LD LMT
Load limit
LD LMT is the maximum weight of freight the car is allowed to carry, in pounds.
LD LMT means load limit. It is stenciled in pounds and it is the maximum weight of lading that car is allowed to carry. It is the number a shipper's clerk is aiming at, not a description of what the car happens to be holding today.
The usual relationship is straightforward. The car has a gross rail load it is allowed to put on the rail, set by its trucks and journals and by the rules for that equipment. Subtract the empty weight of the car — the light weight — and what remains is the load limit. When the car is reweighed and the light weight changes, the load limit is restenciled so the two still add up to that gross limit.
That is why a freshly painted load limit can differ from the number in an old photograph of the same car. The car got heavier or lighter. Springs, linings, a new floor, or accumulated dirt all move the empty weight. The load limit moves the other way.
Do not treat the load limit as a cubic capacity, a gallonage, or a promise about the commodity. A tank car's specification stencil and the placard answer different questions. LD LMT only answers how many pounds of lading are allowed.
Common questions
- What does LD LMT stand for?
- Load limit. It is the maximum weight of freight, in pounds, that the car may carry.
- Why would the load limit change?
- The load limit is the allowed gross weight minus the car's light weight. After a reweigh, a heavier empty car gets a lower load limit, and a lighter one gets a higher load limit.