in their car sides.

Can I have an AEI tag without registering in UMLER? Not on Class One RR's. You may be able to obtain the tag, have it programmed with real or imaginary reporting marks, and mount it on your car. This will give you the benefit of making the car "trackable" by AEI scanners, and may still be acceptable by some short line railroads. However, the reporting mark and car number the tag responds with will be checked by the computers against Umler. It is much easier to get caught with illegitimate marks this way. You will not be allowed to move a car on the Class One carriers if the car is not in Umler. Regional and Short Line RR's can set their own requirements, so you have to check each one, but many are now requiring registration and tags also.

What about the reverse? Not on Class One RR's. You can have a car registered in Umler and not have AEI tags applied. Some owners and operators have been doing this for some time. This allows a car to move if the carrier requires only Umler registration, but it does not enhance the tracking ability because the car is not reporting its location without tags, nor does it provide automatic identification in yards. Most railroads require both registration in Umler and AEI tags. Don't forget, railroads have far fewer personnel in the field that have any time to go out and look for a car. If a car is provided for movement on a Class One carrier without tags, it will probably be accepted. But it will probably go to the nearest RIP track to have tags programmed and installed at your expense, about $140. And you have no control over how they mount them, so you will probably wind up with 4 holes in your car body where you really don't want them. It is MUCH better to get them and apply them yourself.

I thought passenger cars moved on the "open" reporting marks? Many years ago, long before AAPRCO was assigned the responsibility for PPCX, that mark was used as an "open" mark to allow identification of passenger cars moving on the railroads that were not railroad or Pullman owned. This was very convenient for the railroads, especially for identifying cars they sold to private owners to get them off the property long before Amtrak existed. Most movements were handled by paper with little computer interaction. Today, there are NO OPEN reporting marks. All marks are assigned to owners/operators. So if you have not paid Railinc the application fee, nor signed the AAR Interchange Agreement, you don't have a legitimate reporting mark. You need to either apply for one, or join an organization that allows members in good standing to use the organization's.

I have a FRA assigned 'reporting mark' for my locos, so I'm good to go, right? As the TV commercial goes: not exactly. The FRA assigned identification code is NOT an AAR Reporting Mark. This code is good only in the FRA for internal identification of the inspection and maintenance you perform, not for movement on the railroads. You still need to either join an organization assigned a mark that accepts locos, or apply for your own reporting mark.

What will probably happen if I apply an illegitimate Reporting Mark? Applying illegitimate reporting marks and numbers could duplicate legitimate marks and numbers, causing cars to become misrouted or lost. Also bear in mind that because the owner of the car is considered to be the assignee of the reporting mark, a person who applies an illegitmate reproting mark is fraudulantly attempting to have someone else liable and responsible for their equipment. Therefore, the misuse of reporting marks is taken very seriously. As you will see, it is not worth trying.

If a car move is requested on a Class One RR identifying a reporting mark and number not in Umler, the RR may refuse to move the car. If the car is accepted from a short line or regional that has not checked Umler prior to movement, the car will probably get to the first yard past the first set of scanners, and there it would be set out pending resolution. The RR will contact the car "owner" as identified in the reporting mark contact file for the reporting mark stenciled on the car, in the case of RPCX that is the RPCNB, to determine why the car is not in Umler.

The above would be pretty standard for any organization. The following describes specifically what would happen in the RPNCB once we are contacted.

The RPCNB Umler staff will then check the files. ALL cars and locomotives assigned a number under RPCX by the RPCNB are in Umler. Therefore, any such contact by a railroad immediately is suspicious. If the car number the RR identifies is not in our files, and the car description does not match any that we have in our files, we will inform the railroad that this is an illegitimate and fraudulent application of the reporting mark and request that the car be impounded. The use of illegitimate reporting marks and numbers exposes the user to substantial penalties, where in the example above, the RPCNB would initiate administrative action against the car owner for fraudulent use of the reporting mark. The RPCNB Board of Directors will look at each case, and determine what minimum penalties will be sought before we recommend the railroad release the car from impoundment. This does not include any penalties the railroad may seek, nor action that may be taken by the AAR, the US DoT, the FBI, nor the US Dept. of Homeland Security. And every one of these other organizations hold very large trump cards over the RPCNB, and could make life very difficult even if the RPCNB decides to cut the owner some slack. As one can see, it is not worth it to save a few bucks on membership in a mark assigned organization.

