I looked at the current AAR field guide for tank cars and could find nothing about an "L.F." on domes. But of course the safety regulations governing tank cars have changed a whole lot since the Gramps cars were in service. I had lunch a few days ago with an old colleague who at one time was COO of GATX and asked him about L.F. and drew a complete blank. Maybe somebody can find the tank car regs applicable back in the 50's and 60's. Of the various possibilities discussed the one that makes the most sense to me is "Limited Fill", reminding folks at the Chama dock not to fill to visible capacity since that would probably overload the cars. On the other hand if that were the case I would think they would spell it out to make it a little more idiot proof. These were standard gauge cars mounted on ng. trucks. I wonder if during the conversion process somebody at the DRGW worried about the possible overweight problem and the L.F. stencil was simply how they resolved that worry. The folks at the Chama dock did this over and over again so they presumably knew the routine.
JBWX
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2021 02:58PM by John West.