When were roofwalks banned?

Hi all

Does anyone know when roofwalks on boxcars were banned? Also, did all existing ones have to be removed by a certain date?

Jonelle

Nell, the first cars without roofwalks started showing up somewhere about 1966 - I may be off by a year or two but that's a rough idea. I don't know when a final rule was put into place.

Also note that some cars such as covered hoppers - and even some boxcars which are equipped with roof hatches - still have roofwalks. However, operating rules have been issued which prohibit employees from being on top of moving quipment so even if a car has one, you can't ride deck without violating the rules.

Was it common sense that finally hit, making the change or was there an incident at the time which cause it to change? I can only image how many people lost their lives or got injured walking the roofs over the years.

OK, so we are looking at the mid '60s. But was there a time those roofwalks HAD to be off the cars? I ask because I am not just curious, but someone gave me 2 old N scale boxcars with roofwalks. One is C&O, and I thought it was odd to see a roofwalk. Sure enough, the build date fell a few years before the projected no-roofwalk date!

JD

FRA mandated that beginning in 1966 no new cars could be built with roofwalks. However, I do not think this necessarily meant that the roofwalks on older cars had to be physically removed; I believe railroads were simply required to discontinue using them on the older model cars.

every so ofton an older car dose pop up with roof walks on it still althow rare to see the only thing that was done to prevent people from going on the roof was the removeal of some of the grab irons on the car.

The actual date set by the FRA for roofwalk removal was 1974, and I think as far as the rule went the roof walk had to be taken off. However with that said a sizable number of cars made it into the 80's with roofwalks, and I am sure a few made it to the 90's with them on. Also to go along with the roofwalk removal many roads also chopped the side and end ladders on their cars to 1/2 to 2/3 their original height. Hope this helps.

Scooter