AAPRCO has been doing it for years, why has it taken so long for RPCA to get started? For starters, RPCA is a much younger organization. We had to develop ourselves as a viable entity with strong attributes before we started getting into highly technical areas. Once we identified the need, it has taken a long time for the same reasons that many people are having difficulty doing it themselves. The process is complex, the requirements are rigorous, the information required is extensive and the liability exposure is tremendous. Part of the time has been spent because of the decision that a separate corporation was needed to allow other organizations with the same need to use this service. The new corporation has been set up in such a way so as to allow other organizations of car owners and operators to join later on if they choose to do so. The establishment of a procedure to allow our members to obtain the reporting marks and register their cars in Umler has been a top priority of the RPCA Board of Directors. However, doing things wrong would be worse than doing nothing. In addition, all of the people involved in this effort are working as volunteers, naturally limiting the amount of time available.

Who can get this "member" benefit? Any RPCA member in good standing who owns a passenger car, locomotive, auxiliary cars supporting these, or freight cars not in general revenue interchange service supporting the primary equipment, or any rolling stock held for historical reasons, may subscribe to the RPCNB for Umler registration. Please refer to Eligibililty Criteria.

What does "member" mean? The car owner of record (Who the bill of sale is made out to or whom is deducting it on their taxes), whether an individual person or some organization (be it a historical group or a corporation), is required to be a member of RPCA in order to use either member benefit. These benefits are assignment of a number with the RPCX reporting mark, or to have their own reporting mark data input for them by the RPCNB. Note: For legal reasons, this means also that if the car owner is a member of a larger organization, and has been enjoying RPCA membership benefits through that larger organization without being an individual member, the owner must now become a RPCA member themselves if they wish to use the reporting mark or data input benefits.

How much does this cost? The subscription fees for RPCNB are posted elsewhere. We try very hard to lmit the amount of activity in the system to keep the costs as low as possible. The car information must be correct or the Umler computer will reject the file causing more delay. Confirmation that the car is in "The System" can take some time, in the 'bad old days' this has been as long as several days! You may by check or money order, or now use Paypal to pay for your Umler fees. The Paypal address for payment is rpcnb@greatlakesrailcar.com.

Why an emergency upload fee? The original fee per car was based on receiving the car information, uploading the data when convenient with other cars, then waiting until the next time the staff was in the Umler computer to verify that the car was accepted in order to minimize the Umler computer and access time charges, therefore reduce the cost to the members. Due to the large number of "Help, I need my car in now" and the several checks to verify that the car was accepted, at $26.00 per minute computer time plus access charges, RPCNB's costs have jumped far beyond what the original fee will cover. Therefore, RPCNB has instituted an emergency upload fee, so as to not penalize the members that provide their data in a timely manner as the process was originally conceived. We do make every effort to ensure that the process works correctly the first time and every time, but there is NO guarantee that the car will be there in a few hours, nor the next day! The same issues are true for locomotives.

How long does registration take? You should plan on giving our staff about a month to get your car properly registered. The Railinc system does batch upload from the input file that we access. Any fatal errors will bounce the car out and not upload it, meaning that the car is not there if any fatal errors exist. Corrections cannot go in before the next batch upload.

Furthermore, outside problems such as electrical power "blackouts", as can the owner not providing sufficient and adequate information for our volunteers to convert to coding used by the computer cause delays. Additional delays include the owner selecting a number that has already been assigned.

Please provide full information to help this process go as smoothly as possible. The data marked as mandatory on the data sheet and instructions are so marked for a reason. If this data is not provided, it is an upload error, or inadequate for RPCNB to identify the car owner and car. Therefore it is useless to try to upload without that data. Also, please remember that our volunteer staff is not retired and has to work for a living, which limits the amount of time they can spend on Umler activities. They do need time to pay the bills.

How do I change my reporting mark from PPCX? The AAR and Railinc require documentation that the reporting mark change is legal. We therefore need legal authorization in our files in case we get audited. If you are only changing the reporting mark and not ownership, you need to provide a letter of authorization. On your letterhead, over the signature of the owner or AAR recognized responsible party, a very simple request as follows to change from PPCX (or other mark) to RPCX:

_{legal name}_ hereby requests that car PPCX _{current PPCX number}_ be changed to RPCX _{preferably same number}_.

