COTS
Consolidated stencil
The consolidated stencil gathers brake and inspection information into one panel. The boxes changed over the years.
The consolidated stencil is the panel that pulled a scatter of brake and inspection dates into one block. Railfans often call it the COTS panel. It sits on the side sill or low on the car side, and it is about the brake system and the servicing intervals, not about how much the car can carry.
What you are looking at is a summary: when the car was built or rebuilt, information about the brake valve and the brake test, and dates or intervals for lubrication and inspection. Different decades used different boxes. A panel from the 1970s and a panel from a recently repainted car are not the same form. Read the labels inside the boxes that are actually there. Don't force an old diagram onto a new car, or the reverse.
The consolidated stencil replaced the habit of painting those dates wherever they fit. That is why an older car in a photograph may show the same kinds of facts — brake cleaning, repack, test — spread out in separate lines, while a later car stacks them. The underlying idea is the same. The layout is not.
Nothing on this panel is a shipping instruction. The load limit is elsewhere. The placard, if there is one, is elsewhere. The consolidated stencil tells you the car's brake and inspection housekeeping.
Common questions
- What is a consolidated stencil?
- A single panel that gathers brake, lubrication, and inspection information that used to be stenciled as separate lines. The exact boxes depend on the era.
- Is the consolidated stencil the load limit?
- No. Load limit is stenciled LD LMT, usually with the light weight. The consolidated stencil is about brakes and inspections.