// AI for railcar repair shops
AI for railcar repair shops, tested on cars you already shopped and released.
For independent freight car repair shops and tank car qualification facilities working for lessors, shippers and short lines. Start with the repair approval request a car owner has to answer, drafted from your inspection findings, or with a tank car's qualification record file, assembled from your shop records against 49 CFR Part 180, Subpart F. Either one becomes a free AI proof of concept on copies of 20 to 30 cars you already released. No one signs in to your shop system or a car owner's portal. Your reviewer, the person on your staff who knows that work best, sets each draft beside what your office produced and makes the call.
- First job
- Repair approval requests to car owners
- Also open
- Tank car qualification record files
- You send
- Copies of 20 to 30 released cars, once the NDA is signed
- Car owners' papers
- Shared only with their permission; otherwise look-alikes
- Never
- A repair chosen, a test result judged, a record signed
- Left out
- Defense and aerospace work
- Price
- A range first, a fixed price before you sign
// Jobs we would test
Start at the estimator's desk or the qualification file
Repair approval requests
A car owner's approval request drafted from your inspection findings: car initials and number, defects as recorded, proposed work lines, that owner's written thresholds and instructions, and the items a person must confirm before your shop sends it.
See the repair approval pageTank car qualification files
One car's qualification record assembled from shop records against the federal rule: car identification, each inspection and test by name, date and result as recorded, stenciling fields, and what is missing, for the qualified person at your shop to review and sign.
See the qualification file pageBilling exception replies
A car owner's exception to a billed repair set beside the work order, the approval it rested on and the repair card, with the open question named for whoever answers it.
Car release reports
The work performed and any damage or failed parts observed, written up in the form each car owner's instructions ask for before the car leaves your track.
// Why these two first
Every car you released shows what its owner allowed and what it passed
The customer is rarely the railroad. The Railway Supply Institute's quality newsletter for the third quarter of 2020 traces the Interchange Rules to the Master Car Builders Association in 1867, and describes a fleet that went from mostly railroad-owned to mostly private or leased over the prior 40 years. For a contract shop that means lessors, shippers and short lines, each with a mark on the car and a view on what it will pay to fix. Approval requests are where those two sides meet, and your released cars show how your office wrote them.
Two manuals split the work from the money. Until 1970 the rules sat in one volume. The Field Manual now arranges each component rule the same way, section A for condemning limits and causes for repair attention through section F for billing repair data, and the Office Manual carries pricing under Rule 111 and invoicing, settlement and post-settlement exceptions under Rule 112. Every request your office writes gets read against both books. We cite them by title and reproduce none of their text.
Someone audits the shop. That newsletter says AAR inspectors visit contract car repair shops unannounced, looking for parts removed that were not condemnable, repairs left incomplete and billing for work not done, and that AAR can direct a refund to the car owner. So a draft carries your inspector's findings as written and never restates them.
A tank car shop is a defined thing. 49 CFR 179.2 calls any entity a tank car facility if it repairs, inspects, tests, qualifies or maintains a tank car, or makes a representation that one complies. Section 179.7 requires an AAR-approved quality assurance program, with a records system that covers inspections, tests and how the results were read. The qualification file is where that system shows up car by car.
Each car's paper starts with what is painted on it. Section 215.301 wants the railroad's or private car owner's reporting mark, the car number and the built date displayed on every freight car, and on a tank car somewhere a person walking at track level beside it can read them. Section 215.203, as revised August 31, 2026, has a railroad give FRA notice before running a restricted car, and FRA approvals in effect on September 29, 2026 carry on until they expire. A car approved under the Office Manual's Rule 88 Increased Life Status process carries ILS and a month and year after R-AGE in its stencil. A draft takes these from your records and doesn't assume them.
Cars reach you through other people's systems. Railinc's DDCT, the Damaged and Defective Car Tracking system, lets railroads, car owners and repair facilities track damaged equipment under AAR Rules 95, 107, 1 and 108. Your closed files hold what came through it along with what your own people wrote, which makes them a fair test.
One limit covers both jobs. Neither test opens your shop system, a car owner's portal, a live estimate or a live record. Neither one decides what repair a car needs, judges an inspection result or signs a qualification. Every technical call and every signature on a record belongs to a qualified person at your shop. Defense and aerospace work stays out. Nothing on this page is legal or engineering advice.
// How the test runs
Three steps, starting from cars already gone
- Step 01
Pick the job, name the reviewer
The shop's owner names the reviewer, often the person who writes estimates to car owners or the quality manager who keeps qualification records. Success criteria go in writing, you get a price range for the live job, and the NDA is signed before a file is copied.
- Step 02
Copies of released cars
Send 20 to 30 released cars with their findings and the requests that went out, or 20 to 30 qualified tank cars with their reports. Your reviewer compares each draft with what your office actually produced, on the same documents, and that call settles it. Anything that can't leave your building, or that a car owner won't let you share, becomes a look-alike built with your reviewer.
- Step 03
About 30 days live, after a yes
The same job runs on incoming cars for about 30 days, and someone on your staff approves every item before it goes to a car owner or into a record. The next job is a separate decision at its own price, and monthly support follows.
Priced per job. You get a range before the proof of concept and a fixed price before you sign.
Rob gives the range on the call from three counts: cars released each month, car owners whose written instructions your office follows, and qualification files closed each month.
// Questions
Questions railcar shops raise first
Does the test need our shop system or a car owner's portal?
Can we share a car owner's written instructions with you?
Will the AI decide what a car needs or pass an inspection?
We work mostly on freight cars, not tank cars. Which job fits?
We run a private car shop inside our plant. Is that a fit?
Rob Eason, founder
// Book a proof of concept call
Start with a month of cars you already released.
Half an hour with Rob about your shop, your role, the job you'd test first and about how many cars you release a month. Findings, instructions and qualification records stay with you until the NDA is signed.
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