If you are running under PPCX and a current active Amtrak 800 number, we highly recommend that you retain the Amtrak number as your RPCX number.

If you are not operating under a current active Amtrak 800 number, you may select the number of your choice, subject to the rules below. Assignment is on a first come first served basis as described elsewhere.

We will then upload your car to Umler under RPCX, and notify AAPRCO (PPCX) that you have changed your reporting mark., and they will delete the car from their files. You will then be notified that you should change the car reporting mark stencil and re-program your AEI tags.

What if I buy a RPCX Umler registered car? It is incumbent upon the BUYER to properly notify everyone involved. Having said that, by the rules, the RPCA member and subscriber seller is to provide us with any change in status, for which selling the car definitely is. However, if the seller messes up, and if we find out that a car loaded into Umler under RPCX has been sold and we don't know who bought it, or the buyer is NOT a RPCA Member, we are to immediately delete the car from Umler. That means you can't move the car in freight service until it is put back in. Therefore, you need to contact us immediately. Please download the Agreement from the forms section, execute it, and get it to us immediately, fax is fine. Just remember that the car owner must be the RPCA member, and the car owner must be identified properly in the Agreement. That at least will keep us from deleting your car from Umler. Then get us a document showing transfer of ownership to put in the files. As with the discussion next above, we need to have this information in the files in case we get audited. It can be as simple as a signed document from the seller:

(name of seller) transfers ownership of (car number, car name if it has one, builder, build date, built originally for if known) to (new owner company or person).

If you can't get that, then we need a copy of the bill of sale or donation acceptance letter if you are a 501c operation.

What is an air date? When a car or loco has the air brake system worked on, a test is performed to confirm it is working properly. The specifications for this test are codified in FRA Regulations, AAR Rules, and the Power Brake Law. Successful completion of the test is noted in the new EMIS system by the date it was completed, who reported the work done, who actually did the work, and where the work was performed.

What do I do with an air date? Under RPCNB rules, the car owner doesn't do anything with the air date. By regulation, the test MUST be performed by a Certified technician. Any technician with a SHOP CODE can load an air date against ANY reporting mark, including the RPCNB's. Therefore, any shop, railroad, commercial or private, could load an air date against your car. The RPCNB has a shop code, but this is for the member shops, not the car owners, because RPCNB can load air dates against any reporting mark also, not just our own. Per RPCNB rules, only the certified technician that is a member of the RPCNB Certified Air Technicians can provide the information that we use to load the air date to EMIS.

CAUTIONS:

1. The air test must be done by a technician certified on the type car and brakes. Freight certified technicians can NOT LEGALLY test passenger cars, and vice-versa! Be careful about who does your work. Are they passenger certified? If not, get someone else. Are they a RPCNB CAT member? If not, they need their own shop code to load the air date against your car, or get someone else.

2. RPCNB can only load air dates provided by RPCNB CAT members. If your air tech is passenger certified, but not a RPCNB CAT member, tell them to join. It's FREE if they are a RPCA member! Loading the air date costs a minimal amount. The RPCNB CATs currently number 17, with most dual certified in freight and passenger.

3. Parts 232 and 238 provide exemptions from the use of certified technicians for non-profit museums and operations. However, if one of those cars goes out onto the General Railway System, the carrier could be fined for operating equipment not tested by certified technicians regardless of that exemption. Therefore the carriers have clearly stated that any car or loco offered for movement MUST have been properly tested by a certified technician, and that the air date is in EMIS, or they can, and have and will continue to, refuse the car, or put the car into the shop for service at your expense.

4. For movement on the General Railway System the air date MUST be in EMIS! Just stenciling the car is not sufficient! We have members that have already had their cars stopped, or shopped, because the air date was not in EMIS even though the car was stenciled and the car was actually in date. Again, RPCNB will only load air dates against RPCNB reporting mark cars from RPCNB CAT members! If you are using RPCNB to load information to Umler and EMIS for your own mark, we will load whatever you tell us to. The liability is with the mark owner which is why this very stringent rule.

5. The FRA has access to this information also. Improper use can garner a stiff fine, and FRA is 'mining' the AAR data base just looking for income.